Mahek Tankarvi
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Mahek Tankarvi in his own words...........
"I was writing in India whilst I was studying, between 1958 and 1964. This was
the key period," he explains. "I was writing poems in English, but I was more
comfortable writing in Gujarati, that's what I was drawn to. I was reading poetry
published in magazines at that time. I remember Adil Mansuri was in Ahmedabad
- I remember reading his ghazals and inspired by him I just decided to try my
hand at writing Gujarati ghazals."
Since coming to the UK in 1966, Mahek has had many of his works published.
As well as publishing his own books of ghazals, "Pyas" (1972), "Talash" (1980)
and "Pyas Thi Parab Sudhi" (2006), he has compiled and edited two other
collections of Gujarati ghazals, namely "Sabras" and "Upavan". He is also
credited with founding the Gujarati Writers' Guild UK back in 1973.
Mahek is unsure of where his poetry comes from. "It comes, and once it starts, it
flows. You get certain ideas, inspiration from all sources, mainly from old poems
like Persian mystical poetry. I get a lot of inspiration from mystical poets like
Rumi. I can start and finish a poem in one go. These poems tend to be a bit
better than ones I have to keep going back to - they are better than anything I
have to labour over."
Whilst the written word is important, performance is just as important. "I usually
'sing' my ghazals, rather than read them, well, it's reciting rather than reading.
Performance is important in order to get the audience to appreciate what you
have written. You always want to convey your interpretation of life, of reality,
your ideas etc to an audience."
