Tag: Circulation

Dr. María Eugenia Soberanis

It is a honor for me to write about our, since many years ago, dear friend Ashok Chakravarthy. A distinguished poet, many times laureated, with so many prizes won during his traveling through the paths of poetry. He was also being awarded with the highest honor by the World Academy of Arts and Culture / World Congress of Poets (UNESCO). Mr. Chakravarthy is a proper gentleman, he’s also a quiet and observer person, always heeled and attentive.

For this new book, Outlet: A Poetic Flow of Thoughts he has chosen the most proper title for it, because it is just as he says. He has collected in this book all the themes which he cares most and that are those who worry the humanity. In his case, he can rest of trying to find a way for the world’s problems and more over the lack of spiritual growth of those who have the real power in the world, which is the real cause of so many indescribable acts.

We can say Mr. Chakravarthy’s thoughts are basically nature, war, peace, poets, materialism and selfishness. Of course as a poet cannot let stand by love, in both cases, when one is living it in fullness as when it seems to leave us in a dark hole, but he emphasizes it as a collective feeling as he says: “The Potion of Love is an answer to every solution”

He often goes to travel to his past, through his memories in different stages of his life, what he misses most is his precious childhood with his cherished mother to whom he dedicates some beautiful poems in this book, and he even starts it with one of them. How not to be moved when he confesses he is “the fountain of his delight”, the one who unfolds “the visión of truth”. Or you may take this: “Yes, whenever I sense drifting in the dark / Mother You appear like an angelic spark / Yes, you always remain in the iris of my eyes/, forever you glow in my inner heart skies.”

His memories are a very common theme in our dear poet, the different stages of life have a very important meaning to him as we can see when he writes: “The fleeting years traverse the life’s path / Unfolding a track of life meaning and myth” in his poem FleetingYears.

“Childhood to youth and middle age to old-age / We guess, we treaded new paths at every stage; / But, when self-realization really dawns in heart / We realize; real path of life is not walked as yet.” This is another example of his regressions. I even dare to say that he reviews his different life’s periods to find and understand his present, as he is a pensative man.

About nature: “My heart aches with a pain of new sort; / I try to visualize lives, wrapped in dark / Whose survival depends on hope’s spark.” These lines tell us how deep his concern is about nature, as well as for the other important world problems, and we inevitably fill his sorrow and make us reflect about it. This is his way to raise awareness about nature: “Everyday, the earth is getting more sodden / Not with rain, but with tears of humans”

Mr. Chakravarthy calls for a change of human mind with desperation in his poem “You and I” written for U.N. in International Mother Earth’s Day. In his poem “Nature” he wonders: “Is this what the Mother Earth deserves?”

Poet Chakravarthy comes to compare mother’s love with mother earth: “Evaluate the love of ‘mother earth’ / With that of a mother’s care and faith, / By all means both are precious and noble / Apart, both are selfless and sacrificial.”

About peace: “United, we feel the thunder of harmony / To dispel the fears of hunger and agony; / United, we realize the wonders of peace”

Our poet has his opinion about this work, about which he ponders: “A frill without ink has no significance / A pen without ink has no importance, /A single glance changes the mindset /‘cause it can seduce any human plight.

We may say that Mr. Chakravarthy seems desperate at moments in his seeking for a solution without a clear result, he becomes anguished and he can’t, or maybe he doesn’t want to hide his great concern, we can notice this in several poems such as: “Let Human Spirit Prevail” in which he claims: hear!, where is peace?, where is love?, Humans!, How shame!

No more clear his idea of materialism in this new book, that in the poem: “Where there’s greed there’s grief”, about money.

After Reading the worries of our poet, he seems to reconcile with hope and faith and he waits for a spiritual awakening in, for example: “Without Which” or “Time and Life”: these releases the readers to think that not all is pain and suffering and the author believes it.

There are so many things to say about this book, where the author falls in the temptation to rhyme sometimes in some of his texts, which are direct, reflexives, not abusing of metaphors. But let there be a dense joy, an intimate poetry as well as the social and nature’s concerns of a man of our times who doesn’t settle with what is going on in our world and appeals to his good skills to try to awake men’s consciousness.

Dr. María Eugenia Soberanis, MEXICO

* General Secretary WAAC/WCP, Honorary President of UHEM, Vice President SIPEA, Mexico City, Mexico

Foreword TO “Outlet”
a bard of high imagination and truth

Kairat Duissenov Parman

I have my deep associations with Mr. Ashok Chakravarthy Tholana – for the past several years; I found his poetry the blend of high imagination and truth. The first poem that I read was about Mother which made me think deeply about my own mother, about women, and about all mothers in the world. I remembered the earliest childhood when I first saw my own mother; I remembered her beautiful eyes, full of love and affection. I remembered my love for my mother and infinite delight and her warm, kind words that she used to say for me. I remember how her smart acts made me comfortable by taking care of me. It was the magic of his poetic diction that led me to past and revived the age of deep associations in my mind and I relished that period in dotage again, perhaps it is the function and magic of poetry. While going through his poem I felt as if he represents my sentiments and thoughts, I had to confess that his writes are about Truth. He pen inscribes true love for the whole humanity and all human relations in the world.

He has a new approach to express the voice of his conscience, very effectively; it is on account of his style his thoughts penetrate direct into the heart of a reader. His poetry indeed is a fountain of delight. A Kazakh poet Shakarim Kudaiberdiuly writes that every person should think at least once about his life, “Where I come from, how I should act so that it is useful for me and what will happen to me when I leave this world.” the poems of my colleague Mr. Ashok Chakravarthy Tholana just confirm that idea. Despite, the differences of faith and race as well as folk of customs, always think of the Creator. We thought of the Creator even when our society was not ruled by the divine laws. As a poet, I feel that we all poets and writers think of Him very often and even in each of our breath, especially, when we come to God's trial in life. Conscious awareness of God’s presence in poetry of Ashok is more prevalent that makes his work a guiding source for the fellow beings.

The consequence of our emotional attitude often entangle us into conflicts but Ashok poetry resolves the confusion by teaching that life itself is not a mere destination, it is rather a pause in the journey to the destination. Outwardly, we may not, but inwardly we possess some invisible power and between these indistinguishable dualities, there exists God, with inconceivable realities. He praises God’s power, His Majesty, in the best possible way and makes a clear analysis of His actions. He is a poet, diverse in his new work, his style does not let his reader sit still and become bored and suspense prevails in his lines from beginning to the end. In his every poetic line his breath is felt as if the poet himself breathes, his work is instilled with love and spiritual power. He has a very vital bond at the same time with creature and creator. ‘And with true ideals of compassion, Bind yourself with love and passion, To usher an eternal Global Harmony… ’ he has given to humanity, his many years of creativity; it has turned his commitment into a treasure for the people and world of literature. I think that Ashok Chakravarti Tholana has rendered his role and his devotion to poetry made him a perennial figure in the world of literature and many will be inspired by him in the world of future.

Kairat Duissenov Parman, KAZAKHSTAN.

*      Poet, Composer, Journalist, Winner of the International Literary Prize IWA Bogdani (Belgium), Winner of International Literary Prize ‘Master of Poetry’ of the IPU ‘League of Lira’, ‘Founder of World Nations Writers Union, Kazakhstan.

Preface

Muhamad Shanazar

Poetry since beginning has been associated with divinity and now it is an established fact that thoughts come from the greater divine mind and they nestle in a sensitive unsullied mind and after having been nurtured they rush to the heart, get tinges of emotions, the poet clad them with costumes of words and they come out gloriously in a powerful flow, they pertain more to heart, therefore, they strike on the heart of a reader. The words in fact merely are not the dead stuff, they carry along images which a poet crafts with similes and metaphors, they get shapes, forms, colours and tastes and these all ingredients of poetry collectively affect both, the reader’s mind and heart.

My heart is stupendously laden with gratitude for the modern technology that has brought us close though we live on the opposite poles of the world. My first virtual meeting with Dr. T. Ashok Chakravarthy happened almost fifteen years ago, during the communication, being lucky enough I had an opportunity to go through his poetic work and I could not help considering him my guide and mentor in my own remaining poetic journey. His poetry as I feel is charged with potent emotions and thoughts that is why it cuts its own route to reach the heart of a reader and consequently molds, shapes and reshapes as the poet wishes. Poetry of T. Ashok Chakravarthy has all traits, features and liniments of greatness that make any work perennial. In his poem ‘Survival and Revival’ he vividly refers to the entities of Man and God, he rightly says that Man is not the same as He appears, human existence is very much complicated, it is a combination of outer-self and inner-self, they are in fact two entities which at the same time relate to the world terrestrial and extra-terrestrial and presence of God is somewhere in between, such a thought as human existence and existence of God, purely seats on spiritual experience, therefore, Ashok Chakravarthy in these lines himself reveals his hidden entity that is Mystic Ashok Chakravarthy:

Outwardly, we are not what we really are
But inwardly we possess some invisible power;
Betwixt these indistinguishable dualities,
There exists God, with inconceivable realities.

No doubt by nature and temperament T. Ashok Chakravarthy bears noble righteous soul that always yearns for peace, his heart gurgles love indiscriminately for all human beings, I regard him a great pacifist and advocate of global harmony, no doubt he has already got himself established as a towering campaigner of peace in the contemporary world that is why he pays homage to those who render their lives for peace:

Salutations to those
Who relentlessly work for peace
Risking their life for ‘universal peace ’.
………………………………………………
Salutations to those
Who strive for environment protection
For the sake of ‘future generations’.

1. Ashok Chakravarthy has the strongest faith in poets and men of letters that they are the real asset of the world who can play an effective role to make the world better and it is the fundamental function of poetry to lead humanity to the better world.

A luxurious and gorgeous life
Cannot impart a righteous idea,
A lavish and ego-bloated life
Cannot implant a humane spirit;
But, a poet by heart is emotive
………………………………………….
By outlook, a poet is very simple
By living, tries to set a live example
By leading a life, too very simple
But by writings, proves a real mettle
.

Man in his life runs after illusions, T. Ashok Chakravarthy in his poetry is very conscious about the transitory phases of life, each phase has its own glory but when life moves ahead, the previous phase merges into memory, the deemed reality changes into shadow but the mid-age illuminates the mind and brings a man out of hallucinations and reality whether bitter or palatable begins to enlighten itself:

Mid-age, the age of illumination
Slowly unfolds the veil of illusions,
The volume of mirror reflections
Reel before eyes in a fit of emotion..

1. Ashok Chakravarthy is despised of the leading heads of humanity who usurp political powers to lengthen their rule and have least interest in rectification of the absurdities in vogue, at the same time he has firm faith in reformative potential of poetry and believes in that to make the world a better worth-living place, better denizens are required and this function only and only can be accomplished by poets and poetry:

Yes, poetry can uphold the human ideals
Can project the ills of social fragmentation
Can oust the recurring segments of violence
Can repulse the blurred borders of hatred
Can enlighten the plight of the downtrodden
Can spread the threat of ecological erosion
Can explore the violation of children’s rights
Can expose the dangers of growing illiteracy
Can strengthen the pillars of peace process
Can extend the arms of love and concern
Can nurse the wounds of distress and distrust
Can pave a way to repose faith on co-humans
Can dispel darkness from the sucked dark lives

Like every sensitive poet, T. Ashok Chakravarthy sometimes becomes nostalgic and takes refuge in his past memories by recalling beauties of nature which are inseparable ties of his childhood, but even then he is not an escapist:

I recollect nectarine youthful days, awesome
How joyfully the pairs of birds flew back home,
The fading flowers in the garden of my heart
Feel, new lease of life surge in my heart’s heart;
I forgot, it was my mid-age anguish thought.

Much can be said about T. Ashok Chakravarthy’s poetry, it is the an onus of the critics to delve and explore more and more the hidden recess of his great work, I since long have devised my critical opinion that his poetry bears much more literary significance than often commonly deemed, his style is aphoristic, in a few words or lines he has an habit of expressing cumbersome themes but very subtly, his poetic thoughts from beginning to the end flows like a soundless smooth stream. I recommend that his poetry must be included in the reading curriculum at least at degree and master levels; I wish for him more success.

Muhamad Shanazar, PAKISTAN

^*        Poet in Residence, The International Best Translator Prize 2012, Poet of the World, Cross for Peace, Cross for Literature, First Four Stars Ambassador, Poet of Universal Inspiration, World Icon of Peace, Ambassador of Justice & Peace, World Laureate in Literature 2017, Pride of Globe 2017, Poetic Galaxy Award, Extra-Ordinary Ambassador for Gratis Culture, Honorary Doctorate in Humanitarian Education, Ambassador De Literature, one of the Top Six Writers of the World, World Icon of Literature, Lit. Ambassador of Humanity, Noble Star of Literature 2018, World’s Most Motivational Writer Award.

FOREWORD

Ms. Blanca Salcedo Formosa

To get to know another culture is a hard task. A task which demands to involve the hearth and hands to play with differences and similarities. To gaze into the poetic unfold is a very delicate and complex enterprise. The poet from India, Ashok Chakravarthy Tholana’s verses please the universal soul and I strongly believe and aspire, we share our profound conviction in the equality of all human beings and in our faith that all false walls which divide us should be abolished.
The true poet is a being who abandons all adornments to leave in paper a soul which is sincere and truthful. That is Ashok in his dealing with the themes of love and peace, destruction and preservation of the planet and solitude with a permanent plea to his readers to find the true path which can define a possible and more beautiful future.
In his poems Ashok questions the passing of time. A time in where occasionally he retuns to his childhood and youth, as a cry for lost times and loves which once were. Beautiful contradictions between the past and the present which evidence a poet who can use words to express a hearth beating with its own sounds.
The future emerges out of his concerns with the big themes of the planet’s preservation, war and destruction, social integration, child protection and the preservation of mother earth, issues at the center of his poetic concerns, recognized by the literary establishment.
The poet tells us:

“Entangled in the traps of the materialistic world /
... life is not a mere destiny for happiness”

and those verses aptly paint their universe, the commitment that has assumed before itself and its congeners.
“Yes, poetry can defend human ideals /
... reject the blurred borders of hatred”,
Ashok uses poety as a sword to attack the reality which hurts him, arming himself with words, his shield for repudiating all avarice and violence. Returning to the image of isolation. Ashok feels isolated from the world, and like in a circle returns to the past, where his childhood flowers in his mother’s hands, in beautiful images which flow…
“Without any respite
Isolation hunts me
as if I was trying...”
or, in another poem:
“Alone, I feel totally eclipsed in isolation,
Pain penetrates deeply into the layers of heart
Without realizing it, thoughts are hidden in the clouds of fear”
And so his poetry becomes, oscillating between the uneasiness, the should be, the despair and the reinforcement of his spirit and his faith, to continue planting the word before a world that seeks destruction.
It remains to say that every finished poem represents one more step that every reader can give, moving towards a spiritual totality, this contribution of the poet is his most important achievement. That is the reason why they are invited to this universe of Ashok, in its infinite alternation, which points its heart towards a horizon of hope where it expects a better world than the conflicting moment that we have built. .. that hope that we share, in the conviction that, when the written word is read, a seed of light is sown in the future that will flourish in a unit of positive human vibration. So I leave you with some verses as expressive as revelers:
“The bird of thoughts, take a look,
perhaps bewildered by my innocence.”

Blanca Salcedo
ARGENTINA