Award for Dr Jernail S Anand

Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού

INDIAN AUTHOR DR. ANAND HONOURED AT THE 60th BELGRADE INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF WRITERS.

Indian Poet and Philosopher Dr. Jernail Anand was honoured at 60th Belgrade International Writers Meeting, with ‘Charter of Morava’, International Award for Creativity. This award carries a plaque and a cash prize of RSD 50000. In a rare gesture, his name has been engraved on the Poet’s Rock in Serbia.

While thanking the Serbian Writers Association, Dr. Anand said that this award will strengthen the cultural and literary movement between the two nations. Sh. Rabindranath Tagore had visited Serbia in 1926 after getting Nobel Prize. Now, this award for Dr. Anand signals new openings for the Indian author.

Dr. Anand, the Franz Kafka Laureate, has authored more than 155 books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, political theory, critical theory, environment, spirituality and philosophy. His major works include ‘Bliss: The Ultimate Magic’, which has been compared with Kahlil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet’. His work, ‘Beyond Life Beyond Death’ has found comparison with T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’. Dr. Roghayeh Farsi, his literary biographer, conducted a Research Project in the Dept. of English at University of Neyshabur, Iran, comparing Dr. Anand’s poetry with two Iranian Poets. His books ‘Bliss’ and ‘I belong to you’ were translated by Prof. Nargues Mohammadi into Persian. His novel ‘The Broken Narrative’ has also been translated into Persian. Prof. Brahm Jagdish Singh, a celebrated critical theorist from Punjab has written his literary biography ‘The Semantic Universe of Dr. Jernail S. Anand’.[Its English translation will be available soon.]

Dr Anand’s great contribution lies in the fact that he has revived the genre of Epic, by writing 9 world class epics. ‘Lustus: The Prince of Darkness’ is his most phenomenal work, which is being prescribed as a PG text in several Universities. This work has been translated into Persian and in Bengali also. Dr. Anand innovated the theory of Bio-text in critical theory. His poems have been translated into twenty world languages.

Dr. Anand is a man of peace. He wants man to return to his natural innocence and shun acquired arrogance born of knowledge. He believes that man’s salvation lies in his realization that he is a part of nature, not its adversary. The philosophy and spiritual tradition of India, including the wisdom of the Vedas and Upanishads can be felt in his poetry. Rahim Karim Karimov’s words are an eye-opener: “The verses of Dr. Anand are imbued with deep philosophy. They feel the depths of the Indian Ocean. They smell of Big Global Literature”.

Commenting on Dr. Anand’s Mahakaal Trilogy, Dr. Maja Herman Sekulic, says: Just to have such a grand vision and vigor to undertake a poem of such epic proportions is a unique accomplishment in the 21st century with no match today. We have to look for comparisons in traditional epic literature or to turn to today’s cinematic epics such as “Star Wars” where good always conquers the bad as is projected to happen in the third art of Anand’s grand trilogy. She goes on to add that: Anand is also the greatest moralist and idealist in 21st century world literature. True moralists are always prone to be great satirists as he had already proven in ‘Lustus’ where I dared to compare him with Daniel Defoe at his sharpest.

Recently, he established International Academy of Ethics. He is also President of Aazaad Foundation, which has organized 5 World Poetry Conferences. Dr Kul Bushan Razdan’s words keep ringing in the mind when he bursts out in poetry while calling Dr. Anand the Supranova of Poetry:

DR JERNAIL S. ANAND: THE POET’S POET

Jernail, thou art the Poet’s Poet,
Poetry comes to thee, as bees to a hive !
Thy creative quintessence of Poetic Virtuosity, Makes the Poetic Plasma of thy fathomless mind, Akin to an Ocean Of Poetic Creativity,
On the surface of which Poems well-up
Like Calliope’s Halcyonic Bubbles, on Mount Olympus !

Jernail, thou art the Zeus of Verse, thy Olympus, is the fathomless mind !
The fathomless brilliance of thy Poetic Acumen, Bemuses, dazzles, puts into raptures, the reader’s mind !
Simplicity , an encapsulating diction,
Make thy poems as fragrant, as arresting as spring flowers !
Similar to winter’s dreams ,
At the breakfast table of the angels !

The simple poetic diction shorn of any Syntagms, Reminds one of the most austere tears,
That our eyes shed in joy, in sadness.
A multitude do thy poems span,
With every poem becoming a Macrocosm of moods, of truths, of events !
And getting scattered across The Playground Of Life !
Every truth in thy every poem, seeps into the reader’s mind, inexorably ! As the Soul sees for herself :
How simple truths, ignored emotions,
Sleep between the restless arms of disturbing dreams .

O, Jernail, may Saraswati, may her Greek Counterpart Calliope,
Further add zest, dynamism, dedication,
To make thy Creative Cosmos, an Inexhaustible Repository of Immortal Facts,
Unswerving Truths,
And thy Mind : A bottomless Crucible,
In which poems emerge like fish,
Across the rippling waves of an azure- blue Spring !