Your Writing May Help You in Your Spiritual Quest - Prof. R.K Singh (Author of 46+ Books)

“in silence/one with the divine will/growing within”

“squatting/in the middle of the field/a woman with child”

“awake/alone on the housetop/a sparrow”

Tell us more about your background and journey.

I am now 70 years old, a retired professor of English, possibly better known as a poet, especially as an Indian haiku and tanka practitioner in English than as a practitioner of ELT or ESP, especially for Science and Technology, which was my main academic concern for teaching and research at the Indian School of Mines, now IIT, for about four decades.

Born, brought up, and educated in Varanasi, now better known as the parliamentary constituency of PM Modi, I have been living in Dhanbad since February 1976. But the mindset and culture of the narrow lanes and alleys of the ancient city I imbibed, living with parents and eight siblings in a small house near the bank of the river during the 1950s and 1960s, still survives. 

I couldn’t be at home anywhere for a long. I’ve remained rather restless, maybe because of the missing freedom to think and pursue my interests, the lack of broadness and openness of mind I interacted with, and the intolerance for differences that would challenge my ‘sanskar’ or mental habits. Honestly speaking, I’ve remained a ‘misfit’ everywhere, be it here in Dhanbad, or elsewhere—Pulgaon, Lucknow, New Delhi, or Deothang (Bhutan) where I went to work after completing M.A. in English Literature from BHU in 1970.

I aspired for a career in journalism but ended up in teaching, which I found more congenial. As luck would have it, I couldn’t leave Dhanbad, despite my dislike for the place. It is here, after joining ISM as faculty, that I completed my Ph.D. on Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri (part-time, from M G Kashi Vidyapith) in 1981. 

Doing a Ph.D. within five years of appointment was a necessary condition for continuing as Lecturer. Then, I was married in 1978 and blessed with two children—a son, who is now Colonel in the Army, and a daughter, who is a Senior Manager in a multinational pharmaceutical company. I had to work hard to rise to the level of Professor but I am happy I could survive innumerable problems and establish myself as an academic.

How was your experience in ISM (Indian school of mines) as a professor?

Can I begin with my experience as a Lecturer, first? Honestly, my initial experience was extremely disappointing. From February 1976 to December 2015 is a long time. I was 25 when I joined ISM. I had a reasonably good exposure to dirty politics that frustrates the ambition of a young aspirant keen to do something positive, relevant, and meaningful in a challenging environment.

Soon after joining the Dept of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS), I realized that I was the wrong person they had selected. I was not trusted by the authorities for my purely academic views. It was a trial of sorts at every stage for suggesting any changes in the syllabus (of English) or starting new courses or programs. They attached no value to relevant teaching in areas of HSS or promoting research in the department. 

My career in ISM, thus, began with suffering hostility and threats of all kind, including lies and falsehood, motivated reports, warnings, harassment, court cases, and even threats to personal life for not behaving like ‘a good boy’, or for ‘teaching me a lesson.’

I saw my ‘security’ in teacher activism and within a year of joining, I became Secretary of the ISM Teachers Association. My active resistance to anything wrong at the institutional level made me, along with a couple of others, rather notorious. I knew I was working in an institution that had no university or research culture. The dominating mindset was that of a polytechnic. 

At a stage when, as Secretary of ISMTA, I met the then Union Minister of Education, he regretted that ISM was one of the problems deemed universities in the country.

Subsequently, the Administration rectified their error or misunderstanding about me and things became normal as soon as my Ph.D. was awarded. I could survive hostility and opposition from the main departments because I had no vested interests to promote.

If mediocrity dominated the top hierarchy, it was visible in the totality of the institute’s performance. The Dept of HSS could not be expected to perform a miracle with just two teachers! It needed overhauling, faculty addition, new courses, new programs at the postgraduate level, and doctoral-level research. This is what I tried to do, but with continual resistance from various bodies.

With the adoption of need-based and skills-oriented ‘English for Specific Purposes’ (ESP) syllabus, I could do what no other IIT was doing. My research and publications in the area during The 1980s and 1990s had international visibility, even as I shifted my focus to Indian Writing in English, especially poetry, which continues even after my retirement.

The MPhil program we started has also drawn the attention of universities in the country, but unfortunately, it is now closed down.

However, I must emphasize that ISM is one institute where individual faculty is free to do whatever new they want to do. The sky is the limit for a self-motivated person, whatever area they choose to work in. There has been a considerable improvement in academics and research since the institution became an IIT.

Being the Author of 46+ books, how do you deal with critics.

Once a book is published, the author has no control over it. I respect the autonomy of the reader who is free to appreciate, interpret, or evaluate it according to his or her own sensibility, knowledge, or understanding of the subject. So, I do not question my critics, even if they may be biased, negative, or hostile at times. A sympathetic critic, however, is always a positive influence.

Please recall one of your experiences as a journalist.

I still remember when as a young learner journalist, working free for a Hindi weekly in Varanasi, I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Sri C B Gupta, for helping a woman in dire need, he promptly responded and directed the local administration to help her. My regular column in the weekly had given me a sense of identity.

But I was disillusioned after joining The Press Trust of India (PTI), New Delhi as a trainee Journalist. A senior sub-editor, Mr. Mukud, who happened to be my table in-charge also, had a natural dislike for me. He would always find fault with my writing/editing. I also remember how several journalists would try to avoid putting their initials on the copies they wrote or edited for fear of being snubbed (for their mistakes) by the Chief Editor, Mr. Raghavan. 

I also learned how ‘hearsay’ was the only criterion for one’s future/career. I can’t forget how I had constantly suffered tremendous mental torture for the sin of joining the PTI to become a journalist. I left the organization in utter frustration and switched over to teaching. 

What do you think about the quality of journalism in India and how can it be improved?

I am no professional or qualified journalist to make any comments. Most reporting is motivated, be it printed or visual. As a common man, however, I must say that the quality of Hindi reporting has considerably declined, while the reporting in English in  The Hindu has continued to maintain a standard worth emulating.  About the news on TV media, the less said, the better.

Could you please write one or two lines of your work to inspire our readers?

I am not sure if my writing inspires. I am not didactic or moralist, but an observer, looking within and without, shunning nothing:

 

“in silence/one with the divine will/growing within”

“squatting/in the middle of the field/a woman with child”

“awake/alone on the housetop/a sparrow”

 

As a poet I am ever in search of life, getting connected with things ‘here and now’, imaging ‘momentness of a moment’, and enlarging my self to the universal sameness of human feelings.  I am also inspired by the human body which is the best picture of the human soul: I glorify it. We are flesh in sensuality and there is divinity in it.

Which book would you recommend to our readers and why?

It’s a difficult question to answer. One should read what one is interested in, or likes.  Unfortunately, I keep reading and forgetting.  Having said this, I recall a book Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich I read in the early 1970s. It seems relevant in our (post) Covid-19 context, for the writer’s conviction that the ethos, not just the institutions, of society, needs to be ‘deschooled’.  Universal education through schooling, for example, is not feasible. 

We need alternative institutions to get rid of physical pollution, social polarization, and psychological impotence that are the dimensions of global degradation and modernized misery.  The book may provide new insights.

What motivates and inspires you to keep coming up with content. Where does your inspiration lie?

 

As I said in the beginning after I came to ISM, I lost my peace in the whirlwind of uncertainties of all sorts-- teacher activism, academic research, and professional concerns -- alongside my family responsibilities. The more the tension, the more the writing. Writing and publishing happened as a relief, something therapeutic, or self-healing, or restoring the inner balance, in a rather sterile environment.  And, it continues. 

Any small, negligible aspect of one’s behavior or attitude, any ordinary or insignificant event, anything anywhere at any time can inspire me and become imagery. Even something read or heard or viewed in the past may get connected with something NOW and invite me into a poem.  Writing brief, personal lyrics, especially tanka and haiku, has become a spiritual exercise, helping me pursue what is true, fulfilling, and joyous.

 

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Interviewed by - Ashwarya Jha