Six hundred pages in print seems fat output for a reticent writer. Yet, within the next two months, three of my books will see the light of the day: 1.NAMDEO DHASAL Poet of the Underworld: poems 1972-2006: translated, selected, and introduced by Dilip Chitre; with photographs by Henning Stegmueller; NAVAYANA, Pondicherry and Chennai; 2. AS IS, WHERE IS Selected English Poems by Dilip Chitre; POETRYWALA, Mumbai; and 3. SHESHA Selected Marathi Poems by Dilip Chitre, translated by himself; POETRYWALA, Mumbai.

 

Assembling these three books was, along with psychopharmacological therapy, a life-saving project for me. I kept many other things on hold and worked for eight to twelve hours a day since August 2006. True, I took a three-week break to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair as well as to meet close friends in Germany from the end of September to the third week of October. It did both Viju and me good. From then on, I refused all public engagements and even private commitments to focus on the final manuscripts of these three books.

 

 

The sense of relief I have now is accompanied by extreme fatigue. It will take me a few more days to resume work on my many suspended projects.

 

Insha Allah,if all goes well during the next twelve months, I should have three more manuscripts out of my way, and start something new.