The great-great grand-daughter of legendary naturalist Charles Darwin, who is inu00a0Mumbai to talk about the relationship between science and literature, on what it's like to have famous genes and why living in a city like London is not much different to living in the forest

The last time British author and poet Ruth Padel was in the city, it was for the centenary celebration of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in 1982.

She's had over a dozen books published since, including her debut novel and seven collections of poetry.

The most recent one, published last year, is what Ruth describes as a "tiny biography" on her great-great grandfather Charles Darwin called Darwin: a life in poems.

Author and poet Ruth Padel at the Bombay Natural History Society.

Back in Mumbai to give a talk on what it means to describe the "forest" in poetic and scientific terms at the BNHS Ruth says, "There is light and hope in nature, and I hope that the audience will take back a sense of that."

Ruth, who has done her PhD on Greek Tragedy from the Oxford University in London where she also taught Greek, decided to retire from a life of academia so that she could dedicate more time to writing.
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"If I have one regret, it's not listening sooner to the voices in my head. Teaching took up so much of my energy that I had little left for my writing," she says.



Legacy:u00a0A burden?

Asked whether the tag of direct descendant to Charles Darwin weighs heavily on her, Ruth responds, "The tag was not a burden as I was doing Humanities. It was more difficult for my siblings and cousins who were pursuing Science."

Ruth says that her idea of the legendary naturalist was shaped by her grandmother, (Emma) Nora Barlow, Darwin's grand-daughter.

"She had a lovely house in the garden with lots of books on nature," recalls Ruth.

"Darwin's mother died when he was eight years old. He repressed memories of her to a great extent," says Ruth.

"During a word-making and word-taking game that we play even to this day, he had the word 'other' to which someone added an 'm'. He reacted to that saying, 'there's no such word as 'mother'," chuckles Ruth, pronouncing the word as "mudher".

The author believes it was this sense of loss at an early age that started Darwin on his quest. "It made him turn to nature, to collecting things, to taxonomy: the study of looking at things differently that are essentially the same," she explains with a wistful smile, adding, "He was a kind, humane man, who shared a wonderful relationship with his wife."

It's a jungle out there
Speaking on her debut novel, Where the Serpent Lives, which is partly set in the forests of Karnataka and Bengal, and features a zoologist as the main protagonist, Ruth says, "The story is set in London, which is like a jungle; the people are unaware of what's going on around them."
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She adds, "There is so much 'unawareness' of the effect of the wicked Blair policy on the Iraq war. It is similar to the attitude we have towards wildlife."

Ruth was keen to set parts of her novel in India so that she could use the idea of the five-and-a-half-hour time difference to her advantage. "I wanted to show how a shift in time is also a shift in perspective. I wanted it to be a novel about the awareness of difference, an awareness of the other," she explains.

Ruth has also written two non-fiction books, including one that links rock music with Greek myth titled I'm A Man: Sex, Gods and Rock 'n' Roll.

"For 20 years I didn't publish any books. I was working on my PhD and researching my books during the time. I've been making up since," jokes Dr Ruth.

"For me, life's greatest lesson has been that for relationships to work, including our relationship with nature, it's important to stay open to the world around us. Empathy with nature is part of our humanity," she signs off.

Ruth Padel will discuss the relation between literature and science in her talk on 'Writing the Forest'. She will also read extracts from her debut novel Where the Serpent Lives, her account of tiger conservation, Tigers in Red Weather; and from Darwin - A Life in Poems.