Remains by Abhay K features in Booktasting: Sunday Standard

Diplomat-Poet Abhay K's poetry book Remains

Talia Bentson bringing poems of poet Abhay K to life

Watch model and jazz singer Talia Bentson bringing poems of poet Abhay K to life, from his latest poetry collection Remains

Remains

Remains: A New Collection of Poems by Abhay K

K. Satchidanandan reads from Abhay K.'s Candling the Light

Noted poet and literary critic K. Satchidanandan reads from poet-diplomat Abhay K's latest poetry book Candling the Light at the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi

Abhay K latest poetry book Candling the Light released

Abhay K.'s third collection of poems from the period 2005-2007 was released at Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi by Director General of ICCR Suresh K. Goel in presence of K. Satchidanandan, J.P. Das, A.J. Thomas, Sandeep Marwah and Padma Sri awardee artist S.V. Rama Rao. Amb. Bal Anand, Amb. Surinder Malik, Amb. Amarendra Khatua and other senior official and diplomats.

Abhay K.'s interview to The Hindu

Abhay K.'s interview to The Hindu on the occasion of the release of his new poetry book Candling the Light

Poet Abhay K. whose latest anthology, “Candling the Light”, releases this Thursday tells Anjana Rajan of his vision for humanity

Shastri Bhawan, home to many government offices, is not what one associates with the stuff of poetry. Yes, one might think of it as the place where files moulder and dreams await fulfilment, sometimes for endless years. But a place where dreamers go daily and work for the betterment of society? Not quite the right use of words, one would object. Yet this is where you will find poet Abhay K., an Under Secretary in the Government of India's External Affairs Ministry. What's more, he sees no dichotomy between his job and his poet's vocation.

Release of Abhay K's poetry book Candling the Light

Open publication - Free publishing - More abhayk

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

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

Note: Readers' comments are not visible under the comments section of this post due to number of comments exceeding the limit. Your queries will remain unanswered if you post it under this article.

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.

Note: Readers' comments are not visible here due to number of comments exceeding the limit. Please direct all your queries to another post of the same title at http://www.abhayk.com/2013/05/life-in-indian-foreign-service.html

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)