KTWV 10 Issue 03: A very nice letter from a Stephanian

I do get lots of letters from Stephanians from around the world. I thought this one was especially nice.

Like "prof. sreeni" in New York, its a small caps personality!

Nileen Putatunda
19 April 2009 14:34


dear uncle jacob,

namaste from kolkata. how are you?

i finished my ICSE (Class X) from St. Mary's School (ISC), Bombay in 1995 - i am sure you would know well about us :)

graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi in 2000. got into the MA Econ class in JNU but chose not to go.

have worked in social development since, in some parts of india.

occasionally written in the opinion space of newspapers.

i read somewhere that you were interested in knowing about Stephanian writers.

God allowed me to publish 4 books of spiritual poetry, in 2006, '07 and '08, all from the legend P Lal and his "Writers Workshop" (www.writersworkshopindia.com).

P Lal is a 1970 Padma Shri, a prolific writer (perhaps the only man ever to have transcreated The Mahabharata sloka by sloka, more than 100,000 slokas, from Sanskrit to English) and his publishing house, now more than 50 years old, has published many 'names' like Vikram Seth, Ruskin Bond, etc.

since i only write spiritual poetry and some poems have references to scriptures, sometimes Vedantic scriptures, it requires serious reading.

my first book was favourably reviewed by a great scholar in Prabuddha Bharata, a monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896. this journal has a subscriber base in 125 countries, but it's for a very niche audience. my second book found sweet/brief mention in another select journal. fourth book being considered for review by yet another select journal.

i would like that more people know that these poem books have been written. i am not at all hungry for fame. i just want people to read and appreciate serious spiritual poetry. as an aspirant/sadhak, my pain and ecstasy on the path so far has been captured a little by my poems.

bored you enough.

prayers and love,

nileen

Yes, I want to publicise our Stephanian authors. Never bored when hearing about Stephanians. Will let the world know. As a start, Kooler Talk (Web Version) readers know about Nileen now!