The story of Hindi poet Mangalesh Dabral, who was born in Tehri Garhwal in 1948 but for most of his career as a journalist lived and worked in Delhi, is the story of Uttarakhand. It is the tale of young men and women leaving the hills for the cities in search of education and employment — as defence and government servicemen; as drivers and dishwashers; and as poets and politicians. The persistent sense of alienation and nostalgia for home is a constant theme in Dabral’s poetry, but he also expresses an acceptance of urban life with all its challenges, conflicts and rewards. In the introduction to his new collection, This Number Does Not Exist (BOA editions), Dabral writes: “My poetry was born in the mountains, lived among the stones and sang of water, clouds, trees, and birds; but soon it migrated to the cities where the world was not so simple and innocent despite all its attractions, its wide and ever-lit roads, squares and lamp posts, which looked like the signifiers of a new civilisation. It was filled with the strains between the loss of native spaces and the difficulties of coming to terms with the place of refuge.”

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