Ahila Sambamoorthyis Indian by birth and was born in Singapore in July 1966. Music has always been her greatest of passions, particularly Indian and Western classical music. She has been playing the piano for the past twenty-five years and writing poetry is a comparatively recent interest.

Her poems are Dravidian in tradition and draw largely on the landscapes, philosophies, religion, and customs of South India.
    She believe that poetry should emulate music, or aspire towards the condition of music, and thus, she says, I like my poems to resound with the lyric voice of dream and imagination, such as is evoked by Franz Schubert's mesmerizing melodies. I love using rich, vibrant imagery, that is not always rooted in the 'real' world but in a transitional zone between the real and the wholly imaginary, a fantastic reality that is at the same time accessible and not accessible. And I deal with everyday human emotions such as longing, nostalgia, regret, sorrow, and happiness, nothing too otherworldly.

Today Ahila teaches English Literature at the National University of Malaysia. "My aptitude lies chiefly in the fields of post-colonial literatures written in English and comparative studies between music & literature."

ahila26@hotmail.com

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