Poet-diplomat Abhay K launches his latest book ‘Monsoon’

New Delhi: Poet-diplomat Abhay K on Sunday, July 30, 2023, launched his new book ‘Monsoon’ at Kathika Cultural Centre in Old Delhi.
Vocalist Ananyaa Gaur and her team performed Monsoon ragas, during the launch event.

The award-winning poet and writer’s book-length poem, titled ‘Monsoon’, carries the poet’s heartfelt message from Madagascar to his beloved Srinagar in the Himalayas.

“This poem actually takes you along the real path of the monsoon and introduces you to various things; monuments, biodiversity, cuisine, languages, and so on. It’s an ambitious poem,” said Abhay K.

He added, “In poetry, one must have real emotions… It’s like making a real garden with imaginary toads. One must have someone in mind, who is not really there but can locate that person and write.”

Abhay K’s sifnificant contributions to Indian poetry include his efforts at compiling and translating some of the finest Indian poems, thus reaching a broader audience, and consequently promoting the rich poetic heritage of India across the world.

“In poetry, you have to have real emotions… I mean someone said ‘what is poetry?’ – it’s like making an imaginary garden with real toads. Thus, what you do. You have someone in mind, maybe someone who is not really there but, I mean, you locate that person there and write all about her,” he said.

His forthcoming book is titled ‘Celestial’ (Mapin India), a poem in 100 rhyming couplets, and is described as taking one on a journey to all the 88-star constellations visible from Earth. It is illustrated with the drawings of star constellations of the 10th-century Persian astronomer Al Rahman Al Sufi.

His translation of the first Magahi novel ‘Phool Bahadur’ by Jayanath Pati will be published by Penguin Random House in January 2024.