VENTURED INTO PLAYS, BUT POETRY WAS A CONSTANT: MANAV

Manav Kaul talks about his love for poetry and the evolving reading, writing habits in the age of social media

Har writer pehle kavitayein likhna shuru karta hai,” says actorauthor Manav Kaul, who has recently come up with his seventh book. It marks his first published collection of poems. Titled Karta Ne Karm Se, the poetry collection has left him thrilled. Kaul says, “I’m very happy ki ek kavita agar 1999 ki hai, toh kuch kavitayein 2021 ki hain. Ek bada spectrum hai.”

The actor, who was seen playing a strict coach in Saina, a biopic on ace shuttler Saina Nehwal, recalls how he started writing poetry in 1998-99, for himself. “I also started out as a poet, putting this word and that word together and thinking, ‘Oh it’s poetry’. When you come to Mumbai and start doing theatre and reading literature, you think about putting words here and there. I used to write diary entries and do small write-ups about the books I’ve read, or the experience I was having. Woh aisa hua ki woh kavitayein ek folder mein jama hoti gayin. I ventured into plays and short stories, but poetry was a constant. It was very close to me... Kuch logon ko sunata tha,” reminisces Kaul, who is inspired by the works of Hindi writers Vasant Dev and Vinod Kumar Shukla.

I called up my mother and said, ‘I will be naked on the cover...’ She said, ‘Prakriti toh naked hai. Hum hi kapde pehente hain’. MANAV KAUL, Actor-author

Ask him about the thoughtprovoking cover for the book, and he shares how the idea of being naked on the cover stemmed in his mind.

He explains, “All my writings — plays, poetry, short stories and memoir — have been brutally honest, almost like a conversation with the reader. I think there is a sense of nakedness in my writing. I also felt we should do something interestingly artistic and different with Hindi books. And I had a good designer, Varun Chawla. Mere publisher thoda darr gaye the. So I called up my mother and said, ‘This is my idea, I will be naked on the cover, toh kya aap woh kitaab loge?’ Maa ne jawab diya, ‘Prakriti toh naked hai. Hum hi kapde pehente hain’. So it’s the way you use it... I’m surprised that not a single comment, mail or anything that has negative connotations has come. People have loved it!”

Happy to see that the habit of reading hasn’t died, and in fact, has only picked up more during the lockdowns, Kaul says, “Mujhe lagta tha youth doesn’t read that much these days. We don’t see them carrying books, they are always on their phones. But yeh idea galat tha... Meri writing youth padhta hai. Social media has also pushed it, as people are writing on Facebook, Twitter... People are also appreciating each other’s writings.”