Poet from Poona

"My poetry is not always about events in my own life. I try to convey and define the human experience through my words. I am particularly sensitive to women’s issues. ‘Forced Seclusion’ was inspired by a lone crow flying to its nest at dusk. It reminded me of a picture etched indelibly on my mind of a lonely, forlorn widow standing at her window. That, coupled with the story of a school friend who was widowed young and forced to live a painfully secluded life was the basis of this poem. I am either very pained or angry at such incidents and my moods are reflected in my poems which could sound soulful and melancholic,” says Shernaz Wadia, who published a collection of poems titled Whispers of the Soul in 2011 and co-authored Tapestry Poetry — A Fusion of Two Minds with Israeli poetess Avril Meallem the following year.

Shernaz Wadia: fascinated by words

Her "challenging and exciting poetic journey” with Meallem was undertaken after they became acquainted with each other’s poetry on ‘Your Space’ of the Muse India literary e-journal. Realizing they were "on the same wavelength mentally and emotionally,” they met in Bombay during Avril’s visit to India in 2010 and decided to experiment on a collaborative process. The method "involved each one independently writing a nine-line poem on a title that we would choose alternatively.” The one who chooses the title weaves the two poems into one composite whole through random mixing of lines. More about this can be read on their website: tapestrypoetry.webs.com. The duo is contemplating collaborating on and publishing another book of ‘tapestry’ poems.
Though it was easy to find publishers, she eventually self-published both her books. Whispers of the Soul was intended for family and close friends as she had compiled it at their insistence and did not wish to put it in the market. "But with Tapestry Poetry Avril was just not happy with what the publisher sent us for approval. There were other constraints too as she lives in Israel and the publisher was located in India. She finally decided that we publish them individually. To avoid different ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for identical books to be published in two countries, she bought the number in Israel and we both used it. I had only a limited number of copies printed,” says Wadia.
"To date, no editor has rejected any poem and that is a huge morale booster,” mentions Wadia who finds, "Most of my poems seem to write themselves, inspired by sight, sound, nature, social issues, news items that touch me… There have been occasions when I have woken up in the middle of the night with a line playing in my mind and I immediately jot it down. Later I edit the poem and give it a title. There are some poems I just can’t seem to finish. Incomplete ones remain in my file. After months I might chance upon one and finish it, or else I just delete it.”
The English language and the way one can play with words has always fascinated her. Since a very young age, she loved learning new words and would read the dictionary at random. "My maternal grandpa (Hormuzsha Hodiwala) had been nicknamed ‘walking dictionary.’ I guess I inherited my penchant for words from him. His home was never short of reading material: books on various subjects — religion, philosophy, fiction, theosophy; magazines in English and Gujarati including a rich trove of Reader’s Digest, which I used to devour during school vacations. Writing is a journey of self-discovery. As diarist Anais Nin has said ‘We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect,’” Wadia notes.
Wadia developed her love for poetry from her mother Nergish Bhathena who had notebooks of verses that she had copied down in her beautiful handwriting. Interestingly, Wadia wrote her first poem in partnership with a co-boarder when she was in Std. VII at St Joseph’s High School in Valsad. "One day she hesitantly brought me a poem she had written, ‘The Beggar.’ I helped her polish it, added a verse and then we submitted it for our school’s silver jubilee souvenir magazine. We have lost contact but I am always grateful to her for bringing me face to face with my muse.”
After school, she went to Wadia College in Poona to do a one-year diploma course in teaching, hoping to do three years of BA and then a doctorate in literature but following the death of her father Jalejar that year she had to move back to Surat where she joined St Xavier’s School as a primary teacher. Later she took up a correspondence course in journalism, but a very severe eye problem put an end to all reading, writing, etc for two years and she had to give up the course midway.
Wadia grew up in a typically Parsi household. Though she and her siblings Mahrukh, Pervin, Aban and Rumi were sent to English medium schools, "our mother ensured that we first learned to read and write the mother tongue, Gujarati. Whether we spent our holidays in Surat at my maternal grandparents’ home, or in our father’s home in village Bhatha, we imbibed Parsi values and cultural practices through example and stories. Muktad ceremonies were held for 18 days in our home in the village, we visited atash behrams regularly and were taught the navjote prayers at home. Most importantly, we were taught to respect other religions and be tolerant of differing views.”
About the Parsi community Wadia opines: "In general, I believe Parsis all over the world are doing well even though our cultural and religious ethos has not remained intact. We are also strongly divided over major issues and it is often difficult to tell the younger generation to draw inspiration from those who are unable to lead by example. I used to be proud of the community but today people from other communities are questioning our integrity, leaders and declining standards. Though this is sad and worrisome, I deem it an honor to belong to our once illustrious community. I am hopeful that our youngsters will do their best to redeem and continue the admirable legacy of honesty, charity and freedom of spirit left behind by our ancestors. The Zoroastrian precepts of manashni, gavashni and kunashni have been the guiding light and force of my life as an all-embracing philosophy of principled living.”
Shernaz married Dinyar Bejonji Wadia in 1970. Both her husband and father-in-law were well-known bonesetters or hadvaids of Surat. Three years after she lost her husband in 1989 to a massive heart attack, she moved from Surat to Poona where her daughters Daisy and Farzin were studying.
Though Wadia continued writing, she secreted away all her poems. Much later, in 2002 at the insistence of a dear young friend she began to post her poems on boloji.com. "By hiding your talent you are insulting God,” her friend urged the intensely private Wadia who now believes, "If it kindles the flame of hope or courage in even one life, we become the richer for it.” After boloji.com Wadia’s poetry was posted on other websites, e-zines, friends’ blogs and anthologies, both Indian and international. "Two of my poems ‘Shadows’ and ‘Treasured Homeland’ have been accepted by Indies In Action, a Facebook group that is bringing out an anthology Magnitude — The Awakening of Nepal in aid of the earthquake hit. It is an international project,” Wadia mentions.
"From the time I went public with my poems and articles, my family has always been very encouraging and accommodative, particularly my daughters and sisters. My husband too was extremely interested in and supportive of every endeavor of mine,” acknowledges Wadia.
Writing poetry does not pay much, she laughs. "Wanting to make a living solely from poetry is probably asking for penury, unless you are a firmly established and much-sought after poet. If at all any income accrues from the pursuit it would only augment regular earnings from a steady job or another profession.”
Wadia reveals, "I love to read poems by Arun Kolatkar, Jayanta Mahapatra, Gulzar, Maya Angelou, Robert Bly, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda, Seamus Heaney, to name just a few. It is very difficult to choose a favorite from among the masters, but I am completely bowled over by the works of Khalil Gibran. More recently I have started reading and immensely enjoying the poems of Vihang Naik.”
Her words for aspiring poets are: "To anyone interested in writing there is one piece of universal advice — read, read, read. Which authors and genres you read is a personal choice. Reading broadens horizons, lets us live through many experiences and imparts a sense of wonder when a word or line throws light upon a bit of inner knowledge or wisdom we were unaware of. But… however extraordinary a book may be, we must learn to think for ourselves.”