Sonali is a writer and photographer with a background in social science teaching and research. Trained as a geographer, her work is deeply rooted in environmental themes, often challenging conventional perceptions of time, space, and our relationship with the natural world.
Influenced by her origins in the ever-evolving landscape of Uttarakhand, her writing and photography are steeped in quiet nostalgia—inviting a tender reflection on memory, place, and the longing for what once was but can no longer be reclaimed.
Q:As both a writer and a photographer, do you find that these two art forms complement and inform each other?
Both act as a mirror to the world just that the medium of expression is different. Our lives are busy and made of many moments that we let pass by us. Through both these art forms the artist draws our attention to particular fleeting moments- whether photographs of mushrooms or a poem finding beauty in death and decay, it’s all one and the same.
Q: How does your background in geography and social science teaching influence your writing?
My interest in the natural world is what led me to study geography and the environment. This interest also informs my chosen forms of creative self expression today. Ever changing landscapes form the backdrop of our lives and underpin all societal change, so I find that my poetry tends to be visual with environmental themes.
At university, when I was wrapping up my MPhil research, the culmination of which is a written manuscript, I learnt how to weigh every single word I use, a skill which I apply to my poetry.
Teaching undergraduates about environmental issues was a lovely experience and often while writing, I find myself thinking of my old students. Part of my job was to parse complex ideas and connect them to the everyday. I bring this to my poetry by asking myself how I would convey the complexity of the human experience to an audience.
Q: What inspired you to start writing?
Childhood dyslexia and the tumultuous life of an army child made me despise writing, but the stories were always there. I spent a lot of time daydreaming and reading fiction. It was only in my early twenties that I found joy in creative writing, probably as a counterbalance to all the academic writing I had to do at university. I was studying at Miranda House when I wrote my first poem. It was about a lizard living in my balcony and I still think of it fondly.
THE BOOK
Sonali has been published in the anthology 'Hear Me First'. Curated by Delhi Poetry Slam as part of The Writer's Launchpad, an online workshop series for a select group of contemporary Indian poets. Get your copy!