Sangeet Natak Academy awardee Nand Kishore Acharya’s story is one of passion, perseverance and hard work. The 72-year-old poet and playwright began writing when he was in school, and his first work was published when he was 22. Shiksha Ka Satyagrah, Pagalaghara and Hymns To The Desert are a few of his works. He has earlier won the Rajasthan Sahitya Academy’s Mira Award among many others. Asked how it felt to win the country’s highest honour in the field, Acharya chuckles and says that he is grateful, of course, but awards are not what he writes for. “Winning these awards is only socially satisfying. Not creatively. Creative satisfaction is what really matters to me. It is when you discover something new through your writing,” he says.
Acharya is a professor emeritus at IIIT, Hyderabad. He teaches Political Economy and Human Rights. Asked whether technology students take his subjects seriously, he says, “They take special interest in these courses. It is because these students haven’t had much exposure to humanities subjects.” Acharya also takes an interest in translating from English to Hindi, works of poets who inspire him, like Brodsky, Lorca, M.N. Roy and Riocaan. To him, translating is a way of extending his creative expression.
“There are certain things in the books that are culture or language specific. But when you translate them into your own language, you make them your own,” explains Acharya. Talking about the state of theatre in Hyderabad, he says, “Places like Lamakaan provide space. Even the Hyderabad Central University has a Theatre department that does good work,” he says. As an afterthought, he adds, “I don’t think any of the theatre groups know that I stay in Hyderabad.”
The professor reads everything from economics to psychology and history. When called a treasure house of knowledge, he humbly calls himself a ‘small person’, and says that he reads only because he likes it. Same is his advice to youngsters wanting to follow their passion in theatre. “Always read the great classics and think about how to depict the problems of modern society with your creativity.”
