December Dilemmas and drying ink

I have a peculiar relationship with December, for all of five or
more years now. I love December since it is the high-point of the
Indian winter, the weather is bracingly cool and ( I can say this
as have done a fair bit of touring) the landscapes and the vistas
when you are out on the road and in the interiors can be stunningly
breath-taking. And yet, December also means the end of an year;
and the onset of another that comes with its own attendant worries.
This December has been no different; and has added the gravitas
of bringing a lot of memories to do with Orissa (about which there
are quite a few poems in my forthcoming book)to the visual feast
that I have been enjoying in the wilderness I ramble in -- near my
place -- for birding. Significantly, in a throwaback to my childhood
days, I have yet again "bonded" with the outdoors, felt the same way
I used to when I was 11 years old and just learning what my self means
while rambling over the hills that comprise the Durgapur Range.

I may have aged in the interim but somehow the outdoors seem the same;
I could be sitting besides a Pokhuri in Orissa instead of a disused
quarry out here in Hyderabad. I could be rambling over the hills and
rice fields of my childhood, instead of these acres that flank a
military installation (and are left wild to serve as a perimeter)
here in Hyderabad. Its not the mind playing tricks, its an overpowering
surge of memories, a flood of poetry.

As such it has been bloody tough; to collect all finished poems,
rework on them, run edits and simultaneously finding time and
mindspace to write this month's, this season's. Oh well, maybe
its a good problem to have after all.

But the biggest dilemma of December has been what to call the book
and what cover image to run with. Revisiting all that I have gone
through and typing it all out here could end up splaying my fingers
even further; so let me suffice to say that it wasn't easy to decide
on the name Ink Dries. Nor was it to decide on the cover visual,
but then as I say in one of the poems in the book, "if you are ____,
there will always be time".

So there, the cover is decided and bit by bit the book's taking shape
too. And expected to be out in January 2012.



More updates to follow; for now some trivia -- yes, the photograph has
been taken by me and yes, the book has a number of poems dealing with
the "word" and with the most important tool of the writing trade, ink.