INTERVIEW: Professor R K Singh
Ashwarya Jha* in Conversation with Poet Professor R K Singh
1.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 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 1972.
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 PhD on Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri (part-time, from M G Kashi
Vidyapith) in 1981. Doing a PhD 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.
2.
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 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 sort at every stage for suggesting any changes in the syllabus
(of English) or starting new courses or programmes. 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 ISM Teachers Association. My active
resistance to anything wrong at institutional level made me, along with a
couple of others, rather notorious. I knew I was working in an institution which 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 problem deemed universities in the country.
Subsequently, the Administration rectified their error or
misunderstanding about me, and things became normal as soon as my PhD 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 institute’s performance. The Dept
of HSS could not be expected to perform
miracle with just two teachers! It needed overhauling, faculty addition , new courses, new programmes at 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 the international
visibility, even as I shifted my focus to Indian Writing in English, especially
poetry, which continues even after my retirement.
The MPhil programme we started has
also drawn 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. 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.
3.
Being 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.
4.
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 learnt how ‘hearsay’ was the only criterion of 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.
5.
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.
6.
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.
7.
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 need 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.
8.
What motivate 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 an imagery.
Even something read or heard or viewed in the past may get connected with
something NOW and incite 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.
Thank you.
*Ashwarya Jha is Team Member, Eat My News . https://www.eatmy.news
https://www.eatmy.news/2020/10/your-writing-may-help-you-in-your.html?m=1
