Abhay Kumar

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in Module:Infobox at line 235: malformed pattern (missing ']').

Abhay Kumar/Abhay K (Hindi: अभय कुमार) (born 1980) is an Indian poet-diplomat.[1][2] His books include The Seduction of Delhi[3][4] among others.[5][6][7] His writings cover poetry, art, memoir, global democracy and digital diplomacy.[8][9][10][11] He wrote the Earth Anthem[12][13][14][15][16] and the South Asian Anthem[17] spurring search for an official SAARC Anthem.[18]

He received the SAARC Literary Award for his contribution to contemporary South Asian Poetry[19][20] and nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2013.[21] In 2011, he also received the Gov 2.0 award on behalf of the Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs.[8][22] He has been featured as a nominee on the longlist of the Forbes India 100 Celebrity list[23] and has been honoured with Asia-Pacific Excellence Award in 2014.[24] His The Seduction of Delhi was shortlisted for Muse India-Satish Verma Young Writer Award 2015.[25]

Early life

Abhay was born and raised at Chhabilapur near Rajgir in Nalanda district of Bihar. He studied at the Kirori Mal College Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 2003. He studied Russian language, history and literature at the Moscow State University, Nepali language at the Tribhuvan University, U.S. Foreign Policy at the George Washington University[26] and how writers write poetry at The International Writing Program, The University of Iowa.[27]

Career

Literary

Abhay K is one of the literary flag-bearers of contemporary Indian poetry.[28][29] He features among five Indian poets everyone should know about.[30] Major Indian poet Jayanta Mahapatra thinks "qualities of love, tenderness and compassion set Abhay K's work apart from much of the general run of current poetics." [31] As per the Hindu Book Review- "Abhay K.'s words don’t sit outside and observe. They dig in, making their subject their home, and then they turn outwards, watching the landscape, the people, the city, change." [32] His poetic works startle and heal [33] and give humanistic outlook to Indian English Poetry[34][35][36] making subtle use of metaphor and imagery.[37]

His poems have appeared in several magazines and literary journals including The Caravan, The Missing Slate, The Stony Thursday(Ireland), Mud Season Review (USA),Eastlit, Kavya Bharati among others.[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] Wasafiri quarterly notes Kumar's absence from the HareperCollins anthology of English poetry stating "The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry does miss out on Agha Shahid Ali, the poet-diplomat Abhay K and Nabina Das."[40][46]

His poem "Foreign Service" is a take-off on Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage" summarizing diplomatic careers.[47] while the poem "Gogol" alludes to the works of the writer Gogol such as "The Nose", "The Overcoat", "Nevsky Prospect", Dead Souls and The Government Inspector.[48] His poem "Ghalib" is a glimpse of tragic life of poet Ghalib.[49] Kumar's poems have been translated into Irish by Irish poet Gabriel Rosenstock[50] and in Russian by noted Russian poet Andrei Rodossky,[45] in Turkish by noted Turkish poet Müesser Yeniay, in Slovenian by Slovenian poet Katja Gorečan, in Italian by Italian poet Franz Laszlo Melas,[51] in Chinese by Chinese poet Arthur Zhang,[52] in Nepali by Nepalese poet Kishore Nepal, in Portuguese by Brazilian poets Antonio Miranda and Marcos Freitas[53] and in Spanish by Spanish poet Alicia Silvestre Miralles.[54] He said in an interview to Alok Mishra, "Poetry for me is what the soul is for the body. I read and write poetry to satisfy my spiritual hunger."[55]

Kumar has read his poems at several literary occasions including at a poetry evening hosted by the Governor of Goa along with Keki N. Daruwalla, Sitanshu Yashaschandra, Ranjit Hoskote, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Mamang Dai etc. during the Goa Art and Literature Festival 2014, at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2015 with Lionel Fogarty, Fady Joudah among others and at Mountain Echoes Literature Festival, Thimphu, Bhutan.[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] He was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for his three poems ‘What’s a Beach’, ‘Masseur’ and ‘Everything has Secrets’.[66] He was also awarded SAARC Literary Award for his contribution to South Asian poetry.[19][20] His poems have been read aloud by actresses Hazel Keech, Reecha Sharma, Priyanka Karki, models Sahana Bajracharya, Talia Bentson, Nagma Shrestha, actor Rajesh Hamal,[67] poets K.Satchidanandan [68] A. J. Thomas,[69] and Helena Sinervo.[70] He also co-founded the Poetry at the Monument poetry movement.[71] His first book was River Valley to Silicon Valley(2007).[5]

As an editor, he has edited a special edition of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review on Contemporary Indian Poetry in English[72] and an anthology of poems on capital cities of the world.

The Seduction Of Delhi

Kumar's collection of poems The Seduction of Delhi became a bestselling poetry book after its launch in January 2015.[73] It was released by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra at the Jaipur Literature Festival.[74] T.S. Eliot Prize winning poet George Szirtes writes about The Seduction of Delhi- "One may visit a city and one may live in it. To experience it as a presence and as a history is more than either and to experience it as poetry is sublime. This is a beautiful way to be introduced to a great city as both specific and essence." [75]

<templatestyles src="Template:Quote_box/styles.css" />

“The Seduction of Delhi” is both inspired poetry and visual illustration (by Italian artist Tarshito) in motion, covering and recalling nearly a thousand years of memory, achievement, success and loss, daily grind and drudgery, a contradictory city of ruins and sprawling high rises.

—Financial Express[76]

<templatestyles src="Template:Quote_box/styles.css" />

Abhay K's poems serve up a Delhi, resplendent with character, torn asunder by marauders, patch-worked back several times with belief and faith - and above all saturated through with the touch of time and history.

—The Times of India[77]

The Seduction of Delhi was shortlisted for Muse India-Satish Verma Young Writer Award 2015.[25]

Jatra

Jatra, his latest collection of poems on Nepal translated in Nepali paints a poetic portrait of Nepal.[78] It was launched by the Vice-President of Nepal.[79]

<templatestyles src="Template:Quote_box/styles.css" />

In Jatra, Abhay has written on beautiful architectural masterpieces of Nepal's cultural treasures and historical sites which attract tens of thousands of tourists from around the world.

—Business Standard[80]

He is currently editing a global anthology of poetic-portraits of about two hundred capital cities of the world[81] and is also the guest-editor of the special issue of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review on contemporary Indian English Poetry.[82]

Earth Anthem

In 2013 Kumar released Earth Anthem, a song intended as an anthem for the planet Earth, written by him in eight languages including six official UN languages — Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Russian and Spanish — as well as Hindi and Nepali. It was set to music by Sapan Ghimire and sung by Shreya Sotang from Nepal.[83] It has been translated into 26 languages including Tamil, Hindi, Nepali, Russian, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Turkish, Arabic, Estonian, German, Bhasa, Czech, Japanese, Tibetan,Slovenian, Montenegrin, Kazhak, Khmer and Uzbek and has received acclaim[13][84] and is being used by CBSE.[clarification needed][85]

In 2014, Kumar suggested that UNESCO stage a global online competition to establish an official anthem for the planet, but the organization felt unable to conduct a global competition due to its "limited financial and human resources".[86][87] The Permanent Delegation of India, Paris had recommended Kumar's proposal of an official anthem for UNESCO's consideration.[88]

SAARC Anthem

Abhay wrote the SAARC Anthem in Bengali, Dzongkha, Maldivian, English, Hindi, Nepali, Pashto, Sinhalese, and Urdu, in an attempt to attempts to foster South Asian consciousness and bring the member states of SAARC together.[89][90] It has spurred discussions on the need for an official SAARC Anthem.[91] Columnist Stanley Weiss hopes that the South Asian leaders will choose to move forward in the words of the SAARC Anthem.[92] Nepal's foreign minister has expressed the need for a SAARC anthem to connect SAARC nations.[93] SAARC Anthem was to be played at the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi in presence of the SAARC leaders.[94] Nepal at the 18th summit in Kathmandu in November 2014 is planning to introduce proposal for a SAARC Anthem in the agenda of summit when heads of all member states meet here.[95] The song penned by Abhay K may become SAARC Anthem.[96] Pooja Bhatt and Mahesh Bhatt have praised SAARC anthem.[97]

Diplomatic

Kumar is an Indian Foreign Service officer and has served in positions at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the government of India and at the Indian missions and posts abroad in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kathmandu. At the MEA headquarters in New Delhi he served as the Under Secretary Digital diplomacy and sent the first tweet after setting up official Twitter account of the Ministry of External Affairs of India in 2010.[98][99] He served as the spokesperson of the Embassy of India, Kathmandu from 2012-2015.[100] He was appointed as the Director of the Nehru Centre, London in March 2015.[101][102] Subsequently, he was appointed as India's Deputy High Commissioner to Australia in August 2015.[103] He currently serves as India´s Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil.

He was also assistant editor of India Perspectives, a monthly magazine published by the Ministry of External Affairs in 17 languages from September 2011 to July 2012.[104][105]

Artistic

Kumar's art work focus on planetary consciousness.[106] He has exhibited his paintings in St. Petersburg, Paris and New Delhi.[107][108] His art has received good reviews.[109] Poetry-paintings of Abhay K and Italian artist Tarshito exhibited at the National Academy of Art, New Delhi highlight Delhi's glorious past.[110]

Awards and recognition

  • 2016: Listed Among 15 Noted JNU Alumni Who Have Proudly Represented India Nationally & Internationally [111]
  • 2015: His book The Seduction of Delhi was shortlisted for Muse India-Satish Verma Young Writer Award 2015.[25]
  • 2015: Invited as a speaker at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2015 with major international poets [112]
  • 2014: Featured in Forbes India Celebrity 100 Nominees longlist 2014[23]
  • 2014: Asia-Pacific Excellence Award[21][24]
  • 2013: SAARC Literary Award[20][113] - Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature
  • 2013: Nominated for the Pushcart Prize[21]
  • 2012: Received 1st Class diploma from the Steiglitz Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg for his exhibition We are different, We are together.[114]
  • 2012: 1st Prize by the Amity School of Business, Noida, India for the case study Digital Revolution and Business at the 8th Renvoi, an International Management Case Study Competition[115]

Publications

Non-fiction

  • River Valley to Silicon Valley (2007)
  • 10 Questions of the Soul (2010)[116]
  • Colours of Soul (Cvet Dushi) (2011)[117]
  • Becoming A Civil Servant (2015)

Poetry Collections

  • Enigmatic Love (2009)[118]
  • Fallen Leaves of Autumn (2010)[119]
  • Candling the Light(2011)[120]
  • Remains (2012)[121]
  • The Seduction of Delhi[122]
  • The Eight-Eyed Lord of Kathmandu (English) / Jatra (Nepali)

See also

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Abhay_Kumar&oldid=720337059"