Portrait of a citizen.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Poet Ana Dehlavi is a familiar face in the world of Delhi’s poetry meets. This day, she graciously agrees to join our Proust Questionnaire series, in which citizens are nudged to make “Parisian parlour confessions”, all to explore our distinct experiences.

The principal aspect of your personality.

I’m a shayara, a poetess. That is the chief aspect of my being. You must understand that not everyone has the fortune to be a poet. Especially for a woman with my family background. My nanihal (mother’s family) is in Lucknow and my dadihal (father’s family) is in Aligarh. Both branches of my family are conservative. Back in the days when I had started rendering my poems before live audiences, not everyone in my khandaan was comfortable. It was not considered a good thing for a woman to be out of purdah, let alone be on stage. Gradually, over the years, after seeing my success as a poet and the esteem I gathered from poetry lovers, those same relatives started to take pride in me. Today, they talk of me with izzat.

Your idea of happiness.
My happiness was my maa. I loved her the most. She died four years ago. I miss her in the day. I miss her at night.

Where would you like to live?
Where I currently live in Delhi, in Lakshmi Nagar. This place is like living in UP. It has a small-town atmosphere. Everybody knows everybody. I cannot live in places with boundary walls and security guards, where people live confined to their houses.

Your favorite poets
Mir, Ghalib, Parveen Shakir, Darab Banu Wafa, Bashir Badra, Rahat Indori… Waali Aasi was my Ustad in poetry.

Your heroes in real life.
Bashir Badra and Rahat Indori. From them, I learned that poetry can be rendered in simple language. I also learned how to be on stage, how to read and sing one’s verses before an audience.

Faults for which you have the most tolerance.
When male anchors at poetry meets speak lightly of women poets.

The natural talent you’d like to be gifted with.
But I have already been gifted so much. I started out living in a rented house. Today, I own my own house, thanks to the blessings of my mother and to my poetry.