Author Bios, May 2008

Indian Harvest

Biographies of the Haiku Authors

A. Sethuramiah

I am a technologist by profession and retired as professor from IIT Delhi some years back. I did my doctorate at Tokodai (Tokyo Institute of Technology) during 69-73. Heavy schedule did not allow me to learn Japanese except for spoken Japanese to manage the day-to-day life. At that time I read some English translations of Haiku and liked them. As I am now working only part-time professionally decided to take more interest in haiku. I published earlier few haiku in Mainichi haiku column. At present I contribute to 'Your Space' of muse India which is a literary ejournal under the name S. Abburi. I consider haiku form of poetry is well suited to Indian ethos though in time it may deviate from the western and Japanese forms. I am happy there is so much interest in this genre of poetry today in the country.

A. Thiagarajan

A postgraduate in English, A. Thiagarajan (1949 born) taught in colleges in India, before joining the finance sector. He has been writing in English and Tamil since college days. His work (poems, haiku, short stories and articles) has appeared in Subtle Tea, Poetic Diversity, A Little Poetry, Poetry Canada, Ygdrasil, Lililitreview, SAWF, Tinywords, pwreview, poetrysuperhighway, betterkarma, DNA, NDTV, Indolink, The Heron's Nest, Haiku Harvest, Asahi, Paperwasp, Roadrunner, Simply Haiku, Cloudspeak, Velvetillusion, Boloji.com, Meghdulam, and Mainichi. Nuances of relationship between individuals, mental pain and cruelty we inflict on each other and ourselves are his obsession. Interests include finance, Sri Aurobindo and mythology. He lives in Mumbai, India with his wife, Rama. His only child, Ganesh, has just started working in the USA.

Aju Mukhopadhyay

Aju Mukhopadhyay is a poet, essayist, feature and fiction writer. His features and articles include travel, food, health, culture, festivals, nature, environment, spiritualism. He has authored 12 books in Bangla and 11 in English. He edited two little magazines for short stories between 1967 and 1970, a literary in 1993 and a daily mini magazine in 1970. Some of his stories and poems have been translated in other languages, included in anthologies and broadcast through All India Radio. He has been regularly writing in magazines, e-zines and occasionally in newspapers.

He has four books of poems published in English titled, The Witness Tree, Short Verse Vast Universe (mainly Haiku), The Paper Boat and in celebration of Nature which have been highly acclaimed in magazines and newspaper s.

He was awarded Certificate of Competence as a Published Writer by the Writers Bureau, Manchester, Best Poet of the Year-2003 by the Poets International, Bangalore, and 2007 Editor’s Choice Published Poet award by the International Library of Poetry, USA. He is a member of the Research Board of Advisors of the American Biographical Institute.

A member of various literary and other organizations, he is a nature and animal lover; works and writes for them.

Amitava Dasgupta.

Amitava was born in Calcutta, India and attended college in India. He then went to US for advanced study. He writes poetry from his childhood both in Bengali, his native language and English. More recently he is focusing on writing haiku. His haiku have appeared in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Moonset, Paper wasp and other haiku journals and magazines. He is also the recipient of many haiku awards both in national and international haiku contest. Most recently he is a recipient of Sakura Award in 2008 Haiku Invitational organized by Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Committee. For his day job he is a Professor of Pathology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. He lives in Houston with his wife Alice and two cats.

Dr Angelee Deodhar

is an ophthalmologist by profession, and now works as a haiku poet, translator, haiga artist and a homemaker. Through haiku she has tried to build a bridge of friendship between India and the other countries where she has been presenting her work.

Dr. (Ms.) Angelee Deodhar

H No. 1224, Sector – 42 B

Chandigarh 160 036 U.T.

e-mail : angeleedeodhar@gmail.com

B. Vadivelrajan

I hail from Tamilnadu. My poetry writing started from my school days and I have written number of poems in Tamil, which were published in the college souvenirs and in the in house bulletins of the organizations I had been working for. I had been the editor of “Trumpet” the Organ of the local chapter of Junior Chamber International at SPIC Nagar, Tuticorin. I tried haiku writing during my college days in a small way and currently after becoming a member of WHC I have started writing haiku under the guidance of Kala Ramesh who is giving a lot of support. I participated in the World Haiku Festival – 2008 at Bangalore, India.

I am also a Chemical Engineer with an MBA degree and am working for a Power Plant in Tamilnadu.

Bhavani

A great love for dogs, chocolate and happiness, Bhavani lives and works in Mumbai.

Charishma Ramchandani

I'm a trained Nursery school teacher residing in Pune, Maharashtra - India. I moved here exactly a year back, i.e., in April' 2007. I'm an Indian who lived a major chunk of her life in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman and now am getting accustomed to the Indian way of life. I plan to start my own nursery school this academic year - June. Children are extremely close to my heart and I want to do my best to make this world a better place for them. I believe if one has a positive outlook to life, then one can inspire and set one's mark in this world I've been writing haiku since a little shy of 6 years now. I learnt it out of interest through various websites and then taught for over a year on www.poetry.com - a very good experience! It was initially a passion, then an addiction and now a part of day-to-day life. My other interests are: painting, making objects out of plaster of paris, chocolate making, helping others through esoteric sciences such as Tarot and Numerology and watching television to name a few.

Gautam Nadkarni

is an artist living in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in India. A chemistry graduate from Bombay University by qualification he gradually gravitated towards the fine arts and literature, which he now says, are his first love. He started reading and writing haiku about one and a half years ago and since then his haiku, and subsequently senryu, have been published in most of the leading online and print haiku journals. Later he started writing tanka and his work has been accepted by some of the leading tanka journals in the world. But he says that haiku is his first love and tanka and senryu are incidental. He says: "Although I have been published pretty widely in so many journals and magazines I still consider myself a beginner - just a beginner - in pursuit of that haiku moment which is so hard to capture. Yes, I still have a long, long way to go!"

Geethanjali Rajan

teaches English at the University level and hopes that she will forever remain a student, “constantly learning”. Her initial training was in Nutrition and Microbiology. After a few years of corporate work, she decided to go back to University and pursue the study of English. She lives in Chennai with her parents, husband and daughter in a 60-year-old house with a mango tree in the front yard and a leaking roof, all requiring constant care!

She started writing haiku in 2003. She has also written features and other forms of poetry – “mostly to make sense of the world we inhabit”. Someday, she hopes to be able to devote a sizeable chunk of her time and energy to quality writing. Her main concerns in poetry are to be able to “write in a context that is relevant locally but not restrictively”. To her the greatest challenge in writing is to “make the personal reach out without it seeming to be just a moment of personal angst”.

Her interests include Indian classical music, reading (anything she can lay her hands on), and Japanese language. Her greatest concern is to be able to contribute to value-based education where prejudices don’t rule (“I am an idealist – fortunately or unfortunately”).

G S P Rao (Surya)

is a software designer by professional background. He held senior executive positions in Information Technology companies before turning to full time writing and editing. He is founding managing editor of Muse India, the first literary web journal fully devoted to showcasing Indian writings in English and translations from all regional literatures of India. The web journal (www.museindia.com), an initiative of a few writers, is run purely on voluntary work of all its editors and writers, and is maintained as a free site for promotion of Indian literatures globally on the internet.

Surya has three publications to his credit – a collection of poems Meghamitra and Other Poems (2004); a collection of short fiction The Lock at the Gate (2004) and a historical biography of the legendary 16th century emperor Krishnadeva Raya – the poet Emperor of Vijayanagara (2004).

Besides his Engineering degree, Surya also has a Master’s in Philosophy.

He can be reached at managingeditor@museindia.com

Harish Suryanarayana

is a final year Electrical Engineering Dual Degree student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. He has been writing prose and poetry for about 4 years now and has won the Creative Writing contest at Saarang - one of India's biggest yearly college cultural festivals. He has been penning haiku for about a year now. He enjoys solving crosswords and word puzzles. He is also fond of Indian art music and is currently learning Carnatic vocals.

Dr Jagdish Vyom

is the editor of the the first print Indian bilingual (Hindi- English) journal Haiku Darpan, devoted solely to haiku and its related genres .He writes in Hindi. He is the principal of a government school in Delhi and has taken up the challenge to introduce haiku in Hindi across not only in the country but also on an International scale.

Dr. Jagdish Vyom

Editor, Haiku Darpan

D-6, Sector – 12,

Noida

e-mail: jagdishvyom@gmail.com

Johannes Manjrekar, born 1957.

Spent – or misspent - most of my childhood and youth in Mysore in South India. Grew up imagining I was going to be an entomologist when I had finished growing up. As it turned out, one never finishes growing up, and I never became an entomologist. Studied biology in college and did a Ph.D. in molecular biology. Teaching biology at the MS University of Baroda almost more or less ever since.

Married since 1986, one almost twenty year-old daughter. Presently we live as a scattered family dispersed over Baroda (me), Mumbai (wife) and Delhi (daughter).

Discovered haiku…a good while back. Also enjoy writing haibun. Sometimes indulge in longer forms of writing that have nothing to do with haikai. Children’s verse and prose too. Also keen on photography.

K. Ramesh

writes haiku, tanka and free verse. His poems have appeared in journals published in India and abroad. Some of his works have been included in the following anthologies:

1. Voices For The Future: A collection of poems brought out by Poetry Society India and British Council Division

2. Wild Flowers, New Leaves: World Haiku Anthology

3. Pegging The Wind Anthology: Red Moon Press

He is the author of a haiku anthology titled Soap Bubbles - published by Red Moon Press.

Kala Ramesh

An exponent of Hindustani Classical Music, Kala Ramesh writes:

"A musical note lives for a moment and fades into the void . . . that sacred silence. And Indian Classical Music, being extempore, is as fresh as a just bloomed lily. Being very similar in form, music attracted me to haiku. In both, I believe there is a resonance that lingers in the spirit long after the sound has faded”

A recently turned haiku poet in 2005, Kala's work, consisting of haiku, tanka, senryu, haibun, renku [collaborative linked verses] and one-line haiku has appeared in leading e-zines and anthologies.

Kala comes from an extremely artistic and culturally rich South Indian family and believes — as her father is fond of saying, that "the soil needs to be fertile for the plant to bloom" and feels that she owes this poetic streak in her to her mother.

A proud mother of two young adults, Kala lives with her husband in Pune, India

Kalpana R J

is an erudite scholar and a perceptive critic. She obtained her Doctorate in English from the University of Mumbai. Her Doctoral thesis "A Critique of Feminism" was highly eulogized for its original thought content and refreshingly lucid style. She has published a three volume set on Feminist Issues In Indian Literature - Feminism and Family, Feminism and The Individual, Feminism and Sexual Poetics, which was released during the International Conference for Commonwealth Literature. In addition, she has had published a book of poetry titled - Temple Dreams. She is currently working on two biographies - one of which is on the Life and Times of a Hindu Missionary. Professionally, she is a Management Consultant on Knowledge Management.

Kameshwara Rao

is a technical writer with a software firm in Pune.

Kumarendra Mallick

After completing matriculation (1958) from Ravenshaw Collegiate School and Intermediate in Science (1960), in Cuttack, Kumarendra Mallick proceeded to IIT Kharagpur for higher studies. He carried out research at National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad in Earth Sciences, especially in exploration geophysics for mineral and groundwater. He received his Ph.D. from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. During 1969-71 he carried out research in Germany. He was a senior faculty at IIT Bombay (1978-83), a visiting professor in University of Naples, Italy (1985) and a visiting scientist in University of Karlsruhe, Germany (1988). His research in electromagnetic methods earned him Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1986. After retirement from NGRI (December 2001), he continued his research as an Emeritus Scientist.

He writes short articles and poems in English, Hindi and Oriya.

He can be reached at mallik_ku@yahoo.com

Malini Rao

a BFA (Fine Arts-Gold Medalist) M.Des (IIT Bombay) M.S (Michigan) is a software Engineer at Oracle, Boston. A child prodigy and acclaimed child artist, she has won National and International awards. Interests are music, dance, poetry, painting. Selected as child ambassador of peace for Birds of Peace International Festival at Bulgaria. First publication- “Conversations in the Sky”- two volumes of chap books- also published in “Still” Magazine of London. Resides at Boston with her husband and son Aditya.

Noted critic and columnist, C.H. Prahlada Rao writes that ‘each of her poem strikes you by its freshness and originality; the observations or experiences come to us in images that shock, surprise or puzzle. Of few poets can it be said that their poems haunt you, compel you to go back to them, again and again’

Commenting on Malini’s work, Randy Brooks, poet and active member of the Haiku Society of America says – ‘Some haiku go right into a moment of insight and intuition, with a wonderful compassion for all living and suffering creatures. Others go into human refreshing. Wonderful smells and tastes and connections!”

Minal Sarosh

is a post-graduate in English Lit. from Gujarat University. A collection of her poems 'Mitosis and other poems' was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta in 1992. Her poems have appeared in The Times of India, Ahmedabad, Femina, Journal of Poetry Society India, Chandrabhaga, Emerging Voices, Voices of Hope, Poetry Chronicle, The Silken Web and Winners Vol. III (Unisun Publications), Indian Haiku, Muse India, e-literary journal.

She has won awards in All India Poetry Competition 2005 (Poetry Society India, Delhi), Creative Writing Competition 2006 of Unisun Publications, Bangalore and SMS Poetry Competition 2007 and 2008 of Kala Godha Festival, Mumbai.

Mukul Dahal

Born, brought up and educated in the himalayan kingdom, Nepal, Mukul Dahal is a poet, translator and editor. Currently he lives in Swansea, UK, studies and writes. He edits Pen Himalaya (http://penhimalaya.netfirms.com), a literary quarterly that publishes poetry, haiku, short stories and interviews. He has a book of poems originally written in Nepali to his credit. His poetry has appeared in the literary journals at home and abroad. He is a member of Baani Prakashan, Sahitya Sanchar Samuha, World Poets' Society, Magnapoets, World Haiku Club India and World Poetry Press.

Prof. N.K. Singh

former Chairman of International Airports authority who also taught Management in various countries, now paints, writes and works for public interest in a forest of Himachal Pradesh.

Narayanan Raghunathan [R. Narayanan]

Studied Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy ~

Published the following books:

1] Kalki ~ The Last Coming ~ [Philosophical Aphorisms]

2] Scrap Bits from the Note-books of a Lunatic ~ [Philosophical Aphorisms]

3] Infinite Flame Silences [Haiku Collection]

4] Apocalyptic Rapture [Haiku ~ With Amanda Cazalet]

5] The Solitary Infinity ~ Obituary to Transfinity ~

[Philosophy of Mathematics]

6] Infinite Cosmoses Of Infinite Algorithms for Infinite Transcendental Numbers ~ [Mathematics]

Books to be published soon ~

1] Infinite Cosmoses Of Infinite Rhythmic Continued Fractions

[Mathematics ~ Number Theory]

2] Infinite Cosmoses Infinite Silences [A novel]

Website with Music, Mantram-s, Graphics, Photography etc.

http://auminfinitecosmoses.com/

A general participatory Haiku site hosted by Narayanan and Shyam Santhanam ~ http://www.wonderhaikuworlds.com/

I write Poetry Haiku, Senryu, Tanka, Vachana Poetry etc. I am trying to render as many Karnatik raagam-s into Dhrupad bani. Languages known ~ English, Malayalam, Tamizh, Hindi & Sanskrit. I am also learning Spanish, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Arabic.

Parimala Rao

a B.A.B.Ed, worked as teacher.Interests- literature,philosophy,music. In to writing –Haiku, Zen short stories ,childern and social stories. Publications- 16 books in kannada and English. First woman to bring haiku in to main stream of kannada literature. Awards- “Kuvempu prasasti, Sir M. Visweswariah prasasti, Honoured at Garden of world poets in India. Spring Award from London based STILL magazine,Review in Voice and Verse of U.K. based journal.

Randy Brooks , a leading Haiku exponent, and a Member of the Haiku Society of America, comments that some of Parimala’s works seems dreamlike , which is ‘unusual but interesting for Haiku’. Parimala has also experimented with fusion expressions involving Haiku and miniature paintings. While her Haiku stump their reader with their brevity, the miniature Haiga amazes the viewer. British poet, Mr. Bernad M .Jackson comments, “ Here is an artist who can paint in words, and to whom the whole world is canvas.”

Mr. Kazuyosi Ikeda, professor of Emeritus of Osaka university writes-“Parimala Rao has established magnificent haiku including seasons, and has thus recovered the exquisite fundamental and important essentials of originally established Japanese haiku . Her literary accomplishment in haiku is peerlessly remarkable”

Puja Maluste

I write Haiku in Marathi, one of the vernacular language of India. I started writing Haiku in 1995 & published a book in 1996 named Haikunchya Vatevarâ (on the path of Haiku).

I like to read any type of literature but fond of Haiku & poetry. I started learning Japanese language to

know more about haiku & passed Sanque level (3rd level) of JLPT.

Ram Krishna Singh

born, brought up and educated in Varanasi, is a university whose main fields of interest consist of Indian English Writing, especially poetry and English for Specific Purposes, especially for science and technology. He has authored over 160 academic articles, 170 book reviews and 34 books, including ten collections of poems. His collections of haiku and tanka include Every Stone Drop Pebble (jointly with Catherine Mair and Patricia Prime, 1999), Peddling Dream (in a bilingual trilogy Pacem in Terris, jointly with Myriam Pierri and Giovanni Campisi, 2003), and The River Returns (2006). His poems have been anthologised in over 140 publications and translated into Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese, German, Greek, Serbian, Esperanto, Spanish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Slovene, Croatian, Kannada, Tamil, and Bangla. His poems and collections are accessible on: http://rksingh.blogspot.com and http://profrksingh.multiply.com

Rajendra Samal

About poet Rajendra Samal veteran author Khushwant Singh once wrote “Every week at least a dozen booklet of stories, poems and essays land on my table. I can’t read all of them – most are unreadably bad. I glance at a few pages and if something catches my eye, I read the rest. So it was with Raju Samal’s In Other words – a slim 50-page collection of his poems. He is a village born Oriya who after having taken a degree in English literature now works for New India Assurance. The lines that attracted my attention were in his Aerial View of Bombay At Night: “As though an unmindful jeweller has gone home leaving his shop open”. You get a vivid picture of the metropolis glittering with a myriad lights as your plane is about to land at Santa Cruz at night.

There were other short poems which speak volumes. “A woman’s tear,“ he tells us, “is like an argument. It explains everything, understands nothing”. And his infatuation with poetry and his sweet-heart: “In this my lane people call me mad. It delights me to let them say so because they mention your name as the only reason for my madness.”

You cannot learn how to write poetry; if it is in you, it erupts like a volcano.”

Since then Samal has published eight volumes of poems, four in English which includes “In Other Words”, “Beyond The Clouds”, “Ripples in the Void” and “Many Moods of Mumbai” and four in his mother tongue Oriya. About his masterpiece “Beyond The Clouds” noted novelist Dilip Bandopadhaya says, “After Tagore’s Gitanjali, the book I have enjoyed most is Raju Samal’s Beyond The Clouds”. He has been anthologized in “The Treasure Token” published by the National Library of Poetry (Maryland, USA).

Reshma Jain

is a free-lance journalist and columnist born and educated in Mumbai but is also a footloose traveler. She is passionate about dance and music. (Sugam sangeet, semi classical) and is also a trained tarot card reader and numerologist. Her other interests include scripture reading and deciphering, world cinema, poetry and aesthetics.

Rohini Gupta

I am from Mumbai and very new to Haiku though I have been a poet for a long time. I am a writer and teacher. I conduct workshops as well as write articles and fiction. I just finished organising a ten day arts festival in Mumbai in January 2008, called the Shamiana festival. I find Haiku very exciting and look forward to a long journey with it.

Srinjay Chakravarti

is a 35-year-old journalist, economist, writer and translator based in Salt Lake

City, Calcutta, India. He works as a freelance writer and researcher. He was educated at St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta and at universities based in Calcutta and New Delhi. University degrees: BSc (Economics honors), MA (English).

He was also admitted to the University of Chicago and enrolled at the London School of Economics.

His poetry and prose have appeared in numerous publications in nearly 30 countries. These include

journals of the University of Chicago, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, University of Otago,

Dunedin, Bilkent University, Ankara and University of Salzburg, Salzburg. His haiku has appeared in The

Heron’s Nest and Shamrock Haiku Journal.

His first book of poems OCCAM’S RAZOR (Writers Workshop, Calcutta: 1994) received the Salt Literary Award from Salt, an Australian literary and publishing organisation headed by writer and academician John Kinsella, in 1995. He has won first prize in the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Poetry Competition 2007.

His journalistic columns include essays and articles on economics, politics, physics (including

astrophysics) and literature (including literary criticism and book reviews).

An interview with him is online at wah.org.uk

(hyperlink: http://www.radiocad.karoo.net/wah3/SrinjayChakravarti/Feature.htm).

Usha Kiran

I am a beginner in Haiku and have recently joined the WHC Beginner’s Group. I enjoy reading and writing Haiku. I work in Bangalore for a software company as a Usability Analyst.

Vidur Jyoti

a Surgeon by profession - exposed to the nuances of language by my mother - I took to poetry rather unknowingly when I composed a blank verse tribute to a caged parrot. Thus I trace the beginning of this journey to the shrine of Muse rather early in my school days. My foray into the field of disease and healing found me looking at life rather more intently. I was learning to attempt to unravel its messages and the result was some prose and verse written in my mother tongue Hindi and in English. Some of my work found its place in an e-zine www.boloji.com. When introduced to Haiku I found a sudden surge in my earlier attempts at communicating with life as it is. I have also contributed to some of the major Haiku groups online. Some of my Tanka compositions have been published in Modern English Tanka. When I am not involved with phenomenon of life professionally I try to delve deeper into it through Indian philosophy and my cameras. I live in Gurgaon, close to New Delhi.

Yajushi