Friday, January 10, 2014

T. S. Eliot Prize winner poet George Szirtes on Abhay K's 'Seduction of Delhi'

 T. S. Eliot Prize winner poet George Szirtes on Abhay K's 'The Seduction of Delhi'




'One may visit a city and one may live in it. To experience it as a presence and a history is more than either, and to experience it as poetry is sublime. Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities shows us Venice in many fantastical transformations. Abhay K. Kumar’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. So, in the Places section of the book, the poem on Nehru Park presents us with a ‘blue moon in full bloom / birds transmuting into humans’ on a spot where ‘Nehru is in dialogue with Lenin / and the universe’ while among the Portraits we meet the ubiquitous auto rickshaws, each ‘a triangle-on wheels’ that criss-crosses Delhi like ‘a kite soaring against the wind’ that carries the city on its wings.
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

2 comments:

  1. Sir it has been revealed that Ms. devyani Khobragade , IFS. Was able to overtake a batchmate. 2 ranks before her and get the language posting of her choice (german) simply because her father and uncle were senior beurocrats. . Is this a common occurance in the entire foreign service system ?
    Also sir I have noticed that all the senior most diplomats of our country have a direct parental link to the system either in the form of army, beurocracy, etc for eg. Ms nirupama Raos father was in the army , ms . sujatha sing hs father was an intelligence bureau chief , Mr. S. Jaishankars father was a sr. Diplomat himself . Why do we see this occurance sir ? Does it indicate a pre requisite to reach that level of seniority in the service ?

    Thank you for providing me a platform to ask my queries sir .
    Regards,
    Vidhya

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  2. DEAR SIR
    I WANT TO KNOW THAT DOES THESE IFS OFFICERS GETS ALL THEIR RENT ELECTRICITY BILLS . WATER CONNECTION BILLS AND TRANSPORTATION BILLS PAID BY GOVERNMENT
    OR THEY GET ALLOWANCE ON IT
    AND FROM WHERE CAN I GET ALL INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR ALLOWANCES AND SALARY AND PROMOTION STRUCTURE AFTER 7 PAY COMMISSIONS.
    THANKYOU

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