#Scurf 177: Conversation with Ila
The writer, photographer, sustainable traveler, Ila Reddy, talks to me about her love for poetry and so much more
This is second in a series of conversations I’m having through substack with writers, photographers, philosophers, painters, etc. Here’s a link to the previous conversation in this series.
As I evolve in my own writing routines, I’ve felt enriched and educated by these conversations. This is a practice, I believe, I’m setting up mostly to get to know more from and about other writers, artists, photographers through their lives and stories.
Most of all, I feel that this conversation will work as a way for us to know each other better and cut out the algorithmic style of wondering about we do on the internet.
Here I speak with Ila Reddy, communications professional by day and writer, traveler, photographer by night. Ila’s substack found me during one of the endless and many covid lockdowns when I hadn’t stepped out for weeks. Her travelogues transported me, moved me and inspired me to see places differently. Hope you enjoy reading this!
Hi Ila! I remember I got to know you through your substack on walking in Delhi. As someone who loves walking and writing about it, your blog gave me a new way of writing about the familiar. You in a way gave voice to thoughts I’d had during my own walks in the city but had not thought them through and left them midway… you know what I mean? I also mean it in the sense that Delhi has this reputation of being cold towards its women and here you were writing about acknowledging your privileges and enjoying your walks — that worked like a charm! To be frank with you, it freed me in a way.
Along those lines, can you talk to me a bit about how you came around to writing?
I started writing consistently in 2015. I was living and working in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, and apart from my colleagues, I had no friends. I was leading a program to increase women’s participation in governance and politics – so my work was intense and I needed an outlet. What I was witnessing was in stark contrast to my school and college friends’ lives in the city, so it was also a way for me to share my experiences with them. This gradually evolved into a travel blog of sorts when I moved back to Delhi to work with a startup. I started documenting my travels as and when I visited a new place. When the pandemic hit and travel came to a standstill, I set up my Substack newsletter as an extension of my blog for more intimate posts and introspections.
Since you, much like me, write mostly nonfiction and memoirs from your travels, I’d love for you to spend some time talking to us about what experiences move you to write? We have these daily routines but once transported to, for instance, Nepal — they take a renewed vigor. So even from those mundanities how do you sift through and find what exactly to share with the wider world?
To be honest, I am a spontaneous writer. There is no set framework I follow. I often don’t know what I’m going to write until I start typing it out. In general, I love offbeat travel experiences. I am not fond of large crowds or hyper-curated travel itineraries and checklists, so to avoid overcrowded places, I tend to look for offbeat things to do wherever I go. Over time, I also realised this is a great way to experience local cultures and explore underrated places. So this invariably finds its way into my blogs and newsletters when I write about my travels.
I’m also forever in awe of how much Delhi has to offer. I have lived there for 32 years and still cannot claim to know even half of it. There are hidden gems everywhere – from unknown or forgotten monuments to beautiful parks and small eateries offering regional cuisine. This made me realise that there is so much to experience and cherish about the everyday, mundane things – even my neighbourhood park looks different every time I visit it. It’s all about paying attention and being mindful of every moment.
What to share with the world is then derived from how I see and experience the world. I don’t deliberately think it through – whatever flows, flows when I write.
Like me you also hold a day job that’s, presumably, detached from thinking in this way, I’d say a bit more creatively. How do you reconcile these two sides of your life?
My day job also entails creative thinking and writing, but the content is far more intense than what I write about in my newsletter and blog. So in that sense, I take my personal, travel writing quite lightly. It’s a hobby and a way for me to unwind, connect with other like-minded people, and perhaps inspire more folks to think about travel as more than just a trip or a vacation. I write in my downtime and don’t overthink it.
Who are the writers who inspire you, motivate you, move you?
I love Mary Oliver’s poetry because I deeply resonate with the way she views the world. I love Arundhati Roy’s novels for how she shows that the personal is political, and how fiction can often be so much more powerful and moving than statistics and news reports. I like how Jhumpa Lahiri writes about complex themes in simple words. I absolutely love Elena Ferrante’s writing and how unabashedly she expresses the thoughts of her characters, how real they are. The list is endless really. So many great writers out there!
Photoessays are somewhat a favourite form of documentation for me. What do you think about these as a form?
I am a photographer so I love photo essays as a form of documentation. These days I mostly click on my phone and don’t curate them as essays, but it’s impossible for me to write my blogs and newsletters without any visuals. Photos are a powerful medium of expression.
Can you share about a writer or photographer who challenged your perception of the art in some way?
I think Arundhati Roy’s novel, The God of Small Things, made me realise that I can write in a language of my own. Mary Oliver made me realise that poetry doesn’t have to be complex. Simple words can say so much.
How does a day in your (writing) life look like?
I wish I was that organised and could say I write for an hour daily. Unfortunately I have no such writing routine, though someday I hope to be more disciplined about it. I write on the days when I have something to say – or rather express in written form. Most days I am writing in my head – focusing more on observing and experiencing the world – the written words will eventually follow.
Do you have any writing rituals? Any practices you follow and have derived immense satisfaction from?
Having a Substack and some regular readers motivates me to keep writing for a larger audience. I haven’t been as consistent as I would have liked to be, but given I also write at work, I’m often too mentally saturated to also write in my downtime. So I haven’t formed any rituals per se.
How do you think your substack sits in the larger world of writing? What, according to you, is your substack able to capture?
I think the world of writing is too vast and my Substack is too small to really comment on how it sits. My newsletter is very personal – it features my travel experiences, thoughts, musings, impromptu captures. It is about celebrating the extraordinary in the ordinary, viewing life as a journey, and thinking of travel as education.
As we come to the end of this conversation, I’d love for you to answer some of these:
A movie you saw recently and loved and why
Laapata Ladies, Perfect DaysA book you read recently and would recommend and why
Brotherless Night by V.V. GaneshananthanA writer, artist, really, any creative person whose work you admire and try to emulate
Mary Oliver – how the natural world is often all she needs to process life experiencesA substack you’d recommend
Uff, there are so many! I particularly love Natasha Badhwar’s newsletter because she writes about her personal relationships in such an honest, empathetic and evocative way that it makes me think about my own. I am always amazed at her willingness to embrace vulnerability and then write about it so beautifully!A place you traveled to but couldn’t write about, and would recommend (and why)
The Northeast remains one of my favorite regions in India. I have written a few blogs about my trips to Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim but have not gotten a chance yet to write about Meghalaya (the trip was many years ago and I didn’t document much).
If you liked reading this, the next conversation substack will reach you sometime in the coming week!
