I must say, Chika, it has been a good chat. Are you working on anything special at the moment?

I am working on a collection of short stories. One of the stories –  "A Borrowed Smile"
recently won a BBC short story competition and will be broadcast sometime next month.
I am also busy with school.

What is the one book in the world that you will never travel without?

This is the most difficult question you have asked me. It is like asking which of my babies I love the most. There is no "one" book I will never travel without. There are a few I always cram in my bag and my mood determines the one I will read at any given time.

I like Flowers and Shadows for its naiveté and simplicity. There is this innocence in it that is lacking in Okri's recent books.
Dahl's Omnibus is another one I am loathe to travel without. I like the sick humour and the ingenuity of the writing never fails to impress me.
Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies is another favourite. I particularly like the story, " A Temporary Matter." It tells a simple story of a couple who are drawing apart but it tells it in an uncommon way.

Are you a spontaneous writer or do you allow ideas to roam around and gestate in your head until they become unbearable then you pour them all out?

I think I used to be a spontaneous writer: I could get up in the middle of the night, rush to my pen and paper or computer and write away.
Now, I go to bed late and have to be up at six to attend to the baby and  get the bigger ones ready for school.  I let the ideas gestate in my head until I have the time during the day or night to work on them.

What inspires you to write the most? When you have a dry spell like all writers do, how do you rediscover the urge?

My greatest inspirations for my poems are my children. For my stories, I would have to say life in general: my experiences as well as other people's.
When the muses desert me, I read my favourite books. I find that a good book is the best way to bring them back.