Words are shells and stones,

memories inscribed in sand

Published poet exploring home, memory, and belonging

Finding home in between worlds

My poetry explores the spaces between cultures, the weight of memory, and the meaning of home. Born in Delhi and now living in London...

After my cycling accident in 2022, poetry became my way back to language.

“
Stack up like shells and stones
my recollections in linear patterns.
Inscribe my name, in sand.
”
— from 'Belonging'
A man in a black chef's jacket speaking or presenting to an audience in a room decorated with bookshelves and a mirror, with multiple people seated and listening.
what we say is home - poetry book

Book

What we say is home

Broken Sleep Books, 2020

"This is a very promising debut..."
– Jacob Polley,
T.S. Eliot Prize Winner

View on Publisher Site | Buy on Amazon

Anthologies

  • O Beautiful, My Country
    '#smokedown' (Dec 2020)
    Clayhanger Press

  • Bridges
    'Neuro-Mandala' (Dec 2018)
    Newcastle University

Magazines

  • Under the Radar
    'Partitions' (forthcoming - 2025)

  • An Anthology of Creative Writing
    - Newcastle: University & Centre for the Literary Arts
    Four Poems (2024)

  • Strix
    'Termination' (2024)

  • The Cardiff Review
    'Almancil' (2020)
    Listen to it

  • Under the Radar
    'Arranged Marriage' (2019)


  • Tears in the Fence
    'Off' (2019)

Selected Poems

  • The red-bricked clock tower in Delhi announces my arrival, soon I will board a train

    for the four-day journey to Assam
    My nappies will dry on the window grill

    and then I will go to find my first bicycle
    in Nangal, root my childhood complexes

    before dashing to a high rise in Bombay
    where I will idolise Amitabh Bachchan and

    drive in a Fiat for four days across Thar desert
    to my grandfather’s village in Delhi

    I will fly away from him to the garden city
    of Bangalore, eat Dosas and Idlis, get good grades

    take a bus to the desert town of Pilani where
    I will make lifelong friends, drink, smoke, party

    become an engineer and start a job in Delhi
    then make it to Hyderabad to study some more

    and move to Bangalore to start climbing the ladder,
    erase thoughts of past loves, get married

    and move abroad to start a new life in Reading
    fail in business, then reboot in London

    Here I will change my children’s nappies, start
    a new job, find a voice, write these words.

  • Inspired by Anjali B Purkayastha’s painting “Home”

     

    This is a topographical chart, a web

    of destinies taking quantum leaps,

    a microbial strain of my translucent blood,

    separating neural pathways, left-right, right-left.

    Shards strung together, bolted barbed wires,

    a web of webs, a maze of mazes,

    like the pattern of that peacock feather

    I collected from my grandfather’s tin-

    roofed veranda, singing a song

    whose words I could not understand.

    A place I called home, the child I was

  • On the day I suffer major trauma. A bleed and bruising on front and left side of brain. Storm Franklin hammers the UK with strong winds, floods, and grey skies.

    I have braved the storm on my bike for Gails in Willseden Green. On the journey home

    A car door swings into me, my helmet, high vis jacket and I are flung six feet into the air, into a dome of sky, then this earth. The sun signals morse codes on rising ripples

    unseen, understood. The sea. I check directions. The sun is exactly where it should be.

    At this time, this place. Admission date: 21st February 2022. GCS score 3. Chances of making a recovery: 4%.

Readings & Performances

2020

Book Launch
Seamus Heaney Library
@ The Bloomsbury

Watch

the launch video of
O Beautiful, My Country

2014

Recital

Keats House

“Artless” Evening

Listen

to a recital for
The Cardiff Review

2019

Readings

Portfolio Readings
The Troubadour

Newcastle Poetry Festival

My Approach to Poetry

English & Hindi

I work in both languages, finding that each accesses different parts of memory and imagination:

  • Speed writing

  • Translation as a craft

  • Everyday moments

  • Cultural identity

Workshop Experience:

  • Dances with words
    Online 4-week poetry workshop for high school students

  • Introduction to Poetry
    Headway, North West London

Current Projects

  • Sorting through my archives to develop partially written ideas and poems.

  • “Dixie Tango”: A comprehensive collection of poems reflecting on the transformative journey of my life following my accident. The title "Dixie Tango" serves as a reminder of my experience, as it was my codename in the Accident & Emergency (A&E) department when they didn’t know my name.

  • Sign on a wooden easel listing directions to the library at The Bloomsbury, including the book launch of Arpit Kaushik, with an arrow pointing left.
  • A quote about capturing written moments by Jacob Polley, with an illustration of two black hands reaching out to each other over a stylized river, with a colorful roller coaster in the background.
  • Page titled 'Bridges' listing names of writers included in an anthology of prose and poetry by students of Newcastle University's Masters Degree in Poetry and Creative Writing, and students from the Poetry School.
  • Poster for the 2019 Newcastle Poetry Festival, including event details and list of participants.
  • A commemorative display about Seamus Heaney featuring a portrait, informational placards, and illuminated panels in a bookshelf setting with three wooden chairs in front.
  • Stage with a large screen displaying "Transformations Newcastle Poetry Festival 2019, Wed 1 May - Sat 4 May" and a small table covered with a red cloth holding two glass bottles, in a dark theater with stage lighting.
  • Back cover of a literary magazine named Under the Radar, Issue 24 from August 2019. It features quotes from books, brief reviews, and a list of contributing poets and writers, with a barcode and price at the bottom.
  • A collage-style promotional poster for a poetry reading event, featuring a large group of diverse people in front of a park with green grass and trees, some in black-and-white and others in color. The poster includes text about a Master’s program in poetry writing at Newcastle University, scheduled for November 19, 2019, at 7:30 PM, hosted at The Troubadour in London. The word “MSTENS” is spelled out using floral patterned letter cards at the bottom, and there is a logo for The Troubadour with a serpent graphic.
  • Aerial view of a crowded beach with umbrellas, people, and the shoreline.
  • Signboard indicating directions to The Library at The Bloomsbury hotel, with an arrow pointing left.
  • A cozy library room with bookshelves filled with colorful books, a glass-topped table, ten chairs with carved wooden backs, two lit floor lamps, and framed photographs on the walls.
  • A glass-top table with a dark blue booklet titled 'What We Say Is Home' and a stack of similar booklets, a floral arrangement with white roses, tulips, and greenery, and a few magazines, in a room with wooden flooring and red cushioned chairs.
  • A cluttered wooden table with various photographs, magazines, a brass bell, pins, small toys, a quill feather, and scattered papers in a room with a bookshelf and framed documents in the background.
  • A black-and-white newspaper article featuring a photo of an industrial landscape with smokestacks emitting smoke. There is a caption beneath the photo that says, "BEAUTIFUL, MY COUNTRY." The article discusses a project inspired by William Blake, involving poems and a Photoshop image of industrial pollution.
  • Event poster titled 'ARTLESS' with performers' names, dates, and descriptions on a parchment background with a decorative border, displayed on a green and red background.

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