Abhay K.| Poet, Editor, Translator| : September 2011

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Civil Servant's Tale

The Civil Servant's Tale by Abhay K. is a must read for all Civil Services Aspirants. A candid and inspiring story of a diplomat from Nalanda to New Delhi.
- Founder UPSCPortal.com

Book available at

http://www.flipkart.com/books/8189640399

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Advance praise for Abhay K.'s new poetry book Candling the Light

Candling the Light is a collection of unassumingly plain meditations on everyday life shorn off the usual poetic embellishments. They are soothingly optimistic considering the tension-fraught world that we live in.

- K. Satchidanandan,Noted Poet & Literary Critic of India

In Candling the Light the poet looks for the cosmos in the depths of his own heart and asks questions from the universe to know himself and the meaning of human existence.

- Prof. Guzel V. Strelkova, Moscow State University

Candling the Light is about poet's desire to make difference to someone's life through his poetry. When he reminisces about the past he is moving. Recollections of his grandmother and father strike a deeply poignant note that we can identify with.

- Jehanara Wasi, Editor of several books of poetry

Abhay K.'s poetry gives Indian English poetry a fundamentally new supranational character, at the same time preserving traditions.

- Prof. Irina Burova, St. Petersburg State University

Through the poems in the collection Candling the Light, Abhay K. brings out the beauty and grace of the human mind in meditation, through well-chosen words that fit into rare aesthetic patterns.

-Dr.A.J.Thomas, Editor, Indian Literature

Candling the Light is, arguably, the most refreshing and noteworthy of Abhay K.'s works till date, especially in its orientation around key human emotions and experiences, like love, loss, family ties, spontaneous kindness from a stranger et al.

- Gautam Chakrabarty, Ast. Professor Eng. Lit. Delhi University

Life in the Indian Foreign Service

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Please direct all your queries at http://www.abhayk.com/2014/01/life-in-indian-foreign-service.html

Life in the Indian Foreign Service

-Abhay K.

Please take out a moment to watch this video...support our home planet to get an anthem

Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is unlike any other Civil Service such as Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Indian Police Service (IPS). An Indian Foreign Service officer spends most of his/her time abroad ( two-third of his/her career) and only one third of career in India at the headquarters of the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) in New Delhi.

After joining the Indian Foreign Service, for which one has to be generally at the top of the ranking order in Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) of India, one is sent to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in Mussorie for training for a period of three months where he/she is known as Foreign Service Probationer/ Officer Trainee.

After completing the three months training, which involves training in multiple disciplines including a foreign language, horse riding and trekking in high Himalayas, a Foreign Service Probationer moves to the Foreign Service Institute located in New Delhi for further training.

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At the Foreign Service Institute, which is located on Baba Gangnath Marg near Jawaharlal University (JNU) campus, a Foreign Service Probationer undergoes training for a year which involves International Relations, Indian Foreign Service Pay, Leave and Compensatory Allowances (IFS-PLCA) Rules, Foreign Trade, functioning of Indian missions in neighbouring South Asian countries, attachments with the Army, Navy and the Air Force, attachment with the district and the state administration and attachment with the corporate sector.

CAPITALS

"As the world shrinks and border fences go up, and travel becomes both easier and more difficult, Capitals looks like the book to have. Frequent flyers can here rest awhile as can nimble-footed backpackers, and for those who are still curious to see what the poets in Moroni or Tegucigalpa are doing, I cannot think of a better place to begin." —Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

"In striking voices of every hue and shade, from some of the greatest cities of our globe, Capitals marries word and verse to elegance and fire, transporting history's ghosts and tomorrow's hopes in an inspiring journey of the soul." —Shashi Tharoor

"...disturbing and poignant....what an anthology!"—Shobhaa De

"This anthology is a powerful evocation of cities, communities and urban spaces across cultures and continents, histories and timelines." —Namita Gokhale

On Poetry of Abhay K.

"The geographies, both material and spiritual, of Nepal, the pinnacle of our world, have never been more lovingly rendered than in this, Abhay K’s splendid poetic sequence of praise, dazzlement, and wonder for a realm in which he sojourned as both a pilgrim and a friend."—Vijay Seshadri, Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

"Abhay K.'s words don’t sit outside and observe. They dig in, making their subject their home, and then they turn outwards, watching the landscape, the people, the city, change. The city makes him feel, and these feelings seep into his words." —The Hindu Book Review

"Abhay K’s Seduction of Delhi is not so much a city transformed as tenderly opened up and invited to commune with the world around it in both time and place.The transformations are gentle and humane: the history is deep and lightly worn. This is a beautiful way to be introduced to a great city as both specific and essence." —George Szirtes, Winner T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry

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

"Qualities of love, tenderness and compassion set Abhay K's work apart from much of the general run of current poetics."— Jayanta Mahapatra, Major Indian Poet

"Abhay K has a special gift. His poetic mission, rare today, is simply to praise. His poems shimmer with a deep human appreciation of the gift of life and its fragile tapestry. I see them as Vedic hymns of praise in contemporary dress."—Gabriel Rosenstock, Major Irish Poet

"In these rapturous poems (in The Eight-Eyed Lord Of Kathmandu) Abhay K catches the allure and mystique of Kathmandu; its maze of medieval streets, its thronged bazaars, its twilit courtyards." —Cathal O'Searcaigh, Major Irish Poet

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