Rukmini Bhaya Nair is Professor of Linguistics and English at IIT Delhi. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and has taught at universities ranging from Singapore to Stanford. Awarded a second honorary doctorate by Antwerp University for her contributions to narrative theory, Nair has authored 10 books, including three collections of poems with Penguin Books, and over 150 papers and articles. Among her widely acclaimed critical works are Lying on the Postcolonial Couchand Poetry in a Time of Terror, as well as the recent co-edited reference volume Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 20th Century (Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury Academic). Nair’s writings, both creative and critical, are included on international syllabi at universities from Chicago to Toronto. Her’ poem ‘Gargi’s Silence’ is now on Delhi University’s syllabus for all Arts and Commerce entry level students. The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry, which has entries for iconic poets such TS Eliot and Pablo Neruda from over the past century, states: “her work is widely admired… for its postmodern approach to lyrical meaning and feminine identity”. Nair says she does research in linguistics for the same reason that she writes poetry — to discover the limits and possibilities of language. Here’s an interview with her on poetry and the postcolonial in the journal Text Matters.