Tirkas Ani Choukas

“My relationship with Indian culture is multifaceted because it is not merely a relationship with Indian culture, but with culture itself.”

“Writing is a life-threatening risk. Those who teach literature in schools and colleges do not give their students the perspective needed to understand culture through literature. Students are not made aware of the relationship between literature, art, and human life. Instead, they are led to believe that literature has no place in their everyday actions and reactions.

Even if a new generation of discerning readers exists in Marathi, very few of them are literature teachers or students. This is because they tend to view literature merely as a profession. In contrast, newly educated Dalits and people from diverse fields such as technology, engineering, and medicine often approach literature with greater insight, because they have certain cultural expectations of it.”

“I have never contemplated these ideas while sitting atop some tower. Writers walk along the same roads as everyone else, but they perceive those roads differently. They interpret them differently and notice details that others overlook.”

“I lived primarily as a writer, poet, and artist. The short essays in Tirakas Ani Chaukasa are reflections that emerged from looking back over that journey.”