theinterview

I am posting what was typed in the theweek's interview dated 21/9/2005 for those who didn't have the chance to pick up this week's issue. It's a word-by-word copy;

the young poet

Meet Ali Mehdi, the romantic young poet who aims to bring out the creative side of people

SANGEETA SUNDARESAN

When you read the poems of Ali Mehdi Ahmed al Lawati, you feel he has been brought up on a staple diet of books and journals. Suprisingly, what he reveals is quite the contrary. "Well, I am not much of a reader. I've never really read a lot of books. However, there are some I grew up on, like Roald Dahl's Danny The Champion Of The World. I was more of a comic book geek and read comics like Beano & Dandy. But I've never really been a bookworm."

Ali finished high school in a government school in Oman and went on to pursue a degree in management from Majan Private College. With no formal training in writing, it was during this period that he started writing poems. "It started out when I was in a relationship with someone. It, however, went sour. All those thoughts, feelings, emotions, everything - I wrote them down." Although Ali wrote them in what he calls 'random words', when he went back to them he realised that some of the words rhymed and he started to develop on them. Timely encouragment from family and friends only saw his talent bloom.

Ali has to his credit a book of poems published titled Rapidly Blue. It's titled so since, "it focuses on a lonely period of my life, I gathered all the poems I had written during this period and put them together in this book."

Ali seeks inspiration for his poems from everything around him, be it people, music, thoughts, words, jokes, and even situations he has been in during the course of a day, and turns his emotions into words. "When I write, the thoughts just flow. I don't particularly care about the rhyme and meter at that time. But when I go back to it, I make it a point to give it some sort of a body and scheme."

When queried as to why he does not feel the need to read unlike other writers who are abreast with the current literary scenario, he stated, "I don't feel the need to read so much. If anything is going to influence me it is the situation that I am going to put myself into to write a poem. It's not what I read that is going to unfluence me. Maybe, I will get an idea or two but that's it. It's not the style that I would want to focus on." Ali has travelled extensively and feels that it is this exposure that reflects in his work.

Although not much of a reader, Ali has read the works of a few Arabic poets and claims that he is captivated by their style. He is also influenced by some of their work. "The late Nizar Qabbani is a very famous poet. He was a romantic and his works try to demystify the Arabian woman. I find that intriguing in itself. My works are also romantic in nature and I sort of identify with Qabbani's quest. There is so much in a woman that we men don't know of. People tend to focus on the superficial side of a woman, but to me what really matters is what's inside. The other poets that I like are Al Mutanabi and Ibn Al Roomi because their description and style is very nice."

From the beginning, Ali has also written about Omani landscapes, be it the rolling hills or the wadis. He hopes to shake people in the Sultanate out of their everyday routine of paying bills and watching television, and give more time to creativity and reflection.