Subhash Kak

Subhash  Kak has been called India's leading
expressionist poet. He is the author of two other books 
of poetry The Conductor of the Dead and other poems
and The London Bridge and other poems. His poems 
have appeared in leading journals of Hindi and English 
poetry in India and the West.

The Kashmiri Poet of Louisiana

by Anwar Shaikh

Emotion is the basic characteristic of a poet because a good verse cannot come into being until he feels a touch of excitement. Though emotion is one of the three groups of the phenomena of the mind, that is, cognition, will and feeling, it is the exuberance and refinement of feeling, which gives birth to tasteful and elegant poetry. However, nature has been generous to Subhash Kak of Louisiana; he originally comes from the Valley of Kashmir, whose natural scenery testifies to the fact that the Creator made this tract of land with the materials, which may be termed as marvel, mystery and munificence. This young man's poetry is not only enriched with the same elements as the soil of his motherland, but he is also a scientist. Though cognition is not an essential part of poetry, his scientific endowment serves as a bridle to the stallion of his emotions and he gallops at a majestic pace instead of going wild.

Subhash possesses the virtue of couching simplest situations in the manner that is creative and elaborate. This is what elevates him as an expressionist: his style makes the dull night fulgent with moonlight, renders the silent streams sing with ecstasy and induces the sullen birds soar higher and higher in search of satisfaction. There is a deja vu in his art, which makes the reader feel vaguely that he already knows it, though it is the first time he has read it. This is the suggestive power of Subhash, a kind of artistic telepathy.

A true poet is recognised by the reminiscences of his homeland when in a foreign country. This is an expression of his nostalgia, the evidence of his love and loyalty to his past. In his highly moving poem "My Father in Hawaii, " one finds the stunning imagery of Kashmir rolled into the Hawaiian landscape bursting with beauty, bliss and beatitude. His descriptive mastery creates an aura, which exhibits the smiling of buds, colours of a rainbow and melodies of the chirping birds associated with the immortal Valley where he was born and grew up.

The fluency of his verses clearly demonstrates his natural aptitude for poetry. He does not seem to be forcing himself to write a couplet or a stanza. Once he is moved by the effect of an event, it is the ethos of the happening that uses Subhash as the mouthpiece for its expression. No wonder, he has been called "the leading expressionist poet of India" by the National Herald.

The term "Expressionism" is used to describe an artist's deepest feelings. It is this characteristic of Expressionism, which earned the Expressionist drama of Germany the description: "drama of the soul." One can visualise Subhash's soul moving through his verses with hope and desire, yet the Lord Kama cannot be seen anywhere with his erotic arrows in search of pretty damsels. His passion is pure and pious, bordering on perfection, and not touched by the pollution of puerility. The "Inner Sarasvati" clearly demonstrates that the thirst for his ancestral values is being quenched by the genetic stream of enquiry quietly chanting praises of the Lord.

Subhash Kak has to his credit, another two books of poetry, namely "The conductor of the Dead" and "The London Bridge, " but here we are talking about his work: "THE SECRETS OF ISHBAR." This anthology comprises thirty- two poems and spans over sixty-two pages. It is available from: 

VITASTA,
B- 36 DDA Flats,
Saket,
New Delhi 110017, INDIA.

• The Conductor of the Dead and other poems
• The London Bridge and other poems
• The Nature of Physical Reality
• Patanjali and Cognitive Science
• India and Century's End
• The Astronomical Code of the Rgveda
• In Search of the Cradle of Civilization (with George Feuerstein and David Frawley)

Kashmir, Sarasvati, and the Floods in Mohenjo-Daro According to the Nilamata Purana the valley of Kashmir was originally a lake. Geological facts also suggest that the valley was originally a lake, although it is not clear that the entire valley was submerged. Drew, in his book on the geography of Jammu and Kashmir which appeared in 1875, suggested that the legend of the lake in the Nilamata Purana should not be considered to be an independent support of the theory of the lake.  >>>		Thoughts On Violence In Kashmir It has been said that history will judge the dismantling of the socialist system of economy in India to be the most important event of the early nineties, more important than the Gulf War. Notwithstanding this, the recent dialogue between India and the West has been dominated by reports of the militancy in Kashmir and the attendant human rights abuses by the police. Not only has the unrest in Kashmir received considerable attention in the media but President Clinton has mentioned it in many of his public speeches.  >>>
What Would Gandhi Do In Kashmir? Mahatma Gandhi was the apostle of non-violence, so what would he have done in Kashmir? His life shows that he did not walk away from violence. During the Boer War in South Africa he raised a volunteer non-combatant force of Indians to aid the British. The reason why he limited the offer to a non-combatant role was that the Indians did not have constitutional rights in South Africa indicating thereby that once this rights were granted the Indian would fight along side the English.  >>>		The Wonder that was Kashmir Kashmir’s geographical location partly explains is cultural history. It may be that its natural beauty and temperate climate are the reasons that Kashmiris have a strong tradition in the arts, literature, painting, drama, and dance. Its relative isolation, the security provided by the ring of mountains around it, and its distance from the heartland of Indian culture in the plains of North India, might explain the originality of Kashmiri thought. Its climate and the long winters may explain the Kashmiri fascination for philosophical speculation.  >>>
The Poplar and the Chinar: Kashmir in a historical outline The middle of 1989 saw the beginning of a campaign of terror against the Kashmiri minorities by Muslim fundamentalists and an insurgency against the Indian government. Within a year hundreds of selective and random murders forced nearly all the Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs, who comprise less than 10 percent of the population of the Vale, to leave their homes for refuge in the Jammu province and in Delhi.  >>>
Miscellaneous Information and Intuition: An Autobiographical Essay Art and Cosmology in India On the Chronology of Ancient India Akhenaten, Surya, and the Rgveda Early Indian Architecture and Art The Golden Mean and the Physics of Aesthetics Logic in Indian Thought Early Indian Music Science in Ancient India The Universe, Quantum Physics, and Consciousness The Prajna Sutra Computing Science in Ancient India Ayurveda Garbha Upanishad Vedic Elements in the Ancient Iranian Religion of Zarathushtra The Gods Within - on the vedic understanding of mind and neuroscience Passion and Revenge in 19th Century Kashmir Sri Chakra Mandodari ki Vedna
Books
The Secrets of Ishbar Subhash Kak has been called India's leading expressionist poet. He is the author of two other books of poetry "The Conductor of the Dead and Other Poems" and "The London Bridge and Other Poems". His poems have appeared in leading journals of Hindi and English poetry in India and the West.  >>>		Ek Taal, Ek Darpan A Collection of Hindi Poems.   >>>
Mitti Ka Anuraag		The Chinar Garden
Miscellaneous
Subhash Kak is a Renaissance figure  Technical Books Selected Recent (and some Old) Articles Books at Open Library Site Dutch TV on the Vedas and science Dutch TV on Hawan