Purple Hues-3 An Interview with Satyananda Sarangi

1-      You are a proud contributing Author of Purple Hues-3, India's favorite Anthology. What is your story/ poem about? Is it related to your own life or someone you know?

They have an inspirational theme where everyone with their respective struggles is urged to forge ahead by having faith and keeping their heads still. We always have that power within ourselves to seek the Almighty’s directions and this is what has been stressed upon in both of the poems.

Now, the constant truth is that none of us can boast of having harvested only happiness. There are scary circumstances and hard times that try to get the better of us throughout life. Thus, I have written something relatable to what all of us have experienced at some point in time or the other.

In short, my works are related to the ‘Universe’.

2-      As the theme for the series is Inspiration, tell us who or what inspired you to start writing.

To be honest, even now, I cannot believe the fact that I have managed to pen over hundreds of poems and sonnets. I remember having written couple of childish poems at school, though I won’t emphasize that they were born of passion. For this very reason, the question here takes a slight twist – it should be as to who or what inspired me to resume writing. Back in my under graduation days (Engineering brings with itself its own set of highs and lows), I happened to write some poetry on hope, the power of divine and human emotions. Probably, it was an outlet to escape the pressure cooker situations of student life then and now has become the sole source of indomitable strength for me.

3-      Do you think that Artists have a social responsibility? If you had all the power, what is that one thing you would like to change about our world?

I may quote something by Jeff Goins here - The job of an artist is to offer a sanctuary of beauty to an ugly world. This is absolutely true since no artist in the world is not gifted. And in my opinion, each one of us is gifted because the society needs it. Imagine a world without music, painting, poetry, storytelling, and sports. It becomes a monotonous storehouse of boredom and troubles. Isn’t it?

Well, the one thing I would like to do (there are two actually but let’s stick to one here) is to take the devil by his hair and shove his head into a chimney. Maybe this would put all vices to rest.

4-      What is your message for the young, budding writers?

The best time to write is when you are young. Shun that old saying that writing is better when done with experience. Let the fire of youth pave the way for creating masterpieces. Since I am more of a poet than a short story writer, I would recommend going through works of bards of yore first, and then you can always come back to the modern contemporary ones. Like I said, there is much more to be learned from Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Longfellow, Yeats, Shelley, Keats, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Stevenson, Frost, Sir Raleigh and much more. For those who write prose, never forget to begin with classics and literary fiction for these can help quite a lot in honing one’s command over the language and most importantly, over grammar.

And two key words for you are ‘perseverance’ and ‘humility’.

5-      What do you think should be the next theme for Purple Hues?

 Until now, all the themes of Purple hues have been unique and touching. Therefore, every poet may like to agree to me that nature is still the best muse for breathtaking poetry. So, why not have a theme of ‘Nature’ next time around?