A winter's tales

Hanuman is the only character in the Ramayana with an internal monologue, constantly evaluating his own actions

In winter, New Delhi’s poetry calendar is dotted with events — readings and launches and conversations — but the one I was looking forward to the most was Almost Island Dialogues 2018. This is because of poet Mani Rao, one of the guests at this intimate literary exchange that is self-consciously different from the ubiquitous literature festivals. Rao is a poet whom I have admired, and at times even imitated, for years. As fellow poet and translator Vivek Narayanan said while introducing her at the reading at the India International Centre (IIC) last Saturday, “There is no one in Indian