Poet­ Diplomat Abhay K Launches his New Book ‘Monsoon’

Indian ­poet ­diplomat Abhay Kumar (Abhay K), Deputy Director General of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), launched his new book titled “Monsoon: A Poem of Love and Longing”, a book­length poem running across 150 fourline stanzas, at Kathika Culture Centre in Old Delhi, Delhi. The book was published by Sahitya Akademi on the occasion of its 68th anniversary (13th March 2022). The book is a poem that follows the monsoon which originates from Madagascar and travels to the Srinagar in the Himalayas and back to Madagascar.

In the preface to Monsoon: A Poem of Love and Longing, the poet traces how he came to write a love poem that connects India and Madagascar. One of Abhay K’s books is a translation of Kalidasa’s Meghaduta into English. So, this preoccupation with topos – topography, so to say – remains firmly in the poet’s oeuvre.

Forthcoming works of Abhay K:

i. His upcoming book titled ‘Celestial’ (Mapin India) is a poem in 100 rhyming couplets, that details the journey to all the 88­star constellations visible from Earth. It is illustrated with the drawings of star constellations of the 10th­century Persian astronomer Al Rahman Al Sufi.
ii. Penguin Random House is set to publish his translation of the first Magahi novel ‘Phool Bahadur’ by Jayanath Pati in January 2024.

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