R.K.SINGH: Indian English Poet

A new haiga by Kuni San

2011-12-20T22:35:00.000-08:00

This is Kuni san's birthday present to me. Thank you very much Kuni san. You have been very kind to me.

TEXT OF MY ADDRESS TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF A TRAINING PROGRAMME ON ETHICS AND VALUES IN SCIENCE at Indian School of Mines on 12 December 2012 | Ram Krishna Singh | Article/Story/Poem/Essay | Red Room

2011-12-12T02:17:00.000-08:00

TEXT OF MY ADDRESS TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF A TRAINING PROGRAMME ON ETHICS AND VALUES IN SCIENCE at Indian School of Mines on 12 December 2012 | Ram Krishna Singh | Article/Story/Poem/Essay | Red Room

TEXT OF MY ADDRESS TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF A TRAINING PROGRAMME ON ETHICS AND VALUES IN SCIENCE

2011-12-12T02:14:00.000-08:00

Academically, I am not a man of ethics though ethical considerations may often guide my academic practices. I am a man of Literature and, as a professor of English for Science and Technology, when I look at the use of ‘hedging devices’ or use of the modal verbs in scientists’ discourse, or their reports, hypotheses, predictions and conclusions, for example, I sometimes wonder whether they tend to compromise fact or truth, which is their primary commitment; or it is merely convention or tradition to say things the way they are said?

It is perhaps ethical to exercise caution because you do not want to jump to a conclusion on the basis of fragmentary evidence, unestablished fact, questionable belief, or unrelated conceptual relationship. As it is, when you are involved in an academic investigation, you presume that something is possible, and try to substantiate it logically. You follow a methodical process, mentally formulating a hypothesis to solve a particular problem even as you cannot be sure about its eventual validity. You may call it ‘conjecture’, if you like, but the sequence from ‘conjecture’ to ‘conclusion’ suggests an increasing degree of coherence and scientific certainty.

When you say: “We will definitely reach the target” (100% certainty), or “we will probably reach the target” (more than 60% certainty), or “we will possibly reach the target” or “we may reach the target” (more than 30% certainty), you know well the sense or value of your assertion, or how certain you are about what you are saying. It also reflects your attitude or intention that emerges from, what may be called, your ethical decision.

Simultaneously, you use language devices that show your ‘strategic and/or pragmatic competence’ for saying or not saying things which may create problems for you or the organization you belong to. In your day to day affairs , bureaucracy or administration, you may hide things to be politically correct or socially acceptable.

Let me cite an example. If there is massive resistance to Kundankulam nuclear power plant in Tamilnadu, or its setting up in Jaitapura, Maharastra, even after scientists’ assurance that nuclear energy is safe, -- Dr APJ Abdul Kalam himself visited the site and testified to the fact that the nuclear plant in Kundankulam is safe,-- how ethical it would be to reject the nuclear energy option, scientifically speaking? The trust deficit we notice in, say nuclear energy use, is a challenge. How to convince people that it is good, safe and cost effective in the long run?

At a time like this, when corruption, the buzz word today, seems to compromise truth at every level, and people’s expectation for transparency , accountability and integrity in administration, as also in research and development, has increased. We are all expected to uphold certain universally accepted standards for doing science and technology just as we have to prove our social responsibilities to the larger community that is exposed to risks, costs and benefits.

Maybe, you have a positive attitude or intention, or you’re honest to yourself when you behave or respond to a matter in a particular way, but good intentions do not necessarily result in good ethical decisions. You may mean well when as a researcher you find one of your research students or associates who has worked hard for years on a project and not come up with publishable data, you lend him some of your own data and “gift” him authorship, too, because you believe that you have a duty to the student (or associate) to ensure a publication. Ethically, this response of yours has a public consequence for the practice of science as a profession. You make an unethical decision with the best of intentions.

What I am trying to say is that whatever is ethically unworthy is evil, simply not acceptable. Your conduct, dealing with others or yourself, academic or personal, should be irreproachable, marked by self-control and intellectual discipline. “To evade discipline is to empty life of its significance,” explains S. Radhakrishnan in The Principal Upanisads( p. 109). It is moral uprightness, rather than mechanical ritual, that matters in all that you do as a researcher or practitioner of science and technology.

My experience convinces me that we are not limited by what we are, but we are limited by what we are not. Science, and for that matter, arts becomes a means to overcome this limitation, and thus, allows us not only to know ourselves but also to expand on what we are. This means we should remain open to healthy revisions that we can make to our way of thinking, and incorporate new perspectives into our outlook. In other words, we should not let our own rigidity destroy our potential, but rather we should evince a forward-looking, tolerant, compassionate, and open mindset if we wish to create future.

By attending such a course, as organized here in collaboration with the DST, you would appreciate that it is your responsibility to know professional conventions as well as to understand the public nature of morality. It seeks to make you an ethical practitioner in your profession, and makes you understand that it is unethical, for example, to fabricate or manipulate data and plagiarise information or research, or publish other people’s data as your own. The research ethics you will learn about should help you make ethical decisions relative to matters of scientific research and publication, and know what is “questionable behavior” or “misconduct” (other than fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism which are already punishable offence in many an institution).

Such courses are necessary because we as academics know how our students ‘google’ information and freely ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ and plagiarise. As academics we are collectively responsible for the professional conduct of our students. If the majority of students do not learn their responsibilities as future researchers or scientists, “then cases of unintentional misconducts and questionable practice are inevitable.”

All the same, this course on Ethics and Values in Science points to the need for developing the culture, or the mental habit, for responsible professional conduct in tune with the widely acceptable practices in the realm of Knowledge.

I join my colleagues in welcoming you to the Course and wish you a happy stay in ISM.

--PROFESSOR R.K. SINGH

TEXT OF MY ADDRESS TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF A TRAINING PROGRAMME ON ETHICS AND VALUES IN SCIENCE at Indian School of Mines on 12 December 2012

see haiku here: Haiga 704 R.K.Singh haiku 3

2011-12-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

see haiku here: Haiga 704 R.K.Singh haiku 3: Haiku by R.K. Singh (India). Artwork by myself. Now, this is a challenging haiku. The more challenging, I get more inspired, letting my im...

Haiga by Kanu san

2011-12-02T23:19:00.000-08:00

Haiku by R.K. Singh (India). Artwork by myself.

Now, this is a challenging haiku. The more challenging, I get more inspired, letting my imagination work in full force. The resulted haiga is the representation of my own interpretation.

Challenging haiku often contains layers of meaning, resulting in many interpretations depending on the readers. Just as anything in this world has multiple sides, haiku does the same. One needs to have clear and calm mind to appreciate many sides of the things.
posted by kuni_san time: 8:21 AM

Courtesy: http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com

Haiga by Kuni san

2011-12-02T01:55:00.000-08:00

Haiga 703 R.K.Singh haiku 2

http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/2011/12/haiga-703-rksingh-haiku-2.html

Haiku by R.K. Singh (India). Artwork by myself.
The first thing that came to my mind when I read this haiku was sensuous figures carved on temple walls in India. From that imagination, I made this haiga.

The first time I visited India was more than 30 years ago. I stayed in Kolkata (then called Calcatta, typo?) for about a month. My firends and I were there to do some missionary work. We visited many homes, and time to time, played games with children too. Later in the stay, we had chance to visit Varanasi, New Delhi, and amazing Taj Mahal. Fond memory.

The second time was about 17 years ago. I made short stop over at Kolkata and Mumbal (then called Bambay) to give Tenrikyo lectures. Each time, India made strong impressions on me. Recently, I even wrote a short story (in Japanese) based on what I had seen in India.

posted by kuni_san time: 8:46 AM

Courtesy: http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/2011/12/haiga-703-rksingh-haiku-2.html

see haiku here: Haiga 703 R.K.Singh haiku 1

2011-11-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

see haiku here: Haiga 703 R.K.Singh haiku 1: Haiku by Prof. R. K. Singh (India). Artwork by myself. Dr. Ram Krishna Singh is a professor and a head of Department of Humanities and Soci...

2011-11-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

Haiku by Prof. R. K. Singh (India). Artwork by myself.

Dr. Ram Krishna Singh is a professor and a head of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian School of Mine. He tweeted me some haiku the other day, and I suggested haiga collaboration. He then sent me a batch of haiku and I made several haiga from them. This is one of them. A few more coming later.

Poetry has been a big thing in India from before, and now there are more and more haiku writers appearing there. This is a good thing for world haiku.
My blog is been visited from many countries around the world: Rumania, Greece, Italy, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Ukraine, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, England, UAE, South Africa, India, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Mexico, Brasil, Australia, USA, Canada, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad & Tobago.
Haiku population is steady increasing indeed.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Courtesy: http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/

Poems in Syndic Literary Journal, No.5

2011-11-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

http://syndicjournal.us/syndic-no-5/poetry-by-ram-krishna-singh/

Syndic No.5

Poetry by Ram Krishna Singh

Poetry

by Ram Krishna Singh

POET RK SINGH & GRANDSON DEVANSH

“TIME IS RUNNING OUT”

I need a few hours
without god, thought, or self
and just be free

restlessness of night
now frightens the morning
I can’t even breathe

I can’t lie like
uprooted pole on the roadside
rubbished by all

no prayer helps
trust shrinks life without love
time’s running out

“RITUALS”
Hiding helplessness
in the luxury of prayers
he raises a wall
a babel of deception
through cocktail of drug and desire
meanders through dream-
miracles and wakes up to
unheard alarm
each morning repeats rituals
ageing time is ashamed of

“SAINTS’ BLASPHEMY”

I’ve lived so many deaths
now I fear living

there’s so much ruin
inside and around

no tattoos on breasts hide
the rusty cauldrons

none hear the raging fire
voices multiply

the darkness of earth seems
beyond verbal face

sun is stopped in temples
stones explode in hands

it’s vain to dream a new
picture of the world

the viewless shapes of gods
eternal twilight

it’s no use flying so high
the sky seems shattered

the city is haloed
in saints’ blasphemy

Authors/Artists Bios

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Current issue:
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June 2011
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EzineArticles.com/expert

2011-11-22T01:15:00.000-08:00

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2011-11-22T01:13:00.001-08:00

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2011-11-22T01:12:00.003-08:00

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2011-11-22T01:11:00.001-08:00

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Keki N. Daruwalla: The POET

2011-10-28T23:00:00.001-07:00

BOOK REVIEW: Professor R.K.Singh

KEKI N. DARUWALLA: THE POET AND NOVELIST by ASHA VISWAS. New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 2011. 173 pp., Rs. 500/-, ISBN 978-81-909771-3-5

Keki N. Daruwalla, who has been writing for over four decades now, is a leading name in Indian English poetry today (p 31). The uniqueness of his verses has been recognized by critics and admirers everywhere. There have been several books on his poetry, both original and edited, discussing imagery, diction, design, and viewpoint, but the latest one by Asha Viswas, dedicated to her students, should be very useful to students and teachers alike.

Professor Viswas, herself a good poet with three volumes of poetry to her credit, treats Daruwalla on the same pedestal as Nissim Ezekiel and Jayanta Mahapatra, and finds him a more representative voice than Jayanta Mahapatra and others. I fully agree with her.

Asha considers all the nine volumes of poetry and one novel by Keki and appreciates the variety he demonstrates both in form and content (p 34). She too discovers that Keki writes with control over emotions and effectively uses techniques such as word play, irony and satire (pp 75-76). She reflects on the poet’s large thematic canvas which inheres his personal experiences as also his preoccupation with the often contradictory realities of Indian life, diverse cultural, historic and mythic landscape, and existential realities. To quote Bruce King, Keki Daruwalla writes tough poetry with awareness of the “moral ambiguities and unresolvable conflicts of the human condition.”

Professsor Viswas’s introductory chapter seeks to define and highlight modernity and Indianness of Keki, besides his “depth of feeling, economy of language, and originality of insight” (cf pp 13-17) that confers on him “a central place in modern Indian English poetry.”

In the second chapter, ‘Moorings’, she scrutinizes the poet’s personal life vis-à-vis the growth of his poetic career from 1960s. She draws on her personal interview with the poet to develop the chapter besides reviewing the reviews of all his collections, two books of short stories, one novel, and one anthology, Two Decades of Indian Poetry: 1960-80. She underlines the poet’s global perspective, experiences and interests.
In the third chapter, ‘Treatment of Myth in Keki’s Early Poetry,’ she refers to his mythical poems (five in Under Orion, four in Apparition in April, thirteen in Crossing of Rivers) to demonstrate the poet’s searching mind, mythopoeic attitude, and eclectic vision. Professor Viswas also uses the techniques of stylistic analysis to interpret some of the early poems of Keki.

The fourth chapter seeks to highlight the poet’s modernity, realism, non-moral approach, existential concerns, lack of faith in the system, and avoidance of “stock response” and “abstract notion”. She observes: “His satire and his iconoclastic approach invigorate his subject matter as does the speed of his verse and masculine vigour.” (p 76)

The poet-critic’s discussion on the poems in Landscape (ch. 5) aims at demonstrating Keki’s “maturity of vision” that transmutes the “external world into internal consciousness” (p 78) and helps him attain inner peace (p 81). Asha Viswas finds in the collection a “perfect harmony between impression and expression” a la Sanskrit poets (p 90).

The sixth chapter is a critique of A Summer of Tigers which offers instances of passion and irony (pp 94-98). With her skills in stylistic analysis, Asha Viswas tries to highlight the poet’s “exploration and experimentation” (pp 95, 104) and his sensitivity for “speech rhythms and their syntactic and lexical features” (pp 98, 114) on the one hand, and his love for mythology and “racial history” (pp 99, 102, 111) and his criticism of Pablo Neruda (pp 110-11), on the other. As she notes: “His best poetry is about the mountains, high pastures, seas and rivers. It is his rootedness to the ritual scene that gives Keki a shot in the poetic vein.” (p 112)

The seventh chapter deals with Night River, a “global work” (p 116). While the poet’s search for permanence in Landscapes brings him to the world of nature, in Night River he “changes his route from nature to human imagination” (p 115). Here Asha Viswas finds Keki Orpheus-like and descending into “the darker depths of what we call the subconscious and unconscious.” She seems right as Daruwalla himself admits that here he has tried to dive into the “depths of consciousness and solitude” (p 117) which is, in fact, “a defence against time, decay, and even death” (p 127). She also discusses some of his dream-poems (pp 118-121) and island-poems (pp 125-26) in the volume.

The eighth chapter concerns Keki’s ninth collection, The Map Maker, recording his voyage “both within and without.” Here one finds instances of the “subjective and physical, individual and universal merging into … (an) integrated consciousness” (p 128). Asha praises his craftsmanship in melding history, peoples, nature, religion, biography, and vision into “intense reflection” and poetry “that speaks out of the still centre of the being, the narrative and the dramatic voice” (p 159). Her analytical comments on pp 140-158 should help every serious student follow the poetry of Daruwalla in the right spirit.

The last chapter discusses Daruwalla’s historical novel For Pepper and Christ (2009) which “presents a dialectical discourse of clashing interests in the backdrop of trade and religion (p 161).

The bibliography at the end testifies to the years of labour Professor Viswas has put in to write the book, keeping in mind the needs of students both at the Honours and Postgraduate level, and researchers and teachers interested in Indian English writing. It is a positive contribution from a poet-professor who views Keki N. Daruwalla with critical empathy and imagination.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Professor R.K. Singh, Head, Dept of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad 826004, Jharkhand

INVITATION

2011-08-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

One may like to click the following to read my poem 'Invitation' published on Quotepoems. com

While we were talking about
love, marriage and migraine
she kept fiddling with

her reticule- opening
putting her pen in and out
and shutting again

R.K. Singh

http://www.quotepoems.com/marriagepoem106/

Anna Hazare's Movement

2011-08-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

Politicians survive on division rather than unity. There is nothing new about it. Corruption is a systemic disease and it cannot be treated in one go with JanLokpal or the UPA Lokpal. The MPs with their vested interests will prefer to disrupt the proceedings every day rather than cleaning themselves and becoming honest and helpful to the people who elect them. The movement for Lokpal is sheer politics of convenience just as bureaucracy has been the breeder and promoter of corruption and disturbance in every part of the country. It is not as simple as it looks.
Let's not look for another JP's movement to make the common man further victimised in the name of Democracy and Lokpal.

--R.K.Singh

MY VIEWS ON POETRY

2011-06-26T21:34:00.001-07:00

Life is too real to be believed, yet we must keep dreaming and try to live with a resonance of what we think while we touch various levels of reality—political, social, personal, or spiritual—and be ourselves.

Genuine poetry happens as an event to be truthful, clear, courageous, and honest to oneself; to be open about things one often tries to conceal. Poetry provides an opportunity for expressing ones intimate moments with the same passion as while talking about the interwoven outer realities.

My experience convinces me that we are not limited by what we are, but we are limited by what we are not. Poetry becomes a means to overcome this limitation, and thus, allows us not only to know ourselves but also to expand on what we are. This means we should remain open to healthy revisions that we can make to our way of thinking, and incorporate new perspectives into our outlook. In other words, we should not let our own rigidity destroy our potential, but rather we should evince a forward-looking, tolerant, and open mindset if we wish to create future.

I don’t know if my poetry fits in what I think at the moment but poetry does help us traverse the boundaries of hesitation to see the joy of fulfillment.

--R.K. SINGH

POEMS FROM SARASVATI, Issue 015, March/April 2011

2011-05-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

The journal is available from: Indigo Dreams, 132, Hinckley Road, Stoney Stanton, Leicestershire LE9 4LN, UK

Best of 2010

2011-04-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

I am glad Isamu Hashimoto included one of my haiku in his Best of 2010 list from the daily Haiku in English column published in The Mainichi Daily News.

Wiping his face
under the umbrella
an old man with books

The haiku appeared on 09 December 2010.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/haiku/etc/archive/selection2010.html

My Poem in New Mirage Journal, Spring 2011

2011-03-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

New Mirage Journal

Published on http://newmiragejournal.com/nmj_contributors_spring_2011/ram_krishna_singh

A New Book on R.K.Singh's Poetry

2011-03-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

The photo on the book's cover is provided by Ms Winny Singh.

Contents :

Preface V
List of Contributors VII
Introduction 1

1. Journey of Beauty: Nature and Woman in
the Poetry of R.K. Singh
— P. C. K. Prem 9

2. The Poetics of R. K. Singh
— Jindagi Kumari & Rajni Singh 34

3. “I seek freedom from myself”: Existential
Restlessness in R.K. Singh’s Sexless Solitude
and Other Poems
— Yana Atanasova Rowland 46

4. A Stylistic Interpretation of R. K. Singh’s
Poem ‘Sexless Solitude’
— G.D. Barche 64

5. R. K. Singh’s ‘Karmic Credit’: A Study in Text
— D. C. Chambial 73

6. Philosophy as Figure?: A Study of the Poetry
of R. K. Singh
— Mahendra Singh 79

7. “Sanjaya” and “Dhrutrashtra”

Reconstructed in
the Capsule Poems of R. K. Singh
— G.D. Barche 101

8. “Living in uncertainties /it’s life in death”:
Death Motif in R.K. Singh’s Poetry
— Rajni Singh 109

9. Contemporary Social Issues/Anxieties in the
Poetry of R. K. Singh
— P. C .K. Prem 117

10. Profession and Performance: R. K. Singh’s
Sexless Solitude and Other Poems - A Study
— V. V. B. Rama Rao 128

11. Erotic Consciousness in R.K. Singh’s Poetry:
Depiction of Feminine Enamouredness
— Jindagi Kumari 137

12. Mirroring the Contemporary Society and Culture:
The Poetry of R.K. Singh and P. Raja
— Jayshree Goswami & Md. Mojibur Rahman 143

13. The Asexuality of Sex: A Study of Sex Expressions
in R.K. Singh’s Poetry
— Raghuvanshmani Tripathi 156

14. Treatment of Myths in the Poetry of Shiv K. Kumar
and R. K. Singh: A Comparative Study
— Jindagi Kumari & Rajni Singh 165

15. Major Themes in R. K. Singh’s Sexless Solitude
and Other Poems
— Ram Sharma 176

16. Haiku in English, Indian English Haiku and
R. K. Singh
— Rajni Singh 180

17. Form and Flow of R. K. Singh’s Tanka and
Haiku in The River Returns
— Asha Viswas 188

18. Snapshots of Life in The River Returns
— Patricia Prime 197

19. Haiku and R. K. Singh: A Critical Analysis of
Peddling Dream
— K. V. Dominic 202

20. Flashes from Flesh in R. K. Singh’s The River
Returns
— Sudhir K. Arora 214

21. The Magnetism of the Measured Syllables:
R.K. Singh’s Haiku and Tanka Sequences
— Rajni Singh 227

Publications of R.K.Singh 234

The book should help interested scholars and researchers to explore R.K.Singh's poetry, including haiku and tanka, more seriously and deeply.

# # #

R.K.SINGH: Indian English Poet: Editor's choice

2011-03-10T02:05:00.000-08:00

R.K.SINGH: Indian English Poet: Editor's choice

http://blogjunta.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116:editors-choice-10th-mar-2011&catid=29:editorschoicecontests&Itemid=133#jacommentid:416

Editor's choice

2011-03-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

"RK Singh is an English language Professor teaching English language Skills. After reading his poetry on his blog we saw a glimpse of his expertise. Short and crisp but conveys a lot more than a 1000 word essay."

http://blogjunta.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=116:editors-choice-10th-mar-2011&catid=29:editorschoicecontests&Itemid=133#jacommentid:416

A Poem published in THE WORLD POETS QUARTERLY, VOL. NO. 60, November 8, 2010

2011-01-21T03:01:00.000-08:00

From Haiku Reality, December 2010

2010-12-24T12:08:00.000-08:00

Selected Haiku (Izabrani haikui)

English Editor: an'ya

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BEST HAIKU OF THE ISSUE

R.K.SINGH, India (Indija)

Leaves fall
wearing more layers--
flu season

Opada lišće
Na meni višeslojna odeća –
sezona gripa
tr. SV

Haiku in Mainichi Daily News

2010-12-09T20:37:00.000-08:00

Daily Haiku Selection

Dec. 9, 2010

Wiping his face
under the umbrella
an old man with books
--
Ram Krishna Singh (Dhanbad, India)

Published in Mainchi Daily News, December 9, 2010

SOME POEMS TRANSLATED INTO CHINESE

2010-12-01T02:29:00.000-08:00

From The World Poets Quarterly, Vol. 53, February 8, 2009 and August 8, 2010

From CHAIRMAN POETICS, Taiwan

SOME ESSAYS PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH/CHINESE

2010-12-01T02:19:00.000-08:00

From THE WOLD POETS QUARTERLY, VOL. 52, November 8, 2008

From THE WOLD POETS QUARTERLY, Vol. 58, May 8, 2010

From THE WORLD POETS QUATERLY, Voil. 54, May 8, 2009

SOME POEMS TRANSLATED INTO HINDI by Raghuvansh Mani Tripathi

2010-11-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

आर. के. सिंह की कुछ अंग्रेजी कविताओं के अनुवाद

1.

वह पागल घोषित है
पाॅंव बॅंधे हैं उसके
गली में सरकती है
वह आगे पीछे

नंगी भूखी वह
ठिठुरती है दिसम्बर में
नाली के पास सिकुड़ी

फुटपाथियों की उपेक्षिता
कागज, लकड़ी और चीथड़ों से
आग जलाने की कोशिश है

पुल के नीचे चाय की चुस्कियाॅं लेते
मैं राजघाट की घंटियाॅं सुनता हूॅं
तीर्थयात्री ट्रेन पकड़ने की जल्दी में हैं।

2.

दो सूखे वृक्षों के बीच अनन्त सौंदर्य सी खड़ी
दुपहरी में गुजरतेे मछुवारों को देखती
उसकी आॅंखें भी तो मछलियाॅं हैं
पर परवाह किसे है उनकी
गिरकर शांत होती हैं फड़फड़ाती पत्तियाॅं
लपटों के शांत होने पर देखती है
टीलों के उच्चावच पर अपनी टूटी चूड़ियाॅं
और एक बिलखता गुलाब सफेद साड़ी में
छिपा लेती है वह

3.

चेहरे पर जर्द पर्त
राख में तलाशती अंगुलियाॅं
पिछवाड़े बागान के करीब ही
बिनती हैं जले हुए कोयले
कल का खाना बनाने के लिए

4.

ग्ंगा यमुना का संगम
एक समलैंगिक मिलाप है
सुन्दर परन्तु बंजर

मेरे मित्र को पता है
स्वर्ग का रास्ता
इन सर्पीली नदियों से होकर नहीं जाता

5.

सूरज के फैलते मकड़जाली चक्र मेरे
मेरे अस्तित्व और चीजों को धुंधलाते हैं
सुबह से शाम तक मेरे चारो तरफ
मिथक स्वयं को दोहराता है

मेरे अंदर की उभरती रोशनी
कागजी भगवान का आभामण्डल
चारो तरफ सभी कुछ आन्दोलित करती
जीवन और मृत्यु का समीकरण है

इस वक्त का सशंकित सन्नाटा
षडयन्त्र है एक गंभीर दृश्य को आभामण्डित करने का
भावनाओं को प्रतिबिम्बित करने में
अंधभावनाओं और लघुदृष्टियों की पूर्णता में

6.

यह नहीं कि कुछ पैसे मैं
रिक्शे पर खर्च नहीं कर सकता
नहीं खरीद सकता कार या स्कूटर
मैं जुड़ा रहा चाहता हूॅं
धरती और धूल से
अपने भार के साथ
अकेले चलना चाहता हूॅं
मेरे कन्धे पर सब्जियाॅं और सामान
चालीस साल पहले जैसी लटकी हैं
सोचता हूॅं बिना किसी शर्म के
स्वाभिमान और पसीने के साथ
दूरियाॅं तय कर सकता हूॅं
और कह सकता हूॅं खुद से
देखो मैं उनसे जुदा हूॅं

पैसे से होने दो उनका मूल्यांकन
जिसको वे अपनी टांॅगों के बीच या सपनोें में
छिपाकर रखते हैं
मुझे मेरे कामों से जाना जाय
मेरी मेहनत से जिसने किसी का अपकार नहीं किया
और कल जब मैं इतना बूढ़ा हो जाऊ
कि खड़ा न रह सकूॅं अपने पैरो पर, चल न सकूॅं
तो याद करूॅंगा कि जमा कर रखे थे मैंने
अपने पैर जमीन पर
और उन सबको जाना था
जिन्होंने बेदिली से अपना हाथ बढ़ाया था

वे किसी को शाप न दें अगर
उनके गिरने पर ध्यान न दे कोई

7.

जब फूल सूख जाएॅंगे
शहद के लिए मण्डराती
मक्खियों को कौन जीवित रखेगा
या उन हाथों को महसूसेगा
जो नारंगी के बागों में लगे
छत्तों को संवारते हैं

वे तब मिलकर
अपने स्वर्णिम दिनों को
याद कर सकती हैं

या इस टोने को
खत्म करने के लिए
कोई राग गुनगुना सकती हैं

या जिस भी वजह से
धुवांसे सन्नाटे में
उनका छत्ता जला हो

लेकिन पता है मुझे अब
मधुमक्खियाॅं नहीं लौटेंगी
नग्न वृक्षों की ओर

8.

जाति बदलना संभव न था
उसने अपना धर्म बदल डाला
फिर भी वे न बदले
न ही बदली उनकी संकीर्ण दुनिया

भेड़िये, लोमड़ी और कौए
उस प्रबोधन की परेशानी को
न बदल सके आसमान के साथ
जो देवताओं का पर्दा है

पिंजरा अभी भी भागता फिरता है
एक पंछी की तलाश में
और वह सूरज की आशा में
अकेली लड़ाई लड़ता है

9.

मौन फुटपाथ है
ध्यानियों की शरणस्थली
दूधिया सन्नाटे में

गुजरती सुन्दरियाॅं
पानी में नग्न होतीं
सिकुड़ती चमड़ी

कार्तिक में गंगा पर
आदि ईश्वर हॅंसता है
उनकी नंगी पीठ के पीछे

घायल कर देने वाली शीत में
ऊॅं वासनाओं के लिए
सुविधाजनक है

और अश्वपति नहीं अब बस
दो श्वेत चन्द्रवृत्तों के पीछे
जेट से भागते लटके हैं वे

10.

इच्छाओं को त्याग दूॅं तो भी नहीं खत्म होता यह सब
दुःख का न होना निर्वाण की कुंजी नहीं

व्यतीत को प्रेम न करने और वासनाओं
और नये मानसिक भ्रमों और भयों के जंजाल में

अहसास की खुजली, बदलती गिरावट
अस्तित्व के द्वीप की धुॅंधलाती रौशनी में

जीवन बस जमता जाता, रुके तालाब की दुर्गन्ध
फिर भी खिलता है आशा का कमल

11.

मैने उपवास नहीं रखा
मेरे लिए नहीं है नौरोज़

न होली ही है
अब मैं हिन्दू नहीं रहा

बहुत पहले इसाइयों ने भी
मेरी आस्था और प्रेम पर संदेह किया था

मुस्लिम इतने कट्टर हैं कि
एक सेकुलर को अस्वीकार कर दें

अब मैं अकेला देखता हूॅं
रंगों की त्रासदी

मैं उत्सव मनाता हूॅं
भिन्नता और आत्मा की स्वतंत्रता का

पर वे मेरे जन्म पर सवाल उठाते हैं
और मुझे ढोंगी बताते हैं

12.

मैं यीशू तो नहीं
पर सूली पर चढ़ने की
पीड़ा समझता हूॅं

एक सामान्य आदमी की तरह
सब झेलता जो उन्होंने झेला था
वही जीवन जीता

कभी विनती करता और रोता
प्रेम के अभाव में भी
आगे अच्छे दिनों की आशा करता

घटती सामथ्र्य, असफलता
बोरियत और अनकिये अपराधों के
दोशारोपणों के साथ

मैं जीसस नहीं हूॅं
मगर मैं सूॅघ सकता हूॅं
हवा में जहर और धुॅंवा

मनुष्यता के लिए अनुभव करता हूॅं
उन्हीं की तरह सलीब ढोता
अपने स्वप्नों को पुनः जीता

मैं यीशू तो नहीं
पर सूली पर चढ़ने का
दर्द समझता हूॅं

13.

यह मकान ढह सकता है कभी भी
इसकी दीवारें फटी हैं
नींव पर दरारें खुली हैं
पर कोई परवाह नहीं करता

वे चुप्पी साधे रहते हैं
सतही चिप्पियों की सुरक्षा में
और धीरज रखने की बात करते हैं
स्वार्थ सिद्धि के लिए करते हैं छद्म

अपनी अधमता को रहस्यमय बनाते
विवेक और भविष्य की चिन्ता दबाते
चहारदीवारी के बीच मास्टरों की
चुप्पियाॅं खरीदते

14.

हम कहाॅं पहुॅंचेंगे आखिर
ताबूत में यात्रा करते

या इन्द्रधनुषी सिंहद्वार के परे
लंगर डालने की कल्पना करते

सुनहरी और चमकती राख
मरजीवों को फिर जीवित नहीं करेगी

मिथकों और कहानियों में खोये
हमे वापस लाना होगा

जीवन तत्वों का संतुलन
नये सूरज बनाने के लिए

और चन्द्रमाओं के लिए
गुफाओं को रौशन करेें

जो नये भविष्य की शुरुवात करें

15.

यदि दुनिया नहीं हुई
मेरी नौजवानी की सोच जैसी
तो मैं क्या करूॅं। मैं था
निर्भर अपने पिता पर

स्वनिर्मित मैं
धाराओं के विरुद्ध पढ़ न सका
आसमान और उसके मजबूत इलाकों को

गंगा की बालू पर बने निशान
इन्द्रधनुष की तरह धुॅंधला गये
समय की बरसात
पैरों में चुभती है

दाॅंत के खोड़र
और अंधत्व करते हैं आक्रान्त
और कामचिन्ताएॅं सताती हैं
निद्रा और स्वप्नहीन रातों को

मेरे गंजे होते सिर के गिरते बाल
उस हॅंसी को प्रतिबिम्बत करते हैं
जिन पर अब ध्यान नहीं देता

अब मैं नहीं करता
चालाक और अविश्वसनीय
मित्रों को बेपर्दा

अपने अस्तित्व और भविष्य
पर खीजता नहीं और
प्रभाव नहीं बना पाता

फिर भी सुनिश्चित है जब मैं विराम लूॅंगा
तो बहुत बुरा तो नहीं रहेगा
मेरी दृष्टि फिर भी रहेगी ठीक
ताजी हवा में साॅंस लेता रहूॅंगा

16.

अकेले में रहना
द्वीप बनाता है

घुलती मिलती परछाइयों को
पानी में देखना

पुनर्मिलन की आशा जगाता
तारों के टूटने पर

ज्वार की तरफ आॅंख मूदकर
नया झूठ बुनना है

17.

फौलादी बहाव के साथ
बहता हुआ पानी
पत्थर को भेदता है
उन्हें सितारों की शक्ल देता

सूरज और चाॅंद भी नहीं पा सकते
वैसा तीखापन
चट्टानों का विलाप
बदलता है नदी के गीत में

18.

क्या वे स्वयं को या अपनी सच्चाई को
देखते हैं अन्तर्दर्पण में

बहुत घृणा और क्रोध उपजाते
मनुष्यों और घरों को जलाते हैं

कुछ नहीं सीखते कभी मगर
साम्प्रदायिकता का पत्ता फेकते, अधिकारों के लिए

जो किसी ईश्वर ने नहीं दिया उन्हें। उनकी
अधम राजनीति सन्नाटे की विकृति है

अंग्रेजी से अनुवाद रघुवंशमणि

Raghuvanshmani is a poet, translator and critic writing in the Hindi language. He was born on 30 June 1964 at Lucknow. His father Acharya Ram Mani Tripathi was the Head Priest of Sanatan Dharm Temples Federation in Mauritius.

He passed his early days there and got his early education. Later his father returned to India and joined Shardula Sanskrit Vidyapeeth as a professor in Linguistics. Raghuvanshmani lived there and came to Faizabad, U.P. where his father died in the year 1972. He got rest of his education from this very place. He postgraduated in English literature and completed his research on W.B. Yeats under the supervision of Pt. Ram Kumar Tripathi. He taught at B.N.K.B. PG College, Ambedkarnagar from 1984 to 1988. At present he teaches at Shivharsha Kisan PG college, Basti, U.P.

As a critic Raghuvanshmani has published his articles in reputed Hindi literary magazines. He has mainly contributed his articles on contemporary Hindi literature and critical theory. His articles on secularism and communalism were widely read. He was among the writers who opposed communal violence during the regime of Bharatiya Janta Party in India. As a critic he is a liberal humanist with a Marxist bias.He has edited several booklets. For his critical contribution he was awarded the prestigious Dr Ramvilas Sharma Aalochana Samman for criticism. He is one of the major young voices in the arena of Hindi criticism.

In the Hindi world he is also known for his translation of some seminal essays related to critical theory. His book Samay Mein Hastakshep is a fine collection of such translated articles. His critical essays are published in the form of a book under the title Nirwachan[2007]. His poems have appeared in various magazines. Recently he has edited a book Roshani ki Awaaz [2009] centered on a lesser known poet of Nayi Kavita and Navgeet movement Pt. Prem Shankar Mishra.

R.K.SINGH

2010-11-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

My blog, R.K.SINGH, http://rksingh.blogspot.com, awarded TOP HAIKU POETRY BLOG by ONLINE MASTERSDEGREE PROGRAMS:
http://www.mastersdegreeonline.net/top-blogs/top-poetry-haiku/
Here is the Winner's Badge:

Online Masters Degree Programs

Basho Haiku Festival: My haiku

2010-10-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

From SARASVATI (U.K.), Vol. 012, September/October 2010

2010-10-21T04:21:00.000-07:00

Website: www.indigodreams.co.uk

Basho Haiku Festival 2010

2010-10-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

My haiku selected in the Basho Haiku Festival 2010:

Looking for shade
under a shapeless cloud
a ragpicker

（みだれ雲日陰を探しゐる屑屋）
以上22句
R. K. SINGH India

http://www.ict.ne.jp/~basho-bp/eigo10.html

SMOKE published in Sarasvati (UK)

2010-10-06T04:29:00.000-07:00

Smoke - R K Singh

I can't enter
the sky-high mind
of a crow or eagle

but I know
how it feels
in cold-wet air

I have lived
breathless winter
in the open

and no star woke up
to clean the smoke
I slowly became

The poem appears in Sarasvati(Leicestershire, UK) , Issue 12, September/October 2010.

http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/#/sarasvati/4536232482

Breaking the Silence: A Tribute to Sufferers of Alzheimer's and Their Caregivers

2010-09-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Despite striking achievements of science and technology, the problems of human life and destiny have not ended, nor have the solutions been seriously affected by scientific knowledge. Alzheimer’s disease, which currently affects about 10% of people over 65 years of age and 50% of those over 85 years of age, has no cure. As many as 5.3 million Americans are now living with the devastating disease. According to a study, unless new treatments are developed to decrease the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease, the number of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease in the USA may rise to 14 million by the end of the year 2050.

Read against this background, Frances Kakugawa’s book, a mix of poetry, story and practical guide, is a recognition of the services rendered by professional and voluntary organizations that seek to minimize the pangs of Alzheimer’s sufferers as well as the sufferings of their near and dear ones. It pays tribute to caregivers who have been untiringly working for creation of a world without dementia, stroke, or cancer just as it seeks to help them endure the innumerable crises of caregiving.

Breaking the Silence: A Caregiver’s Voice merges Frances Kakugawa and her poet-colleagues’ varied experiences with a broad human perspective, engaging both mind and heart. The caregivers seek to share their compassionate spirit with a sense of gratitude to all those who help the victims of Alzheimer’s disease negotiate their mentally vacant existence. They are not only aware of the sufferers’ substantial loss of brain cells or progressive decline in their ability to think, remember, reason, and imagine, or their language problems and unpredictable behavior, confusion, or loss of sensory processing, but they also know well how the Alzheimer’s victims suffer a sort of living death, becoming a mere body stripped of its humanity. They have been witness to caregiving family members of increasingly confused and helpless sufferers themselves often becoming the disease’s exasperated and exhausted victims:

“ Is she the mom who nurtured me?
Is it the dementia playing havoc with my mind?
Or is this really my mom? I don’t know.”
(‘More Glimpses of a Daughter and Mother’)

and

“I am torn between two needy factions.
Mom unaware, daughter pushing all boundaries
Both out of control.”
(‘The Sandwich’)

For Frances Kakugawa, caregiving is a mission even as the memory and image of her Alzheimer’s struck mother persists in her life as a “loud presence”. She gives voice to many caregivers who are ever worried about their loved ones not even able to carry out the simplest tasks and/or are completely dependent on others for their care. She expresses the very haunting fear of death:

“Is she breathing? Is she alive?
Is she finally gone, freeing me once again?
I continue my sentinel watch.”
(‘Unspoken Mornings’)

Frances not only articulates their fear but also learns to negotiate it by boldly facing it as part of life. In fact, she turns the metaphor of death as integral to life, be it in the form of “an ache of emptiness”, “unfulfilled dreams”, or “unlived moments”. In her deeper silences, she explores the very meaning of life:

“A second gust of wind
Lifts another fistful of ashes.
Be still and listen.”
(‘Song of the Wind’)

It is hearing the inner silence, which is something meditative, Biblical, and spiritual. It is awaking to the self, the Holy Spirit, the Divine himself. When the soul peaks into silence, human becomes divine. She sounds earnest and exceptional, seeking harmony with the highest ideals, irrespective of chaotic personal experiences. As Setsuko Yoshida says in ‘Can I?’ :

“Poems by Frances this morning
Reveal the feelings of ‘divine’
In caregiving.”

In fact, as women poets, Frances Kakugawa and her caregiver colleagues (Elaine Okazaki, Linda McCall Nagata, Eugene Mitchell, and others) present a feminine and yet very humane perspective to the dementia-related illnesses. Jason Y. Kimura, Rod Masumoto, and Red Slider, though male poets, demonstrate the ‘Prakriti’ or ‘Yin’ aspects in rhythm with other contributing caregivers’ sensibility. They variously turn the Alzheimer’s into a metaphor for the loss of language, the loss of memory, and the loss of voice. Their poetry, often brief and personal, and rich and insightful, becomes a means to communicate the sufferers’ loss of feeling, love, dignity, honor, name, and relationship; in short, their isolation, or threat to living itself:

“All my life I have lived
With crayons in one hand,
Filling in spaces,
Spaces left by departed lovers, family, friends,
Leaving me crayons smashed against walls
Creating more grief than art.”
(‘Empty Spaces’)

They also use the metaphor for challenge to survive, to exist, without fears and anxieties:

“I am woman,
Suppressed,
Dying.”
(‘Nissei Woman’)

and

“I am not merely heaven, man and earth
Rooted by cultural hands.
Sift those sands. Yes!
I am free!
I am tossed into the winds.
I shed my kimonos.
I spread my legs.
I am free.”
(‘Lesson #3’)

and

“When I am 88
I will still be woman,
Yes!”
(‘’When I am 88’)

and

“I am still here
Help me remain a human being
In this shell of a woman I have become.
In my world of silence, I am still here.
Oh, I am still here.”
(‘Emily Dickinson, I am Somebody’)

They convert the Alzheimer’s into a search for reprogramming the mind, the thought, and the attitude to overcome the irreversible suffering and helplessness. As Frances very feelingly asserts: it is the search for

“…the same umbilical cord
That once set me free
Now pulls and tugs me back
To where I had begun.
There must be hidden
Somewhere a gift very divine
In this journey back.”
(‘Mother Into Child, Child Into Mother’)

They are true to themselves as they voice their search for the whole. With an empathetic awareness, they disclose their innate goodness, trust, and compassion to make a “symphony of truth.” At the core of their musing lies a desire to integrate themselves, to live in time as well as in eternity:

“What other path is there
Except the divine
Where love, kindness, compassion,
Help me discover little pieces of myself
That make me smile
Bring me such quiet joy
At the end of each day.”
(‘Bless the Divine’)

They reveal the working of the primal impulses of the human soul which rises above the differences of race and of geographical position. In short, they give vent to the thought of all people in all lands.

As poet-caregivers they cope with their tensions, fears and anxieties through introspection, and accommodate their inner and outer conflicts, sufferings and celebrations through imaginative insight. They mirror the broad social or familial conditions as well as their own personal state with perceptions that are often different from those of the male poets (or male caregivers). Their quest is for real reality vis-à-vis degeneration, privation, insecurity, helplessness, anonymity, and death. They search for life and live with awareness of what lies beneath the skin of things around, the psycho-spiritual strains, the moral dilemmas, the betrayals, and the paradoxes:

“Why do you say I am sacrificing
Good years of my life
For caring for my mother,
When it shouldn’t be a secret
That I am really living
In a way I have never lived before?
…
No, this is not sacrifice.
It is just reality.
I am really living
In a way I have never lived before.
I am living love.”
(‘What I Know’)

Against the complexities of experiences, they demonstrate a sense of values such as love, faith, truth, tolerance, patience, peace, charity, harmony, humility, and healthy relationships. They tend to think intuitively and/or turn personal, inward, spiritward, or Godward, without indulging in intellectual abstraction. They write with poetic sensibility. Their metaphors and images reflect their inner landscape as much as their responses to what they observe or experience externally. They are often reticent and honest in their verbal expression, and their inner vibrations touch or elevate the readers’ senses. As they create discourse of themselves as caregivers, they also sound committed to their home, family, children, motherhood, and neighborhood, often voicing their own vision and understanding which cuts across cultures and regions.

They seek to transcend their body or feminity and respect the woman in themselves, even if affected by the Alzheimer’s environment. They turn inside out and reveal what is personal yet universal in their different roles as mother, wife, daughter, and feel the agony of the spirit while trying to know “Who I am?”, or “How I should live, who I should be”, or “What am I looking for? Why did I come?”

As they look back or reflect their present, they also voice the need for strong sense of togetherness vis-à-vis their inner conflicts, spiritual hunger, loneliness, or dependence. They sound challenging the Alzheimer’s itself:

“You could not rob us, though we forgot.
You could not erase us, though we could not write.
You could not silence, though we could not speak.
The stories, the laughter, the moments that passed
Into their keep, you could not steal
Into a night of silence.”
(‘Hey Alzheimer’s’)

As they fill one with hope for ageing with grace and dignity despite the challenges of loss, they create an alternative motive and impulse for social action at a very personal level:

“Through this deepest darkened night
I will hold the light
To take away all your fears.
Just know I will always be near.”
(‘To My Mother’)

There is an urge for changing the situation for themselves, or for being in peace with oneself. The poets and caregivers of Breaking the Silence seek to create a new culture as they rationalize how we ought to live in future.

Work Cited

Kakugawa, Frances H. Breaking the Silence: A Caregiver’s Voice. Nevada City, California: Willow Valley Press, 2010. Print. (All references are from this book).

--Dr. R.K. Singh
Professor of English and Head
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences
Indian School of Mines
DHANBAD 826004, India
__________________________________________________________________________________

Comments on my article by Red Slider, a contributor to the book. His letter was received by email on April 23, 2011:

Professor Singh,

Thank you for your article, on Frances Kakugawa's recent book "Breaking the Silence - A Caregiver's Voice". The need for increasing attention and awareness about Alzheimer's is of great importance, not only in advancing our attempt to understand and ultimately cure this cruelest of all diseases, but in bringing the world a little closer in understanding the universality of the problem and that we all share in a common understanding about the dignity of life and its passing. Your article on Ms. Kakugawa's book amplifies the many voices who speak in that cause and you are to be thanked for your contribution in bring us all a little closer together

I should mention that my name was spelled wrong in the article. The correct spelling is 'Red Slider' rather than 'Red Silver.' Perhaps you can see to that being corrected in any future reprints or publications?

Finally, perhaps my thoughts on one brief moment in the article might be useful.? I don't intend them to be critical or in any way distract from the overall theme of your discussion. Just a small comment that might lead to further insight. It regards the following paragraph:

In fact, as women poets, Frances Kakugawa and her caregiver colleagues (Elaine Okazaki, Linda McCall Nagata, Eugene Mitchell, and others) present a feminine and yet very humane perspective to the dementia-related illnesses. Jason Y. Kimura, Rod Masumoto, and Red Silver, though male poets, demonstrate the ‘Prakriti’ or ‘Yin’ aspects in rhythm with other contributing caregivers’ sensibility. They variously turn the Alzheimer’s into a metaphor for the loss of language, the loss of memory, and the loss of voice. Their poetry, often brief and personal, and rich and insightful, becomes a means to communicate the sufferers’ loss of feeling, love, dignity, honor, name, and relationship; in short, their isolation, or threat to living itself:

I noticed what I am sure was the unintentional contrast drawn in the phrase, "feminine and yet very humane perspective". The appearance of "yet" ('though', 'although; 'in contrast to') would strike an American reader as a little strange, employing the subordinate conjunctive to describe a contrast between the "feminine perspective" and "the humane" perspective. Though the distinction is arguable, most feminist writers might assert that the "feminine perspective" is, by nature and nurture, a humane perspective .

That aside, the next sentence does seem to suggest gender differences in cargegiving sensibilities. It is nuanced into the remark, "[These individuals,] though male poets, demonstrate the ‘Prakriti’ or ‘Yin’ aspects in rhythm with other contributing caregivers’ sensibility." I would be reluctant to assign these characteristics (Prakriti, Yin) using the phrase "though male", as if it was uncharacteristic of males or differenced from their nature to manifest such qualities. After fifteen years of caregiving and hundreds of personal encounters with other caregivers, I conclude that this difference is a misconception made part of expectation and part of projection. A construction which attaches more to the observer than the subject. As you rightly infer, male caregivers demonstrate these qualities; but not, I think, despite the fact they are males. A subtle distinction, but perhaps important when it comes to discussing the real gender differences that caregivers do encounter in practice. One, for example, is the possession of linguistic codes that are differently assigned to males and females in a society. In the States, the large majority of intermediate professionals a caregiver is likely to engage for assistance and resources are female. It took me some time to realize that I needed to learn and use some of the female language codes that women are quite accustomed to using if I were to have equal access to important resources. Something as simple as saying "I have family obligations" would get me much further than itemizing a set of important priorities that males might typically use to make some scheduling arrangement. Gender may have important implications in matters such as deciding which community may need instruction about properly adjusting a diaper and which may be more confused about how to assemble a potty chair. It seems to me, therefore, that discussions of inborn characteristics of nurture and nature (Yin, Prakriti) as gender assignments may only serve to mask the actual level on which these things become relevant to caregiving. It was nice of you to suggest that Mr. Kimura, Masumoto and myself exhibited these 'yin' and 'Prakriti' qualities as well. But I think it beside the main point of your thesis, the common humanity of caregiving and how that instructs us about ourselves as well as those we care for.

Again, this is not at all to detract from your excellent article. Only to offer some small contribution by way of further conversation. I hope it serves that purpose in some small way.

With Appreciation,

Red Slider
www.holopoet.com
redslider@holopoet.com

Poem featured on Asia Writes

2010-08-31T05:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.asiawrites.org/2010/08/featured-poem-revelations-by-rk-singh.html

REVELATIONS

Widening cracks leaking roofs
choked drains in the courtyard
water logging and myriad
such small things make rains a pain

there’s no romance in rainbow
I can’t shape colours of morning
morning shapes my colour:

I’m the victim of my views
that shape my head each day
realities and yoga conspire

drinks and pills deride from clothesline
flowers and trees speak in grey
compost of years oozes no wisdom

whatever the poetry it stinks
idols on the beasts and cattle
overload the carriage
I can’t deliver the burden

prostrate and worship
touch the feet foolishness
make me small frustrate
sitting in the dust degrade

it’s long fog with blurred sight
virtually blind no seer
no revelations

--R.K.Singh

Riza Laha translates some of my poems into Albanian

2010-08-30T02:24:00.000-07:00

That autumn tree

from this window

looks like a young woman

naked

exciting birds

to come

kiss and play

tomorrow

when spring will return

she will be too lovely

to touch

Kjo pemw vjeshte

qwnga kjo dritare

duket si njw grua e re

lakuriq

qw eksiton zogjtw

tw vijnw

tw puthen, tw luajnw

neswr

kur tw thehet pranvera

ajo do tw jetw po kaq e afrueshme

pwr ta prekur

3

I feel her hyaline influx

in my deep love leaps

from the soul with subtle glows

her breath runs through my veins:

this vassal of the flesh blushes

as I drink the infinite in her

E ndjej zbaticwn qelqore tw saj

nw kwrcimet e thella tw dashurisw

4

I clasp your hands

and feel the blood

running savagely

through your arteries

in tulip silence

Unw shtwrngoj duart tuaja

dhe ndjej gjakun

qw tw rend egwrsisht

nwpwr arteriet

pwr t’u strukur

nw turliapnin e heshtjes

5

Is it the perfume

or your body

that makes the night

drunken?

your lush lips

ripple fire

in beautiful silence

your fragrance radiates

flowers and water

can I seek

my voice

in your breasts?

Wshtw parfumi

A trupi jot

Qw e ka bwrw natwn

Tw pirw?

Buzwt e tuaja tw harlisura

Gurgullojnw zjarr

Nw heshtjen e mrekullueshme

Aroma jote rrezaton

Lule dhe ujra

A mund ta kwrkoj

Zwrin tim

Mes cicave tuaja?

6

Blind

I see her beauty

deaf

I hear her melody

ignorant

I partake of her knowledge

poor

I share her wealth

in-drawn

her vision reigns my heart

yet the darkness of dust

veils my being

I don’t understand

the hidden words

though I sit

under her tree of love

she’s still away from me

just one pace

if I could take

I enter

the pavilion of eternity

edhe i verbwr

ia shikoj hijeshinw

edhe i shurdhwr

ia ndjej melodinw

injorant

ja, marr sa mund nga dijet e saja

i varfwr

e ndaj çfar kam me tw

sa herw shikoj piktura

vizioni i saj mw pushton zemrwn

tani errwsira e pluhurit

mbulon si njw vel qwnien time

unw nuk arrij t’i kuptoj dot

fjalwt e fshehta

derisa rri

nwn pemwn e saj tw dashurisw

Ajo - swrish larg meje

wshtw tamam atje

nwse do ta mbwrrij ndonjwherw

do tw hyja nw

tw pwrjetwsisw

shatorre.

7

The best poetry

is a woman

concrete, personal, delightful

greater than all

poezia mw e bukur

wshtw njw grua:

konkrete, personale, e hirwshme

dhe mw e madhja nga tw gjitha.

8

What is

this light

without rays

shining

in your eyes?

Çfar wshtw

kjo dritw

pa rreze

qw ndrin

nw sytw tuaj?

-------

mother's theresa poem

1

NWNW

E ndjej prurjen twnde qelqore

nw kwrcimet e mia misterioze tw dashurisw

qwnga shpirti me qw digjet pa u ndjerw

fryma e saj rend mes venave tw mia:

Ky vasal i tw skuqurws

ndwrsa unw pi pafundwsinw te ajo

2

KUR AJO SHFAQET ME NGJYRA TW NDEZURA

Dashuria wshtw burim

qw shpwrndahet nga trupi i saj

gjithandej me thirrje alegorike

duke ndriçuar vetveten

dhe mua

qw shkrihem i twri nw njw

sa mw shfaqet e me ngjyra tw ndezura

Ajo.

3

AROMA E SAJ E SHENJTW

Ndwrsa ulem tw shplodhem

nw pwr rrudhat e tw sajws

fytyrw

unw ndjej

tw skuqurwn e saj

qw flakwron nw sytw e mi

aroma e saj e shwnjtw

mw digjet pwrbrwnda;

njw detw me paqe

shumwfishohet

nw mwndjen time.

4

NW THELLWSIRAT E QWNIES SIME

Nw çdo minut

dhoma ime

ka prezencwn e saj;

unw e ndjej duke folur atw

nwpwr

tw qetwsisw

thellwsirat e mia.

5

ASNJW PWRGJIGJE, ASKUND

Unw nuk mund ta gjej atw

as nga trupi, as nga lwkura, as nga tw pwrkulurit e saj:

Parfumet gwnjejnw

sikurse bwjnw

tingujt e hymneve tw shnwjtw

nwpwr shpresa

qw nuk marrin pwrgjigje

kurr....

-- Ram Krishna Singh

Indi

Shqipwruar nga Riza Lahi

1

MOTHER

I feel her hyaline influx

in my deep love leaps

from the soul with subtle glows

her breath runs through my veins:

this vassal of the flesh blushes

as I drink the infinite in her

2

HER GLOWING PRESENCE

Love is efflux

from her body spreading

all roound the parabolic hue

enlightens the self

my being I merge

in her glowing presence

3

HER HOLY SCENT

As I repose

in the wrinkles

of her face

I feel her crimson

glow in my eyes

her holy scent

grows inside

a sea of peace

multiplies

in the mind

4

IN MY DEEP

The room has her

presence every minute

I feel she speaks

in my deep

silently

5

THERE'S NO ANSWER

I can't know her

fro the body, skin, or curve:

the perfume cheats

like the scred hymns chanted

in hope, and there's no answer

-- Ram Krishna Singh

Indi

Shqipwruar nga Riza Lahi

Ram Krishna Singh ka lindur më 31 dhjetor 1950 në Varanasi, Indi dhe atje është profesor universiteti , shef katedre, për shkencat sociale dhe humane. Jep Leksione për poezinë indiane në anglisht.Është recensent i 160 vëllimeve dhe autor i 36 librave të botuar. Është përkthyer në 20 gjuhë të huaja, si në frëngjisht, spanjisht, rumanisht, kinezçe, Siberisht, kroatisht, sllovenisht, japonisht, bullgarisht, gjemnisht, italisht, portugisht, greqisht, esperanto, në gjuhët tamil, penxhab, hindu dhe bangla.Profesor Ram Krishna Singh është antar i “UNESCO ALSED-LSP Netëork”;” All-India PEN”; “English Language Teachers’ Association of India”; “Ëorld Cultural Council Circle of Friends”, “International Ëriters and Artists Association”;“Ëorld Poetry Intercontinental” dhe “ Society for International Development”. I ka dedikuar një poezi edhe nënë Terezës.Është hera e parë që vjen në gjuhën shqipe dhe hera e dytë që vjen një cikël i tillë poetik nga India, pas përmbledhjes së të madhit Rabintronath Tagora

RIZA LAH

----------------

xxx

Kjo pemë vjeshte

qënga kjo dritare

duket si një grua e re

pa asnjë rrobë veshur

që eksiton zogjtë

të vijnë

të puthen, të luajnë

nesër

kur të thehet pranvera

ajo do të jetë po kaq e afrueshme

për ta prekur

xxx

Unë shtërngoj duart tuaja

dhe ndjej gjakun tënd

të rendë egërsisht

nëpër arteriet

për t’u strukur

në tuliapnin e heshtjes

xxx

Është parfumi

a trupi jot

që e ka bërë natën

të pirë?

Buzët e tuaja të harlisura

gurgullojnë zjarr

në heshtjen e mrekullueshme

Aroma jote rrezaton

lule dhe ujra

A mund ta kërkoj

zërin tim

mes cicave tuaja?

xxx

Edhe i verbër

ia shikoj hijeshinë

edhe i shurdhër

ia ndjej melodinë

injorant

ja, marr, sa mund nga dijet e saja

i varfër

e ndaj çfar kam me të

sa herë shikoj piktura

vizioni i saj më pushton zemrën

tani errësira e pluhurit

mbulon si një vel qënien time

unë nuk arrij t’i kuptoj dot

fjalët e fshehta

derisa rri

nën pemën e saj të dashurisë

Ajo - sërish larg meje

është tamam atje

nëse do ta mbërrij ndonjëherë

do të hyja

në të

përjetësisë

shatorre.

xxx

Poezia më e bukur

është një grua:

konkrete, personale, e hirëshme

dhe më e madhja nga të gjitha.

xxx

Çfar është

kjo dritë

pa rreze

që ndrin

në sytë tuaj?

xxx

Galiç nën diell

ajo po ndan

farët e bardha nga të verdhat

duke përshpejtuar mitrën e saj

e prap falënderon

që ishte gjallë

xxx

Në mënyrë misterioze

arrin t’i fshehë

të gjith pasionet e saja

duke vështruar drejt përpara

sikur nuk më ka vënë re .

xxx

Koha me shira

vazhdoi të gërryjë

guackën e vdekjes

pak nga pak

lanë pikturat

që kish fshehur fytyra

1

NËNË

Ky cikël që vjen më pas i kushtohet humansites shqiptare Nënë Tereza

E ndjej prurjen tënde qelqore

në kërcimet e mia misterioze të dashurisë

qënga shpirti me që digjet pa u ndjerë

fryma e saj rend mes venave të mia:

Ky vasal i të skuqurës

ndërsa unë pi pafundësinë te ajo

2

KUR AJO SHFAQET ME NGJYRA TË NDEZURA

Dashuria është burim

që shpërndahet nga trupi i saj

gjithandej me thirrje alegorike

duke ndriçuar vetveten

dhe mua

që shkrihem i tëri në një

sa më shfaqet e me ngjyra të ndezura

Ajo.

3

AROMA E SAJ E SHENJTË

Ndërsa ulem të shplodhem

në për rrudhat e të sajës

fytyrë

unë ndjej

të skuqurën e saj

që flakëron në sytë e mi

aroma e saj e shënjtë

më digjet përbrënda;

një detë me paqe

shumëfishohet

në mëndjen time.

4

NË THELLËSIRAT E QËNIES SIME

Në çdo minut

dhoma ime

ka prezencën e saj;

unë e ndjej duke folur atë

nëpër

të qetësisë

thellësirat e mia.

5

ASNJË PËRGJIGJE, ASKUND

Unë nuk mund ta gjej atë

as nga trupi, as nga lëkura, as nga të përkulurit e saj:

Parfumet gënjejnë

sikurse bëjnë

tingujt e hymneve të shnëjtë

nëpër shpresa

që nuk marrin përgjigje

kurr....

-- Ram Krishna Singh

Përzgjodhi dhe shqipëroi Riza Lahi

____________________________________________________________________________________

Riza writes in an email on Septer 29, 2010 to R.K.Singh and others:

Dear friends.
Coming from Italy, I could not find Any copy of “Oblisk” in all book shops of
Tirana (Albania), where I live. Maybe becouse of that nice poetic bounch
published in speaking edition of our cultural magasine. Let congratulate our
Indian friend Ram Krishna Singh for that especial contribute , and wish to
celebrate his birthday, at 31th of coming decembre with another succes like this
one, or bigger.
Ps. By the way, everybody who has any poem dedicated to Mother Theresa, in
English , may send only in coming week, becouse after that day, the publisher
of the book dedicated to Mother Teresa, mr Mehmet Gezhilli, will starte the
printing process.
In this collection published in “Obelisk” , it’s publisher,mr Roland Lushi, has
included and the poem dedicated to Mother Theresa, which will published again
in the speaking book.
Let repead again , as far as I am informed, as much as poems are published in
“Obelisk” , has been published in Albania only from Rebintronath Tagora – a
book. Hope to have in Albanian another book from Indian petic property .
With respects from Albania, Riza Lahi.
____________________________________________________________________________________

Again, on September 30, 2010, Riza writes:

friend
I think to send together the magazine "Obelisk" and the book.that means to wait three or four weeks.Otherwise, I will send immediately the copy of "Obelsik".
The publisher promised me to find a copy this couple of days.
were two pages and in the presentation was mentioned (You may see by your own in Albanian ) that it is the second time after R>Togora from Indian poetry ( I have translated and another Indian poet, but only a poem).
I should suggest to think together, how could we find the ways to publish complet your poetic book.
With deep considerations Riiza

___________________________________________________________________________________

I would consider myself lucky if my entire book is translated into Albanian and published there. Whatever earning is made out of such publication, I would love it to go to the charity of Mother Teresa or any other organization Rizas think best.
It is indeed very flattering to know that after the Nobel poet, Rabindranath Tagore, it is my poems from India that have been translated into Albanian
and made available to a larger audience in Albania.

--R.K.SINGH

My Sweetoo On His New Tricycle

2010-08-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

My Sweetoo in the Garden

2010-08-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

Poetic Style in Syed Ameeruddin's Poetry

2010-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Poetic Style in Syed Ameeruddin's Poetry

By

Rajeev Ranjan, M. Phil;

R. K. Singh, Professor;

M. Mojibur Rahman, Associate Professor;

Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad

Syed Ameeruddin has a considerable poetic output but he has not been academically explored by researchers and critics. Even various anthologies published in the last three decades have not given him the place he deserves. The study has been an attempt to reverse the trend by examining Ameeruddin's structural and textural characteristics.

Ameeruddin is a poet who reflects Indian sensibility in the choice of his themes, symbols and imagery, and use of the English language. He effectively Indianizes the medium at lexical and syntactical levels according to his thematic requirements and needs of communication. He coins new words by blending or collocating them with words of other languages such as Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu or Arabic. His innovations in the form of local borrowings, calques, translations and code mixing or mixing of elements of Hindi/Urdu/Tamil language makes him distinctly Indian. In fact the way he uses the English Language for communicative purpose is indicative of his attempt to acculturate English language.

His semantic or syntactical attitude is at best pragmatic in the sense that his rhetoric is guided by his native literary and cultural context which values stylistic embellishment. It is perhaps for this reason that Ameeruddin tends to borrow words and phrases of Sanskrit, Arabic and Hindi and indulges in phrase mongering with polite diction and moralistic tone. He is on the whole readable and communicable and his poems echo deeper meaning and broader vision even as his metaphoric expressions make him complex, thoughtful and serious. His sincerity of purpose, that is, a spiritual self discovery through the discovery of the country's spiritual past, however, is unquestionable.

Syed Ameeruddin is rich in his expression of Indian spiritual influences, Indian myths, legends and culture, and the socio political condition prevailing in the country. The poet himself believes in expression of Indian rich tradition and culture.

Syed Ameeruddin writes with a social and moral purpose with a view to changing the fabric of the society where man recognizes man, religion recognizes religion, and people abide by the concept of oneness of humankind. His poetry supports values of humanity, peace, love and harmony, just as the poet insists on respect and preservation of nature and ecological balance.

Ameeruddin's poetry revels with rebounded thought rather than spontaneous thoughts. He deliberately gives a twist--spiritual or metaphysical--to the various aspects of his vision. His adjectives tend to overload the texture of his poems. A poem like ‘Eloquent serenade' echoes Walt Whitman with the Waste Landish awareness. He mixes up so many things in a single poem that it appears more a padding than a genuine poetic feeling. His poetic flights cross over a wide spectrum, cycling and recycling with linguistic liberty and verbal profundity.

The present study seeks to explore Ameeruddin's poetic style. Style is the linguistic expression or literary manner in which the poet couches his views, ideas, thoughts, messages and visions. It includes discourse features of the poem as gleaned from the form, symbol, imagery, versification, mood, attitude, tone, diction, language, etcetera. As Vinayak Krishna Gokak says, "Style is really the exploitation, by the writer or poet, of a few of the possibilities selected out of many, under each of the following heads, to give a faithful and sensitive expression of his vision : language; rhythm; thought; imagery; mood; and attitude."1

With his predilection for complexities of ideas and thought, and a tendency to turn inward, Syed Ameeruddin tends to be complex and evocative in his use of language. Sometimes he leaves his sentences incomplete, piling phrases upon phrases, or using sentence fragments in his attempt to construct impressive epithets or metaphors that mix with his narrative, descriptive or interrogative explorations. For example:

"Life, a criss-cross crisis

Amidst dwindling destinies

Delirious dreams

And diabolic disillusions.

World, a frenzied humdrum existence

of banality and triviality

of nauseating human experience

of cerebral jigsaw puzzles

of bated breath and

Spiritual destitution.

Reality, an elusive enigma

Between here and hereafter

A ravishing rainbow

Between life and death

A hazy horizon

Between material and metaphysical.

Deliverance, a dialectic

Of existence and evangelic

Poised on the horns of a dilemma,

The ambiguity and the ambivalence.

Then, what is Nirvana ?

Reflecting on the smoky layers

Of gloom and solace,

and seeing -

meaning in ambiguity."2

Sometimes his sentences are very short and simple, but ideas gradually turn complex:

"I am a wanderer. I am a nowhere man.

Gypsy river runs through my bones.

I walk with the thunder,

And share its magnificent pride.

I am a wanderer. I have a goal. A purple purpose.

Long is the Journey. I must wander.

Dark are the woods. Its time for me to go ...

I have long buried the memories

Of fractured sunsets

And long forgotten lovetimes.

My search stormed my quest quaked.

My secret grief of

Humanity and existence rigmaroled : ..."3

In his earlier poem he uses a lot of ellipses and exclamations which suggest some kind of a tension which he seeks to resolve pursuing his thought structure in a context. In fact, through a complex of thought pattern, imagery and linguistic devices, Ameeruddin seeks to add depth and force to his poetry. He may appear simple at some stage but soon he becomes complicated, intentionally or unintentionally, as he manoeuvres his way through his struggle of the mind, body, and soul. There may be some flashes of insight here and there but in most of the poems one notices a sort of surrealistic rambling, nostalgic sentiments and subjective musings as noticed in several poems, including his ambitious collection Visioned Summits (1995) .

The poet's style may remind one of the style of Krishna Srinivas on the one hand and T. S. Eliot and Walt Whitman on the other. Most of his metaphors, imagery and phrasal constructions have distinct influence of Krishna Srinivas just as when he uses Sanskrit, Arabic or Hindi words, he seems to be recreating the Waste Landish style in certain poems. One notices a lot of culture bound expressions such as Tandava, Nirvana, Moksha, Maqfirat, Dharma, Adharma, Iswar, Allah, Buddha Poornima, Bodhi tree, Mahaprasthan, Aham Brahman, daridranarayan, Anal Haq, Moksha, etcetera. These are typical Indian culture words for which synonyms are not available in English.

Ameeruddin also presents several mythical characters. He uses either the name of deities or other religious or legendary characters : Ram, Krishna, Shiva, Parvathi, Radha, Shakuntala, Urvasi, Menaka, Rambha, Guru Nanak, Mohammed, Kabirdas, Khawja Ajmeri, Ram Krishna, Vivekanand. Gandhiji, etcetera. All these are direct examples of Indianness rather than Indianization because these are the proper names in Indian context. The poet also uses proper name of places : Kurukushetra, Gurudwara, Masjids, Kailasanatha, Ayodhya, Bombay, Punjab, Kashmir, India, etcetera.

In his poetry we also find register bound lexical items based on Indian social culture such as shankh, mehandi, patni, pati-dev, ardhangini, dampatya, izzat, khandan, dulhan, rathyatra, padyatra, salam, Ameen, om shanti. etcetera.

Ameeruddin also uses typical Indian adjectives for some well known iconic figures : ‘Maryadapurushottam' used for Lord Ram, or ‘Yugaprush' used for Ghandhiji and epithets like Niskama Karma and serva jana.

He hybridizes English as in ‘Bhakti Singers in the poem ‘My India' and makes plural of native nouns such as Yogis, munis, rishis, sufis, fakirs, masjids, avatars, etc.

The poet offers typical Indian collocations such as Ram and Rahim as in the poem ‘Carrion Carnage.' He seems to translate typical Indian expressions as in "interior of my soul", hidden dream", "moon floors", "bruised heart", "hunting memory", "hidden dream", "purple moment", "hissing hope", "Dark savage sky", "lilting lips", "smithereen realities", "Snaky arm", "Fugitive moon", "liquid moon", "Moon-bathed", "trembling moon", "dreaming eyes", "Opaque mind", "hungry arm", "Oncoming storm", "empty river", etcetera.

Sometimes Ameeruddin coins words like ‘halvesonned', ‘whirly', ‘wind', ‘twillighty dawn', twilighty tapestry, etcetera to express his unique thoughts.

Ameeruddin uses verbal sounds to create deeper impact through alliteration, euphony, and onomatopoeic often on the verge of mysticism:

"Again… Mysterious – Unheard--Unimaginable ...

Innumerable sounds of Distraction ... Broke out.

From that ... a deadly thunder bolt flashed ...

It roared ... roared ... roared ... thrice ...

Each uproar ... conveying a Supreme sense ...

Thrice it resounded ... with significant Meaning ...

BH... K... TI... YO... GA !!

...GNA... NA...YO ...GA !!

...KA...R...MA... YO... GA!!4

Syed Ameeruddin also makes use ‘Hyperbole' to show his emotional musing:

"My enchantress

You are my poetic quest

You are my souls search

You are my hearts longing

You are my minds fancy

You are my dreams diana

You are my emotions Radha

You are my passions Parvathi

You are my spirits Shakuntala ..."5

Ameeruddin writes poetry in free verse like other contemporary poets but for musical effect he creates internal rhyme, alliteration and assonance:

"A teacher, poet ; enjoyed the

Pleasures and pangs of being

A lover, husband, father, friend and foe."6

Here the poet creates alliteration through the repetition of |p| , |f| and |r| sound:

"The night light burned, and we slept

Keeping the love we have we had stored inside.

We undressed in silent submission

Into the rippling force of the whirlwind."7

Here the poet creates internal music through the repetition of |i|, |t| and |s| sound.

Ameeruddin's style is also in tune with poetic themes which widely stress the Indian thought and philosophy as enshrined in the Vedas, Upanishad, Gita, Quran, Buddhism, Sufism and Jainism.

The poet also uses several Indian mythical characters as well as symbol and imagery which reflects his serious outlook. The varieties of symbols and imagery he piles in various poems show his thought provoking concept and emotional and sentimental mindset.

Ameeruddin offers different moods in his poetry. Sometimes he looks as a philosopher to follow divine principles of ‘Bhakti Yoga,' ‘Gnana Yoga' and ‘Karma Yoga'; and sometimes he shows the mood of Nirvana. In love poems he depicts romantic and passionate mood and shows love and physical relationship to celebrate life as also to find the supreme bliss. In some other poems, Ameeruddin demonstrates a satiric and ironic mood to present his social consciousness. Thus, his different moods add variety to his poetry.

Syed Ameeruddin's poetic attitude is comprehensive. He echoes the path of universal brotherhood, Universality of God and human values. Keki N. Daruwalla opines, "Art has an aesthetic function. It gives the soul and your heart a different dimension. Religion and poetry came through the same upsurge of the soul."8 Syed Ameeruddin shows a similar attitude in his poetry giving to the soul and heart aesthetic pleasure. To quote R. K. Singh, Syed Ameeruddin's intellectual and spiritual response to the "present social debris" invites exploration of the part for a "New scintillating saga."9 The poet's intellectual and spiritual attitude makes him a poet of the high order who thinks about world peace and welfare of mankind. He sounds sincere.

Ameeruddin uses simple diction and vocabulary in his poetry. He avoids using complex words. Even in his concept of universal religion and brotherhood and philosophical ideas, Ameeruddin tries to be simple. As M. Mujeeb says," Mr Ameeruddin's diction is simple and lucid and his style sincere and effective."10 For example,

"Next morning we woke up

To the twilighty radiance of morning sun

Lilting, juvenile breeze of the dawn

Tickled us into fresh vistas of smiling grass

I held your dew-twinkling face

On my serene palms--

And saw you vibrant as new leaf

Fresh from the cosmic touch,

Newly plucked-- and washed in rain.

Then, I planted a fresh kiss on your rosy cheek."11

The poet enjoys experimenting with words and ideas, be it love, nature, family or philosophy. He is also form-conscious. Without a good and well constructed form to think about good poetry is impossible. Syed Ameeruddin mostly writes long and short descriptive poetry in the form of "Ode"12 Where he elevates and elaborates the theme of the poem in stanzaic structure. "Value of Timelessness", "Dome of Gold", "Peace in the age of Space", "The Dreadfull Doom to Come", "Where all this leads to ..." "Despair of our Age, Life is a mysterious ... mystery," ‘A craze for supreme beauty,' "Life is a Journey,' ‘My India', "Eloquent Serenade", "Carrion Carnage", ‘Blessings' are some examples of his craftsmanship as an ‘Ode' writer.

Thus, we find that Syed Ameeruddin's style is simple and effective. He has an understanding about form and structure but sometimes length of certain poems make them thematically weak and loose vis-a-vis the compactness of his phrasal construction elsewhere. But his style is notable as far as Indianisation of English is concerned. The way he uses the English language clearly makes him sound a non-native speaker who makes poetry serious, philosophic, metaphysical, mystic, and thought provoking.

WORK CITED

1. Gokak, V. K. An Integral view of poetry : An Indian Perspective. New Delhi : Abhinav publication 1975 p. 158.
2. Ameeruddin, Syed "Ambiguity" Visioned Summits. Madras : International Poets Academy 1995 p. 75-77.
3. ...."Eloquent serenade." Ibid p. 35-36
4. ....What the Himalaya ... said". What the Himalaya Said ... and Other Poems. Madras : Kalaivendhan Publications, 1972 p. 23.
5. ...."My Enchantress ... " Petallic Love Times. Madras : Poets press India, 1988 p. 32-33.
6. ..."Lover & Wanderer" A Lover and A Wanderer. Madras : Poet press India, 1980. p. 25-26.
7. Ibid p. 20.
8. Quoted from The Quest (June, 2008) pp. 81-83
9. Singh, R. K. Recent Indian English poets : Expressions and Beliefs. New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1992. p. 18.
10. Mujeeb, M. What the Himalaya ... said and Other Poems. op. cit. p.9.
11. ...."Petallic love Times" Petallic Love Times Op. cit p. 23.
12. Gokak, Vinayak Krishna "Introduction" The Dreadful Doom to Come and Other Poems. Madras : Poets press India, 1974 p. 4.

Haiku in Magnapoets (Ontario) published

2010-07-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

Feeding spirits with
limbs of uncircumcised boys
a Ugandan witch

--R.K.Singh

Published in Magnapoets Issue 6, July 2010

USING ENGLISH IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2010-07-18T00:37:00.000-07:00

(Third Revised and Enlarged Edition)

by: R.K. Singh

pp.: 350, Price: Rs. 95.00

ISBN 978-81-7977-386-4

Contents:

General
1. Scientific and Technical Writing : Certain Characteristics
2. The Process Model of Writing

English in Scientific Discourse
1. Using Impersonal Passive Voice
2. Writing Instructions and Describing/Reporting
3. Describing Objects
4. Describing Processes and Graphical Presentation of Information
5. Writing Definitions
6. Writing Narratives
7. Writing Classifications
8. Writing Explanations
9. Using Comparison and Contrast
10. Writing Hypothesis, Prediction and Conclusion
11. Generalizing and Exemplifying
12. Using Thought-Connectors

Use of Punctuations

Outlining, Paraphrasing and Summarizing
1. Outlining
2. Paraphrasing
3. Summarizing

Note-Making

Understanding Instruction Verbs, or Answering Essay-type Questions

Using Polite expressions

Organizing References

Sample Texts and Exercises Unit 1 to 7

Materials referred to and/or Recommended for use in class
_____________________________________________________________________________________

For details, one may like to visit the following link:

http://prakashbookdepot.blogspot.com/2010/07/using-english-in-science-and-technology.html
____________________________________________________________________________________

BOOK REVIEW: M.Mojibur Rahman

R. K. Singh. Using English in Science and Technology. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2010. Pages 336, Rs. 95/-. ISBN 978-81-7977-386-4.

In learning a language, the aim is to be able to utilize the language in day-to-day tasks as also to meet the career demands. The needs of the students are crucial in teaching and one should ensure that learning does take place and the learners do achieve their long-term goals which include learners’ ability to communicate in the target language outside of classrooms and realization of various professional/career opportunities.

The concept of ESP contains a presumption that adult students learn English for a certain purpose, and there is a constant awareness of the purpose on the part of students as well as teachers. The main concern of ESP is ‘specific’ needs of students with the objective of solving their specific linguistic difficulties.

English for science and technology or EST is a subcategory of the larger field of English for Specific Purposes in which EST shares some basic characteristics with the larger field of ESP.

The language in EST is also more specialized. This is not surprising given the fact that scientific inquiry is a very specific process which relates to control, manipulation and observation of situations and involves research assumptions, hypothesis formation, and theory construction.

Textbooks are a key component in most language programmes. These serve as the basis for much of the language input learners receive or the language practice that takes place in the classroom. In some situations, the textbook may function as a supplement to the teachers’ instruction in the ESL teaching and learning process. For most teachers, textbooks provide the foundation for the content of lessons, the balance of the skills taught, as well as the kinds of language practice the students engage in during class activities. The use of English to teach Science and Technology reflects the importance of having effective English textbooks in helping learners acquire the necessary language skills.

Using English in Science and Technology by R.K. Singh has been republished with considerable revision and addition to help tertiary level students of science and technology to improve their written communication skills. To quote the author “Using English in Science and Technology, though not an ESP textbook per se, meets an important and urgent need in the area of English language teaching in India. It generally emphasizes development of students’ capacity for self-study, and language and communication skills, particularly the skills for effective academic writing, just as it prepares them for studies in English in many scientific and engineering fields like physics, chemistry, economics, geology, mining engineering, ecology, etc.” (p.vii).

The book is divided into nine sections. In the first section, the author describes the characteristic feature of scientific and technical writing, and the process model of writing. The Interactional Process Approach he discusses is a revised version of his most referred to research paper published in English Teaching Forum in 1994. One becomes aware of both the process and product as one proceeds through pre-writing, writing, and post-writing stages and organizes the contents.

The second section deals with English in scientific discourse. This section is the real strength of the book and deals with using impersonal passive voice, writing instructions and describing/reporting, describing objects, describing processes and graphical presentation of information, writing definitions, writing narratives, writing classifications, writing explanations, using comparison and contrast, writing hypothesis, prediction and conclusion, generalizing and exemplifying, and using thought connectors. The author discusses these rhetorical functions in detail. Firstly, he provides a description of the way language is used, and then, he offers suitable exercises for practice. Whatever discourse one produces, one has to use these rhetoric to write. The description and examples provided in this section are not only meant for science and technology teachers and students, but also for general ELT teachers who may be interested in teaching written communication by additionally providing suitable exercises. At the end of this section the author includes a discussion of thought connectors to develop a sense for achieving cohesion and coherence in the text.

The third section, a new addition in this edition of the book, deals with using punctuation, which is a most difficult and confusing part of written communication. The author deals with the use of punctuation marks such as commas, ellipses, semicolon, colon, dashes, and apostrophe.

The fourth and fifth sections of the book discuss study skills such as outlining, paraphrasing, summarizing, and note-making. Learning these study skills is necessary for all the professionals and researchers. The section provides a discussion on the method of outlining, paraphrasing, summarizing, and note-making with various exercises for practice.

The sixth section is based on understanding instruction verbs. Most of the time we commit mistake in using instruction verbs. As a teacher we need to set question papers and we have to write instructions for the students to write answers. Understanding instructions is necessary for the students to answer questions in the examination accordingly. This section provides a solution to the problems of both the teachers and students.

A new section is added in the book on use of polite expressions in communication. This should help students in their day to day conversation as also in participating in seminars etc.

The second last section is devoted to organizing references in writing. Students commit mistake in writing references. This section will help students to improve their reference writing skills.

The last section of the book provides sample lesson texts and text-based exercises for “consolidation of skills and language use learnt in the second, third and fourth sections.” The section also provides a possible model for teachers to develop their own practice material in the class.

The book is written keeping in view the prevalent system of teaching English language in technical institutions, and revised on the basis of the tertiary level students’ newer needs. This book is an outcome of the author’s experience in the classroom. The book has been used as a textbook in B. Tech, M. Sc. and M. Sc. Tech classes in Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad for nearly two decades. The exercises in the book are repeatedly tested in the classroom.

An English language teacher, particularly the teachers teaching in Technical Institutions, can use this book easily and without any formal training in ESP. It is a common belief that one should know science for teaching EST. But it is not possible for English language teachers to know science. This book will be handyl for the English teachers who do not know science but have interest in everyday science. The author has tried to produce a sort of general ESP/EST textbook which can be conveniently by providing additional exercises according to the needs of the students.

Except for some typographical errors, the book makes a smooth reading. It is nicely got up and the price is affordable. As a teacher and EST practitioner, I strongly recommend it to all English language teachers and students keen to improve their language skills in Technical Institutions.

M. Mojibur Rahman
Associate Professor of English
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad-826004

ST. PHILOMENA'S CHURCH

2010-07-16T22:45:00.001-07:00

IN MYSORE

2010-07-16T22:25:00.001-07:00

MYSORE PALACE

LAKE

BRINDAVAN GARDEN

IN THE ZOO

NANDI BULL

AT SRIRANGAPATNAM

IN MYSORE FOR A DAY

2010-07-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

A VIEW OF MYSORE FROM HILL TOP

AT THE TEMPLE

CHAMUNDESHWARI TEMPLE

AT CHAMUNDI HILL

AT THE CAUVERI RIVER

MECHANICS OF RESEARCH WRITING

2010-06-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

By: R.K. Singh

pp.: 188, Price: Rs. 98.00
ISBN 978-81-7977-377-2

List of Contents:

Academic Communication : Some Characteristics
An Approach to Style
Interactional Process Approach to Academic Writing
Research and Writing
General Format and Referencing
Writing Abstracts
On Using Punctuation
Summing up

For details, visit:
http://prakashbookdepot.blogspot.com/2010/05/mechanics-of-research-writing.html

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Book Review: Dr S.M. Mehdi

Mechanics of Research Writing by R.K.Singh. Published by Prakash Book Depot, Bara Bazar, Bareilly-243003. 2010. Price: Rs. 98/-, pages 182. ISBN 9788179773772

As we all know that University Grants Commission is emphasising on and encouraging through different means quality research in higher education and learning centres of the country. Measurements have been taken and schemes are being launched for making research useful and relevant, minimising the chances of plagiarism and making efforts to bring the cut / copy-paste era to an end. There are books in the market written by renowned scholars but sorry to say that most of them deal with the subject (Research Writing) rather vaguely, making it more complex. And as a result, when the scholar go through them, he become more perplexed rather than developing a clear view of the subject.

The author, who himself is a renowned Indian English poet and has a marathon career of over four decades of teaching and research writing and supervising, has written the book deriving from his personal teaching experience and interaction with researchers in various disciplines. The book is meant for the postgraduate and doctoral level students involved in research writings. The structure of the book is such that it is helpful not alone during the writing process, but before and after also.

First chapter of the book deals with the characteristics of academic communication, or should I say the characteristics which are necessary for effective presentation of the research text. Communication through writing can be made by educated persons only, and this fact alone is enough to understand the importance of written communication, more so, when we are talking about research writing. Dr Singh points out:

‘…you need a different kind of awareness to be able to write with objectivity, accuracy, and restraint in a rhetorically suitable format, expected in academic or research writing.’ (pg. 2)

and

‘The way you write to organise information or knowledge on a subject reflects the nature of your research and professional etiquette.’ (pg. 3)

The author has beautifully explained the structure of a paragraph. As the paragraph is a unit of the whole work, if it is written according to the suggestions made, then the whole work will be fruitful. Dr Singh opines: ‘Good paragraphing is a prerequisite for a well developed, coherent piece of discourse.’ (pg. 6)

The author has recognized three types of competences, namely - subject, organisational and linguistic. Dr Singh maintains: ‘….the pressure for research and the lack of linguistic and organisational skills conspire to produce only poor quality documents.’ (pg. iv, Preface to the First Edition)

Second chapter of the book is all about the style and the suggestions extended by the author are such that when you go through them, a feeling comes that there is some teacher beside us who is instructing. The hints given are of foremost importance, mixing psychology with the writing technique.

There are three stages of academic writing process– pre writing, writing and post writing (chapter three). All of these stages are explained with great zeal by the author with the help of brilliant examples about manuscript preparation. Beside these, the names of some of the research journals useful for research writing are also recommended.

In chapter four, onus is laid on planning for quality work. Types of research are given a hint of and an idea is given about thesis writing. Plagiarism is elucidated with very good examples. In my view, more pages could have been attributed to this median chapter by elaborating types of research more clearly.

Referencing, abbreviation and bibliography are very well defined in chapter five and several examples are there for better clarity and understanding for learners. The MLA, APA and MHRA styles of referencing and citation are given with numerous examples. It is very good from the point of view of a research writer that he can find all the three important styles at one place, in one chapter. How to use non-book materials and referencing electronic sources are also there in the same chapter. 105 important abbreviations and reference words (including 31 Latin abbreviations and reference words) mostly used in research writing are given by the author. Initialisms and acronyms are explained with examples. 2 examples of bibliography writing and 9 examples on writing research papers are also there.

Abstract writing is clarified in chapter six. Abstract of research article and that of a conference paper are dealt with separately and the procedure of writing abstract is presented graphically.

Chapter seven explains about different punctuation marks. The use of commas, semicolons, colons, exclamation, dash, italics, period (full stop), question mark and ellipsis is explained by the author. It is a fact that punctuations can change the meaning of the sentence and suitable punctuation marks make the language more impressive and clear. In the words of Dr Singh:

‘.....(punctuation) helps the readers get not only the exact shade of meaning
But also the tone and feeling you want to communicate.’ (pg. 165)

This book is not just a book but seems like a guide as from phrasing sentences, punctuation marks and paragraph formation, it instructs us how to prepare bibliography and write abstract, which abbreviation has to be used where as well as styles of citation (referencing). At last, I would recommend that anyone who is involved or going to involve in research writing should have a copy of the book.

--Dr. S. M. Mehdi
c/o Dr. I. H. Rizvi
'Rizvi Manzil',
97, Kanghi Tola,
Bareilly 243003, UP

SENSE AND SILENCE: COLLECTED POEMS

2010-06-10T03:14:00.000-07:00

Now the covers of my book, SENSE AND SILENCE: COLLECTED POEMS,( ISBN 978-81-910588-2-6), have been finalised and printed. The book is available from:

Yking Books
18 Jain Bhavan
Opp. NBC, Shanti Nagar
Jaipur 302006

It is a library edition priced at Rs. 995/-, but it is available to Indian readers, students, researchers, and teachers at 40% discount and free postage. Others may like to contact the publisher for special discount by email: ykingbooks@gmail.com

-R.K.SINGH

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Sense and Silence

Collected Poems : 1974-2009

R.K. Singh

Yking Books
Jaipur India

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First Published : 2010
ISBN : 978-81-910588-2-6
© Author
Price : Rs. 995
Published by
Yking Books
18, Jain Bhawan, Opp. N.B.C., Shanti Nagar, Jaipur - 302006
Tel. 0141-2221456 (O), 09414056846 (M)
E-mail: ykingbooks@gmail.com
Laser Typesetting by
Vikram Kumar Sharma, Jaipur
Printed at
Ruchika Printers, Jaipur

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For the most wonderful source of my creativity and strengh, my wife Durga, daughter Winny, and son Vikram.

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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

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Prefatory Note

Sense and Silence: Collected Poems: 1974-2009 brings together for the first time all my published collections of poems, including several new ones and/or not yet published old ones. The inclusive dates, 1974-2009, correspond to the dates of composition or first publication of the earliest and latest poems (even if a few poems might have been composed in their revised or pre-revised form as early as 1971). In effect, the poems in this collection, though not chronologically arranged, cover a span of over thirty-five years, reshuffling the past and providing a composite view of my creativity.

Apparently without a pattern, artificially arranged, and untitled, each poem is an experience independent of the rest, and complete in itself, though continuous in spirit. Short or shorter snapshots of daily life, at times unusual but not without depth, each poem reveals the growth of my mind and style. It should also be possible to read each of the sections, viz., My Silence, Music Must Sound, Memories Unmemoried, Flight of Phoenix, I Do Not Question, The Face in All Seasons, and Sexless Solitude as a long poem, though the reader is free to re-create the material according to his/her own taste and sensibility.

Some poems, including haiku and tanka, have been dropped or shifted from one section to another to avoid repetition of their appearance. In the experimental haiku and tanka sequences, however, a couple of haiku and tanka poem might have reappeared.
I continue to believe in giving no titles to my poems (titles tell too much, as Lyle Glazier once observed), and, in fact, I am yet to compose a poem with a title integral to it, even if in some of my earlier publications, especially Memories Unmemoried, ‘I Do Not Question’ in Two Poets, ‘Some Recent Poems’ in My Silence and Other Selected Poems, and Sexless Solitude and Other Poems, I did suspend some poems by their titles like pictures on the wall. I have now preferred to restore my original design and identify all the poems in each section by numbers. This should not, however, interfere with the readers’ freedom of imagination.

Finally, I am indebted to Shri S.K. Jain for reposing his faith in me and readily agreeing to publish my Collected Poems to benefit researchers and interested students of contemporary Indian English Poetry both at home and abroad.

--R.K. Singh
Dhanbad
31 December 2009

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Prefatory Note ix

1. My Silence 1
2. Music Must Sound 25
3. Memories Unmemoried 52
4. Flight of Phoenix 64
5. I Do Not Question 82
6. Above The Earth’s Green 101
7. The Face in All Seasons 131
8. Sexless Solitude 152
9. The River Returns: Tanka 198
10. Every Stone Drop Pebble 227
11. Peddling Dream: Haiku 234
12. The River Returns: Haiku 256
13. Some More Haiku 290
14. Some Haiku Sequences 305
15. Some Tanka Sequences 320
Acknowledgements 329

Published Prefatory Notes/Forewords/
Front-Notes/Some Comments 334
____________________________________________________________________________________

"My friend, your book is incredible, a work of incredible breath, voice, and creativity coupled with depth and infused with your culture. I am awed.

Robert"

--Robert D. Wilson
_____________________________________________________________________________________

A Response to Chitra Lele's request

2010-06-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Chitra,

It's really a tough job you want me to do. I need to think about it seriously and deeply. I don't know your context except that globalisation in English language teaching is more functional and utilitarian than creative (as in the sense of poetry or story writing). When I started writing in Hindi (in my teens) I didn't have any competence in English. I was a Hindi medium student and there was no environment to learn good English whether at home or in the college. Soon I discovered that I won't be able to make any impact through my journalistic, poetic or fiction writing in Hindi-- there was so much politics and competition,and no mentor to promote me even if I used to appear in almost every daily and weekly published from Varanasi in those days-- I dabbled in writing in English. As a student in BA I thought my English was good and I could write poetry in English. I was wrong. My literature teachers, too, discouraged me from wasting my energy in writing in English. But, the more they found fault with my writing, the more determined I became to write and publish in English. With continued failures in the seventies, I did succeed, after i became lecturer in English and gradually learnt how to find my rhythm and edit my poetry and/or write what most others won't dare to.
Poetry came to me naturally when thinking in English had become normal and i had to teach English language rather than literature. I learnt to write with no or minimum adjectives; I learnt to be brief and without being wasteful; I learnt to write with a sense of rhythm. It was good that I did not read T S Eliot or the Romantics or the Victorians after becoming a teacher, nor did I need to teach any authors I studied in BA or MA. I taught 'English for Science and Technology" and professionally concentrated on 'specific purposes' language teaching rather than teaching even modern or contemporary literature.
Because my forgetting is faster than remembering, so I always had something new to write or think about.
I didn't have the support of any of the big names in Indian English writing, so I kept on doing what I have been doing all these years just as promoting the less known/unknown poets became my passion. (No Ezekiel, Mahapatra or Ramanujan supported me any time.) I am happy today more new authors are being talked about than it was thirty years ago. Even for research (here at ISM) I promote new or less known authors and poets and leave the old or established ones for others to deal with.
With the emergence of the internet and several international print journals becoming electronic journals, I have been regularly posting my poems etc on various literary sites and it is gratifying that my writing in English is now more accessible globally. I wont die an unknown name and one or the other search engine will mention one or the other of my books or poems in English (as also in other languages).
You are free to use whatever seems relevant to you.
All the best
R K Singh

--- On Mon, 5/31/10, Chitra Lele wrote:

From: Chitra Lele
Subject: Important: Singh Sir, please respond
To: "singh ramkrishna"
Date: Monday, May 31, 2010, 11:48 AM

Dear Singh Sir,
Greetings! How are you?

ONE EARNEST REQUEST: Sir, for my next non-fiction book on the importance of English in today's world of globalization, I need you to write one paragraph on how the English language and your proficiency in it has helped you in your life..10-15 lines will be great. I am going to include your quote in one of my chapters - Real life quotes. Please help, your kind blessings are always needed. May be you could write about how English helped you in promoting poetry.
Please mention your stellar credentials at the end of the quote.

Awaiting your valuable reply.

Kind regards,

Chitra Lele

EXPLORING THE SENSES: From: MAJESTIC, The Official Newsletter of Litdotorg

2010-06-01T02:11:00.000-07:00

R.K.Singh, An Indian English Poet Explores The Senses Creatively…
Sunday, May 30, 2010
By Sandra Yuen MacKay

(Editor’s Note: We welcome R.K. Singh as our guest blogger of the month. Here he shares his views and philosophy about his poetry.)

At times it is refreshing to reflect on one’s own creativity and answer questions like what motivates you to write, what type of writing you have been doing, what has helped your writing, and how satisfied you feel with all that you have achieved so far.

Let me begin by sketching a typical day in my life. A deadly monotony of existence in the maze of routine is what characterizes a typical day in my life: while mentally it is a journey from loneliness to frustration to depression; physically it crisscrosses the routine of living in the same house; working in the same place; meeting the same people; teaching batch after batch the same unwilling-to-learn students; the same time of getting up, eating and sleeping; the same worries and complaints; the same diseases; the same unfulfilled desires; the same uninspiring atmosphere; the same prayers; the same narrowing dimensions and captivation; the same insecurity and marginalization; and the same search for freedom; the same sense perception probing sex, city or people; and yet, I’m unable to know myself or forget the growing depression.

Living life in a boring environment, it is a challenge to sustain poetic creativity. Yet I have survived the inner and outer sterility. It has been great fun to use some small, negligible aspect of one’s behavior, or some insignificant event, or something read or heard in the past that stays unconsciously in the memory and gets connected some other time while something incites me into a poem, or I get my own thoughts as I read somebody else’s poem, or I recollect some complex dream experiences into the garb of a poem. I see to it that the emotion thus expressed makes sense to me as an ordinary reader, and is not mere claptrap in the form of a poem. I also check there is some sort of rhythm or pattern in the expression and no waste of words. Since the poetic mood is short-lived, my poems are almost always short, and there is hardly a poem composed with a title integral to it. I prefer not to give titles to my poems.

What is my poetry about? Much depends on the insight into how one responds to my poetry or how delightful to the senses or challenging to the mind one finds it, or how one wants to interpret my creative perception of meaning in the world. There are many themes, individual passion, historic-mythical awareness, human relationship, social consciousness. I am my own veil and revelation; I am both the subject and the object and reveal others as much as I reveal myself.

I utilize the world in which I live in order to create an authentic voice, which begets empathy and brings the reader in close contact with the poem. In addition, it demonstrates my choice of the subject matter I am exploring. In the subjective process of creation, it is normal for a poet to create out of himself whatever outside he sees excites the inner vision. If he feels sex as truth and, as Sri Aurobindo says, renders the experience with beauty or power, there is nothing objectionable.

The fact is my social vision intersects the private and sexual. There is some sense in a poet’s frenetic eroticism or sexuality—love of the self through exploration of the body, or naked physicality, leading to love of the divine, or man and woman as one.

I believe the effect of poetry lies in the thrill, the almost physical emotion that comes with its reading. The appeal of erotic poetry lies in the activation of the sense, mind and the emotions that appear in some way interpretative of life, or subject experiences that have depth. It is perhaps in the area of sex—a fact of life—that one must search for the most secret and profound truths about the individual or his/her social consciousness. The problem is not sex/sexuality but social attitude, morality, hypocrisy, the socio-sexual standards that determine moral or civilized norms, which discriminate, enchain, and debase honest aspiration as lust or vulgarity.

To me, sex is a metaphor: the encounter man and woman, woman and woman, man and man to express relationships, concerns, roles, to react against false ethical and cultural values, against stereotypes and prejudices, against hypocrisy. (But beware of gimmicks, imitations, romantic overtures, and even plain silliness that I have often noticed in a number of Indian English poets). It is through the inner mindscape that the outer awareness is interpreted.

Further, I think expression of passionate love and sex in my poetry is the internalized substitute, nay antidote, to the fast dehumanizing existence without, and ever in conflict with my search for life, search for meaning in a boring existence.

“Woman” in my poetry is a universal woman, the invisible part of the primordial pairs we know as Purush-Prakriti, or Yin-Yang, unchanging over time and culture: “The best poetry/ is a woman/concrete, personal, delightful/ greater than all” (22 October 1972). I see woman and her nudity as the mainspring of our being (and art), as “the major incident in man’s life,” shaping the psyche and constituting the sensory experience. She is eternal and there is no poetry possible without her. I sing of woman who is both my passion and interest, who is the balance point of various beings, the very cause and end of life, perhaps the means to rediscover the original magic of life.

To me, the human body is a picture of the human soul I celebrate to understand the world and the self. I glorify nudity to explore the consciousness, the inner landscape, lost in muddle of the external chaos.

By writing brief, personal lyrics, or confining myself to the privacy of love-making, I enlarge myself to the universal sameness of human feelings. We are flesh in sensuality and there is divinity in it. The fleshly unity is the reality, the passage to experience divinity. As a poet I try to transmute and transmit memories of experience, possibly more with a sense of irony than eroticism:

“While I was petting and necking/lying over her body/she was calculating whether/she could afford a new saree/from what I would pay her/tonight” (14 April, 1973); and

She remains indifferent to my fingers
moving to stir her cool nakedness
my hungry touch causes eructation
at intervals I caress her back
wobble about the torso or rest on
the thighs hoping she will be turned on
but warily I persist in half-sleep
she lets me enter for convenience
let it end the sooner the better

Before I end, a line or two about my haiku, too. It suits my temperament. In fact in most of my regular poems, the haiku rhythm should be easily discernible. It seems to have become the basic unit of my poetical expression. I developed serious interest in its art and craft from about early 1990s and now, whatever I feel or observe, or whatever my inner experiences at a given moment of time, I try to image them in my poetry.

Lit.org has been a great forum for me to reach out to a larger audience. It is here that I discovered a number of non-academic but very good poets who are neither trite nor dull but refreshing and delightful.

–R.K.Singh

Blogs: http://www.lit.org/blog/R.K.Singh

http://rksingh.blogspot.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 30th, 2010 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

2010-04-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

DEVANSH: Growing up

2010-04-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

2010-04-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

DEVANSH: PLAYING WITH WATER

2010-04-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

William Artt-- Selected Works 2002-2009: A series of photographs on my haiku

2010-03-31T22:02:00.000-07:00

SHROUD

"A thin fog
hides the wintry moon
rising slowly."

These lines taken from a poem entitled Fog: Some Haiku by R.K. Singh are the main inspiration for the ‘Shroud’ series of works. The photographs were taken on a cold winters evening in the forest situated near my home in Belfast. The fog which descends regularly within the area allowed the opportunity to create a series of work that aim to freeze both time and space.
While attracting the minimum of attention the works allow us to also contemplate our own being and mortality.

Courtesy:
http://williamartt.com/shroud.html

Thanks William Artt for using my haiku to go with your wonderful photographs entitled "Shroud".
--R.K.Singh

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: A REFLECTION ON THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

2010-03-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

Text of my speech in the National Seminar on English Teaching at Sindri College, Sindri on March 14, 2010:

In the last half century or so, universities have tended to grow too big, grasping every opportunity for new courses or activities, often in a topsy-turvy process of ad hoc development. As a result, fragmentation has become more prominent. While the faculties appear to have become ghettoized, less interactive and far removed from the synergistic community of scholars, students in our institutions have become isolated within their subject areas and cross-disciplinary contacts have become difficult. In most professional institutions in the country, undergraduate teaching has become a subordinate activity, with high-flying professors and researchers becoming more removed from contact with students and even with peers, and from real involvement in teaching and the vital ongoing task of reassessing the undergraduate curriculum. There is no longer a shared vision of goals of undergraduate education or of the means to achieve them. We have been witness to a proliferation of degree courses of uneven quality and uncertain purpose, or a laissez-faire approach to curriculum that has led to career courses based on faddism or an incoherent jumble of electives.

The situation is more disappointing in the area of English Teaching, be it language or literature. When I reflect as a practicing teacher, or take stock of what we have been doing and what needs to be done in the next few years of a very complex, different 21st century, or look back and critically view the developments in English teaching profession, I regret to note that the mental skills of speech and communication, reasoning and analysis, creativity and imagination, intellectual stimulation and challenge, and critical and independent perception have not been advanced: students seem to know more and more about less and less, and cannot communicate with each other. I need not emphasize that the arts of communication or the arts of using the mind are basic to learning, for they are the arts of reading, writing, speaking, listening, figuring. They have a timeless quality, as they are the arts of fostering the critical abilities of students, of their qualities of mind and spirit that will carry them to their lives.

WRITING VIS-À-VIS INTERNET

Nevertheless, the changes over the last few years have been so rapid that "it makes a completely different linguistic world to live in," to quote David Crystal. The internet has already altered all our previous concepts to do with language. In fact, there is a lingering doubt in view of the realities of IT-dominated developments in the last ten years or more. Many of us find ourselves, or what we have been doing all these years, irrelevant. I suspect the fast growth of electronic publications, including books, journals, newspapers and magazines, and voice-recognition software, may soon make some of our arts, for example, writing, an ancient art form. While the printed word is facing a grave challenge as a medium of expression, voice chips may soon become indispensable for understanding and responding to verbal instructions and communication.

We are already using commercial versions of digital books and journals; we are familiar with thin LCD panels with text stored in RAM (Random Access Memory) or computer memory; we download a typical novel in two to three minutes from the internet; we are used to virtual library and book pad. Documentation and information is now provided in hypertext form so that the users can themselves decide what information is relevant to them. Obviously, computer literacy is now become most essential and the concept of literacy will have to be redefined in multimedia terms.

The fast-moving images have replaced text as the main form of communication: Books are already being played and viewed and information is visually and verbally communicated. These trends will not stop. There are already unmistakable signs of atrophy of text, and in a decade or two, I suspect it will be used mainly for instructional purposes and be accessible only to the technological elite. Maybe, 50 years hence few people would want to read, and fewer still would know how to write, as communication, both factual and expressive, would be through sound and pictures. What I am trying to emphasize is that we may very soon have to redefine what we mean by written text.

For the generation born after 1985, the internet and mobile phones are not just media; they have become a social environment in which one settles and lets out one's energies. It is a parallel world, with a lot of virtual alternatives. For teaching communicative strategies in such a new situation, we would need to know more about, and understand well, the various connections between language use and successful communication, about lexical tools of communication, about the potential of various Englishes in the present age, and the selective information needs in the present day society.

CHALLENGES

To some of us this may appear elitist, but this elitist reality coexists with the sad fact that a larger section of our population is functionally illiterate. A much larger percentage of our educated youths, high school and college graduates, despite their diplomas and degrees, cannot even fill out a simple application form, or write a formal letter. Most of them manage to 'communicate' with a limited vocabulary and an unstable syntax. Smart ones among them who have access to computer and laptop increasingly depend on the latest version of Microsoft's Word programme for checking spelling, syntax, grammar, and even paragraph structure. Yet, they fail to write well or express themselves appropriately. Why? I suspect excepting a very small section of the population, the large majority learn English the wrong way. Many of us know well how English in various schools is being taught as no man's subject, or as an every man's subject, or an extra hand's subject. This is not a positive or happy situation. I am also concerned, as I have always maintained, English learning has to be strengthened at the school level without which there can't be improvement at college level.

Moreover, it is a challenge to us English teachers to manage with our own widely differing linguistic competence the large classes of mixed ability students, non-availability or high cost of books and instructional material, tests and exams becoming the only goal in themselves, lack of students'(and even teachers') motivation, administrative apathy, inaccessibility to electronic media, journals and books, balance between the use of mother tongue and English to ensure acquisition of communication skills, or perhaps, a better teaching-learning situation in the mother tongue and other languages, and dissemination of best ELT practices internationally, with an e-culture interface.

As teachers we need to work on our own affirmative action programmes, despite constraints of our situation. In order to do something new, we may have to give up the old. As John Swales says, "We may need to recycle not only our projects and our programmes but also ourselves." In fact a practical teacher should be able to operate within, what may be called, "here and now" state of affairs. It is with some sort of inbuilt flexibility and utilitarian purpose that one can practice ELT in the days ahead.

NEGOTIATING DIFFERENCES

With sensitivity for the language (to me, language use is more a matter of pleasure and beauty than of rules and structure), I would like to assert that the yardsticks of the British or American native speakers, or their standards as reflected in GRE, TOEFL or IELTS etc, or their kind of tongue twisting, are simply damaging to the interests of non-native speakers. We have to develop our own standards, instead of teaching to sound like Londoners or North Americans. No nobody needs to speak the socalled standardized English (that makes inter- and intranational communication difficult). David Crystal too appreciates this reality and favours 'local taste' of English in India and elsewhere. The problems of teaching, say spoken English, relate to lack of intercultural communicative competence.

Many of the misunderstandings that occur in multicultural or multinational workplace are traceable to intergroup differences in how language is used in interpersonal communication rather than to lack of fluency in English. In fact native speakers need as much help as non-natives when using English to interact internationally and interculturally. It is understanding the how of negotiation, mediation, or interaction. We need to teach with positive attitude to intercultural communication, negotiating linguistic and cultural differences. The focus has to be on developing cultural and intercultural competence, tolerance (the spread and development of various Englishes is an instance of grammatical and lexical tolerance), and mutual understanding. Rules of language use are culturally determined. I doubt all those who talk about spoken English, or communication skills, care to teach or develop intercultural communicative abilities. This presupposes a good grasp of one's own culture or way of communication, or the language etiquettes, gestures and postures, space, silence, cultural influences, verbal style etc.

If one has to work abroad and use English with others there, one has to be sensitive to the culturally governed ways of speaking or talking to each other. The speech community's (the language culture of the group of people) ways of communication cannot be taken for granted, when one seeks to learn or teach spoken English. People fail or suffer discomfort or embarrassment in negotiations in business or political affairs, or achievement of personal goals due to incompetence in persuasion, negotiation, mediation, or interaction. It is their performance, their intercultural interactional competence which matters; it lies in managing social interaction, and not just communication, or use of right grammatical form, syntax, vocabulary, or even certain polite phrases.

POSITIVE ATTITUDE NEEDED

Academic communication skills, both written and oral, have to be imparted in such a way that students in their contexts are able to identify their own language learning needs and to set their own language learning goals. At college and university level, teachers may act as facilitators, just as they would need to teach with positive attitude for inter- and intracultural communication, the skills of negotiating linguistic and cultural differences.

It is with this sensibility for English language and its teaching in various contexts that I speak to you this morning. Yet, as I say all this, I keep in mind the ground reality: that is, poor literacy skills, fluency, and even comprehension; poor communicative ability, with limited experiences in writing, speaking and listening unless, of course, teaching of English as a Second, or additional language improves from school level and need for a supportive classroom climate and positive student attitudes towards learning at postsecondary level is recognized. Also, both teachers and students need to be aware of what to do, how to do it, and when and why to do it, as part of practicing self-regulation strategies.

The ELT community as also the other stake holders in the country should, therefore, revise and reformulate appropriate strategies and policies, with tolerance and multilingualism at the core, to remain relevant in the coming decades. The objective of looking back, in a seminar like this, is to move forward with a reasoned perspective for taking measures to develop communication abilities and higher discourse competence, with a broadened inter- and cross-disciplinary bases, for learning to understand (rather than memorize) and apply in ones own contexts.

I would like to quote Christopher Brumfit from his opening speech to SPEAQ Convention in Quebec City (in June 1982): "...Being communicative is as much or more a matter of methodology as of syllabus or materials, and methodology is something that teachers are uniquely qualified to contribute to. We should therefore be willing to use our expertise, to innovate, to improve, to inform each other, and to criticize." What we are going to do here, friends, is just to make a beginning, the beginning of a process of communicating, of understanding, that we can start but cannot finish.

ECLECTIC APPROACH

I am aware that there is no universal teaching method or ideal teaching material suited to many contexts of language teaching. Whatever didactic techniques one knows without excluding the behaviouristic drills, and practice and use of mother tongue, where appropriate, are all valid at different points in the teaching process. I stand for an eclectic approach as different methods for different students have always worked and there has not been one best method any time. With our freedom to choose and adopt any notion that serves our teaching ends, with a reasonable degree of historical sense, flexibility and adaptability that allows us to select among a variety of approaches, methods and techniques, we can meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. I see teaching communicatively essentially consisting of an eclectic methodology which incorporates what is valuable in any system or method of teaching and refuses to recognize bad teaching or defective learning. In any educational setting, sensitive and sensible application and continuing evaluation of the chosen practices should be inbuilt.

English has been practised in a social, economic, political, educational and philosophical "hot-house", to use Peter Strevens' expression, and the hot-house in India differs in quality from state to state. It is necessary to create an enabling environment - managerial, administrative, institutional, academic, and curricular-to promote not only quality education and effective learning with exposure to lots of natural, meaningful and understandable language, but also genuine communication. This means learners should read and listen to live language; they should speak and write it in ways that can be understood by educated speakers everywhere. Moreover, they should eventually be able to produce and comprehend culturally appropriate natural discourse.

--PROFESSOR (DR) R.K.SINGH

IN MY CHAMBER

2010-03-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

IN DELHI; WITH OUR DAUGHTER

2010-02-19T02:30:00.000-08:00

happy b'day to WINNY

2010-02-19T02:23:00.000-08:00

at the qutab minar

2010-02-19T02:21:00.000-08:00

AT THE BACK DROP OF QUTAB MINAR

2010-02-19T02:13:00.000-08:00

MY HAIKU SECOND IN THE BEST TEN

2010-02-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

HAIKU

WORLD HAIKU REVIEW Volume 8 Issue 1 JANUARY 2010

BEST TEN FROM ALL THREE CATEGORIES (Neo-classical, Shintai and Vanguard)

In this issue, the usual classification of the above three categories is dropped.
___________________________________________________________________________________

First Place

Winter chill
telephone wire
40 birds wing to wing

Leslie Anders

*

Second Place

Locked between
my bed and quilt
December chill

R.K.SINGH, India

*

Third Place

cold breeze

the willow swings

to broken shadows

Alexander Ask, Australia

________________________________________________________________________________
http://worldhaikureview.googlepages.com/haiku2

M.D.MELWANI'S READING OF SEXLESS SOLITUDE AND OTHER POEMS

2010-02-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

At first glance the 99 poems brought together in Dr R.K.Singh’s Sexless Solitude and Other Poems resemble one of those specimens of modern art where color, shapes and even body parts are splashed on the canvas in a haphazard fashion. But as one continues to look at the painting, the underlying unity of the painter’s vision becomes apparent. The technique Dr R.K Singh employs in these poems is similar to that of the modern painter.

Since the themes covered by the poems are many, we will concentrate on Dr Singh’s general approach

Here is an example of the similarity between a modern painter and Dr Singh’s technique:

Plastic flowers couldn’t keep time
Moving in his house

Here is another:

But nightmares trimming
The sun and the sky
That could never be

The poems reveal a social conscience that is disturbed by the corruption prevalent in modern life.

We cover our hells with roses
And fear foreigners digging deep
Into our glorious projections.

Dr Singh makes his points through irony, as in the following excerpt:

Human Rights activitist
Discuss eradication
Of manual scavenging
And the contruction of
Wet latrines in villages
….. before seeking provisions
For rehabilitating
Liberated scavengers

The strains of modern life are revealed in the following lines:

His colleagues envious
of his foreign jaunt
with the UN
and earnings

in dollars

Though seemingly addressed to a person, these lines can apply to an idealist who shares a dream of a better word:

I may create space
for you to stand but I can’t
become the legs

The same line of thinking is apparent in the poem called “Shrinking into Itself”

I can’t turn my inside out
Nor know life’s weight when weightless.

Dr Singh reflects on social hypocrisy with satire as in the following lines

Of awakening in group
They jump and lie on each other
In the name of sadhana

Dr Singh also has a word of advice for the so called defenders of morals:

Culture is not repression
But sublimation through expression

There are many poems that reflect on mysticism. Here is one beautiful extract

When seeking nothing
Experiencing nothing ;
Stillness become divine

The subjects of the poems are many and wide ranging. A review like this can only point to the salient qualities of a collection. The poems have to be read to be enjoyed. After all, one can wax eloquent about the sweetness of sugarcane but the other has to drink the sugarcane juice to savour the taste.

--M.D.MELWANI

INDIAN SHORT STORY IN ENGLISH

2010-02-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

Murli Das Melwani : Themes in the Indian Short Story in English:An Historical and A Critical Survey. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2009.Pages 207. Price 175/-
ISBN-978-81-7977-323-9.

As Murli Das Melwani states in the Preface, the aim of the book is to draw attention to the genre of Indian Short Stories in English by critically surveying its historical development from 1835 to the present. He delineates the characteristic thematic features of various authors in seven sections divided into several sub-sections. However, as the writer says in the Preface, “The scope of this book is limited to stories collected and published in the book form.” Neither the book includes uncollected published short stories, retold stories, fairytales and long short stories, nor does it include translated short stories.

In the ‘Introduction’, Melwani traces the development of short story from Kathasaritsagar to Raja Rao without excluding its development as a form in the West. He takes into account early practitioners such as E.T.W. Hoffman, N. V. Gogol, Merimee, Balzac, Gautier, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane, O’Henry, and H. G. Wells etc in the West and Sudhin Ghosh, R. K. Narayan, Raja Rao and others in India.

The first section entitled ‘The Beginnings:1835-1935’ includes authors such as Pallab Sengupta, Soshee Chunder Dutt, Cornelia Sorabjee, S. B. Banerjea, Dhan Gopal Mukerji, A. S. Panchpakesa Ayyar, C. T. Ramabhai etc. These early Indian writers in English paved the way for the great trio of Indian English Fiction, namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K.Narayan, and Raja Rao who are all discussed separately in Section II of the book. In ‘The First Flowering: 1935-1945’ Melwani includes such other writers as Manjeri S. Isvaran, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Ela Sen, and Louis Gracious who enriched the nationalist movement of the period with their writing.

Section III deals with several celebrated authors of 1950s such as Attia Hossain,
Khushwant Singh, G. D. Khosla, and others who reflected on human characters vis-à-vis economic development in the early phase of Post-Independence India.

Section IV, ‘The Second Flowering: 1960-1970 ’ deals with some well known writers such as R. P. Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond, Bhabani Bhattacharya who are less moral but more satirical and paradoxical in their treatment of themes.

Section V is aptly titled as ‘The Blossoming’ because it covers the plethora of short story writers such as Padma Hejmadi, Keki N. Daruwalla, Anita Desai, Hamdi Bey, Kamala Das, Arun Joshi, Manohar Malgaonkar, and others who flourished during the 1970s and 1980s.

They deal with a variety of themes such as changing ways of small town Indian life, human psyche, parables, politics, the army etc.

The following chapter, Section VI ‘An Extended Spring’ takes into account contemporary writers such as Vikram Chandra, Amit Chaudhuri, Githa Hariharan, Anita Nair, Uma Parameswaran, Meher Pestonji, and others who contemplate on themes such as mystery, fantasy, migration, homosexuality, tradition versus modernity etc.

The final section ‘The Prospect’ provides details about the history of publishing houses. It also mentions the neglected women publishers such as Kali, Katha, Stree, Tara, Tulika, Yoda, Karadi, Zubaan, Women Unlimited, and Biblio. It also talks about the future of Indian Short Story in English. The section reflects on absence of literary prizes in India and mentions positive developments such as Vodaphone Crossword Book Award, Indiaplaza Golden Book Awards, Readerr’s Choice award etc for promoting short story writing and reading.

One of the significant features of the book is that it includes details about the lesser known writers along with well known writers. Critical surveys generally cover only the well known names.

The Bibliography can be of great help to researchers because it provides detailed information about anthologies of short stories from the time as early as 1908.

On the negative side, however, the book excludes mention of some well known contemporary writers such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Farrukh Dhondy, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Rohinton Mistry etc. The book would have been strengthened with their discussion even if the motive of the writer may have been to acquaint the readers to lesser known names which most books tend to ignore. Yet, it is a significant publication, useful to every researcher and students of Indian English Writing.

__________________________________________________________________________

* Sudeshna Pandey: M.Phil Scholar. Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Jharkhand.
** R.K.Singh: Professor and Head, Dept of HSS, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad.

MY HAIKU ON ASAHI.COM

2010-01-17T03:33:00.000-08:00

Asahi Haikuist Network, January 15, 2010 has published the following haiku I composed last year:

He reads haiku
over Indian whisky
in Scotland

http://www.asahi.com/english/haiku/100115.html

Thanks David for using this one in "From the Notebook".