Life in the Indian Foreign Service

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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. 

Best of SAARC Poetry

Abhay K. has listed below some of the best poems from Beyond Borders: An anthology of SAARC poetry edited by Ashok Vajpayee published by Rainbow Publishers in 2002 in association with Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, New Delhi

Fatima Hassan

I can also Live like the Wind 

For you

I am the bitter Neem tree

Its fruit you cannot taste

Even if you wanted to

All you can do is rest for a while

In its shade

For I am also green in colour.

Some time back a jinn used to live in me

But after a long journey

I refused to recognize him as a jinn

And he was offended.

I did not try to placate him

Since the lessons the passing seasons have taught me

Include this lesson:

I can also live like the wind.

Translated from Urdu by Asif Aslam Farrukhi

Perveen Shakir

Where Do I figure in Your Life, My Love?

Where do I figure in your life, my love?

In the freshness of the morning breeze

Or in the sheen of the evening star.

In the reluctant drizzle

Or in the laughing rain,

In the cool of moonlit night

Or in the indifference of afternoons.

In deep thoughts

Or in some casual tune?

How do you take me?

As a puff of cigarette

A toast for weather?

Of that famous temporal tragedy

In which one love affair is dead

And the other not yet born.

Am I your summer resort?

Or just one long weekend?

Where do I figure in your life, my love?

(translated from Urdu by Lesilie Lavinge and Baidur Bakht)

M.A. Nuhman

When I was waiting for the White Dove

I was waiting in my courtyard

For the arrival of the white dove

The hawk came first

And took away my chiks

Then

Came a vulture

And landed on the coconut tree

In my courtyard

It purges a volley of shells

Tearing apart my house and living

My souls withers

And I am refugee once again.

(Translated from Tamil by Sumathy and the author)

A Diplomatic Web

  The New Indian Express, Sunday 7 August 2011

Abhay K.s visit to the United States (17 June-16 July 2011)

Abhay K. visited Washington DC where he studied American Foreign Policy at the Elliot School,  George Washington University, visited Harvard Univerity and MIT in Boston, United Nations and New York Times Headquarters in New York, Farm Houses in Wisconsin and Silicon Valley and Stanford University in San Francisco. (17 June-16 July 2011)

Russian Contemporary Art from the collection of Abhay K on display in Delhi

New Delhi, Jun 8 (ANI): An exhibition of Russian contemporary art from the private collection of Indian artist, poet, and diplomat Abhay Kumar will showcase another facet of universalism and creative diversity at the Russian Centre in New Delhi from 9-16 June 2011.

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Video of the Art Exhibition of Russian Art in New Delhi

Abhay K reads his poems at Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi

Indian diplomat turned artist presents his work on planetary consciousness

Virtual Tour of exhibition We Have Come Far with Abhay K & Rajeev Lochan

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition We Have Come Far with Abhay K and Rajeev Lochan, Director, National Gallery of Modern Art

We Have Come Far- Art Exhibition of Abhay K curated by Suneet Chopra

Open publication - Free publishing - More abhay k

Life is a profusion of different colours, forms, shapes and  stages of development and Abhay's art which is essentially Naive Art reflects all these stages in a spontaneous manner and then this spontaneity has its own sequences and its own approach to reality. What I find fascinating about his work is that he goes from very individual signs to broader symbols so that you can understand the individual impact of colour and form at any particular time as well as (get) general understanding of certain colours and forms. So his art is not just an individual expression it is also rooted in general forms, colours and (their)developments.

Abhay's art can be understood as the attempt of self taught artists to capture life around them and express their emotions. As a genre it is part of Naive Art and it is interesting how he uses a blend of dots, lines, colours, spaces and even geometric shapes to give us a rounded picture of the works he is exhibiting here (We Have Come Far). Naive art has a special quality in that it is very closely related to the expression of the artist and it has in fact also references to a number of art forms. For example a number of his works remind you of Cubists, there are others that remind you of Pointillists, and other forms of art; however the way he has blended them all together is his own and the way he has progressed through the whole exhibition is also his own.

-Suneet Chopra

Latest column of Abhay K in Governance Now

Abhay K column on Twitter turning five on 21st March 2011 in Governance Now.

Twitter turned five on 21st March this year. It has already changed the way the world interacts.Twitter widens and deepens democracy. It reflects the swinging global opinion.Twitter is frivolous and very serious at the same time. It undermines as well as complements traditional media. Twitter is inexpensive. It costs nothing. That's why it is such a great tool of direct democracy. Read the full column at Twitter-Instant Voice of the Planet Turns Five

Abhay K receives Gov2.in-2011 Award

Abhay K receives social media award on behalf of Public Diplomacy Division

New Delhi, March 12 (IANS)

The Public Diplomacy division (MEA) was given the Gov2.in Award for being the first central ministry to propagate and use social media extensively as a communication tool to connect with the ordinary citizen.
The event was held Friday evening at a function at Hotel Le Meridien here. The award was received by Abhay Kumar, under secretary, Public Diplomacy, on behalf of the division.

Full article at http://www.deccanherald.com/content/145189/public-diplomacy-division-gets-social.html

Harmonious Palette- Poetry Anthology in 11 Languages Released

Harmonious Palette is a new poetry anthology published in St. Petersburg, Russia. The new book has poems in 11 languages. It carries four poems of Abhay K.



The Soul Song

Moments

The Garden

 &

I Saw Leaves Dancing With Joy






The Soul Song

I was always there
As the blowing wind
Or the falling leaves,
As the shining sun
Or the flowing streams,
As the chirping birds
Or the blooming buds,
As the blue sky
Or the empty space
I was never born
I did not die…

Prestigious Art & Literary journal 'Severnaya Aurora' publishes Abhay K's Poems

Prestigious Art & Literary journal 'Severnaya Aurora' publishes Russian translation of  Abhay K's Poems titled 'Reflection' in its 12th Volume of 2010-

Poems can be read here .

Latest Publications by Abhay K (Jan 2011)

Latest publications of Author Abhay K include-

What makes the 21st century different from the 20th?

&

India is Fast Becoming Asia's Art & Literary Hub

Abhay K's Birth of Global Democracy as lead edit page article in Times of India

Abhay K's article 'Birth of Global Democracy' appeared as the lead article at the edit page of India's leading English language daily Times of India on 21st January 2011.