PART I

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (b. 1947) is a poet, critic, and translator based out of Dehradun and Allahabad. In the early 1960s, when writing in English was not considered a serious literary activity in India, he pioneered the little magazine as a way of giving his work a platform. He also collaborated with the poets Arun Kolatkar, Gieve Patel, and Adil Jussawalla to found the small press Clearing House, which published some of the finest works of Indian poetry in any language. His work as an essayist and anthologist has helped foster a critical environment for literature in a country where most academic departments, have for too long, remained in a somnolesent stupor.

Recently, Mehrotra published his first book of new poems in 25 years, A Book of Rahim & Other Poems, under the Literary Activism imprint. Last week, I interviewed him and his long-time friend and collaborator Amit Chaudhuri, who started the imprint, and has also published an essay On Being Indian, at the same time as Mehrotra’s book. This conversation however took place a few days before that. We begin with the topic of houses, which features prominently in Mehrotra’s latest book, and revisit his mother’s journey from Lahore to Dehradun around the time of Partition.

This is a short excerpt from a longer interview. The full interview can be found here.

Nachiket Joshi