In Conversation with Sanjeev Bansal (An Ode to Shimla)
Can an engineer be a nature lover too? Sanjeev Bansal is a poet, a writer, and an engineer. He believes in sharing his ideas through his verses. Known for his debut poetry book ‘An Ode to Shimla’, he has been in the literary field for quite some time. Here is a sneak peek into the conversation I had with him.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I’m Sanjeev Bansal currently residing in Chandigarh, Punjab. I’m working as a Project Engineer in the field of Energy Efficiency & Energy Conservation in Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA). I’m basically from a small city (Bathinda) of Punjab where I spent my childhood and schooling before going to Himachal Pradesh for graduation.
2. What were you like at school?
I was very shy & chubby during my school days. I spend most of my time alone in the school in silence & watch the happenings around me. I love to play Cricket & Lawn Tennis. I even bunk the classes and go to the cricket ground and play for long hours.
3. What are your ambitions for your writing career?
Ambitions are something which set the mark for me to know and to rate myself because along with achievement comes hard work, limitations & desires to direct all the energy for the fulfilment of it. So, there’s no particular set point for me in writing. The literature in itself is a Universe of beautiful sapphire. The main idea of my writing is and will always be to express emotions & feelings which world finds difficult/ or even neglected to dwell upon.
4. Which writers inspire you?
I feel Writers are extraordinary in their own way of expressing the art of words. They describe the era of writing styles by their soul’s verses. Some of their words/ work just touches the knot of heart and makes you float in the lyrical river. It is due to which they get the appreciation and the gratitude from the horde. Being driven by Classical European Culture since my childhood, I love more of Classical World. So, the era of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, W.B. Yeats, P.B. Shelley, William Wordsworth, Robert Browns, Thomas Hardy etc. inspired me to write.
5. Give us an insight into your book? Why did you choose Shimla as the central idea/ theme?
It’s basically a Poetry book in which I have covered the sections on Dream, the night’s sleeping beauty & its features crimsoned in different shades of delirium, the garden’s features linking to the mother nature, the beautiful graces of an oak tree, the shadow of a sailing ship. the beatific charm of the grafted figment flower, women’s beauty, wind’s whispers & its lyrical song, description & appealing messages from the Shivalik mountains of Shimla, their divine silence, the crying sky’s signals, soul’s thinking, the leaflet of a herbal tea African Sunrise, The way of thinking as a cloud puff, a bird’s arrival etc. & last but not the least, the life’s waking moments.
Shimla is very much close to my heart. I love to wander like a child in the mountains. From my childhood, I always have the admiration to spend my life in mountains. Shimla’s beauty and the atmosphere can’t be expressed until you visit there. It is a place where the seed of Love sprouts in my heart. That’s why I dedicated this poetry book in her devotion.
6. What are you working on at the minute?
I’m currently working on several books. Couple of the work is on Anthology of Poems and the other one is a full-length fiction novel.
7. What’s it about? (*if relevant)
The poetry books have the subject matters varying from small prose verses to long elegy. The Novel is on Mystery/ Thriller Theme. It’s not a very high prolific Mystery but on the life of a Man who fights with his mind and heart, to prove himself pure against this female best friend’s allegations & accusations.
8. How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
Every Writer has “The Element of Style”. So, describing the character, plot, suspense, story and the use of imagery are the key forms to write creatively. It’s called the Art of Adventure. The word choice, especially for the poem, is something that requires in-depth meaning what a poet is trying to say. E.g. Few excerpts from my poetry book goes like this:
Morrow, at dusk, when the rays awake their embryo,
I’ll again set my sails. I know ye are waiting for me.
The above words aren’t quite sad or desperate but are emotionally powerful. It starts with the desire of a poet to go to the land of braes. He‘s waiting for the next day to come when the virgin rays of the sun strike the moor. He could be amidst that silence of cool gale. He ends the line by narrating the anticipation that the place is too waiting for her most loveable son to come.
9. What is the hardest thing about writing?
Writing is a slow work to pin down all your thoughts with perfect insights. Each line and sometimes even the words are like a dream of the sleepless night. It often happens that I got stuck in the middle of the plot/ character or even at the starting of the chapter/ poem. And sometimes the ending is too crucial that I don’t know what is next to happen. To describe a scene it takes several nights for me to find the treasure. So, I silently groomed into the shell of the scene and applied on myself to actually experience the situation.
10. Do you proofread/edit all your own books or do you get someone to do that for you?
I feel that the errors/ missing links cannot be found by oneself. For your eyes, it seems to be perfect. That’s why I do not proofread/ edit my own books.
11. How can readers discover more about you and your work?
My readers can either discover about myself and my work either through facebook or email me on [email protected].
**For author interviews and book reviews to write at [email protected]