Subhash Misra

Subhash Misra is a poet, development worker and UNICEF staff and an involuntary nomad.

Subhash Misra's book Gangasmriti & Other Poems was published by Writers Workshop, Kolkata, India. Columnist Khushwant Singh wrote, "We have a new talented poet joining the band of Ganga worshipers. Subhash Misra was born on its banks at Mirzapur, educated on its banks at Varanasi and made his livelihood in Calcutta by the Hoogly. In his collection of poems, Gangasmriti & Other Poems, he goes ecstatic in praise of Srishti: The Creation.

I was born on the banks of another river/ Another name for self and all of us/ I was not born in these plains — watching your slide/ Nor did I arise where the barriers to meditation/ Are left behind. If you are looking for the root/ You will find it in 'I' and Us. That is where/ My ancient land was before it became country,/ Nation, state, date and repeatedly rewritten history.

Later, from the maturing rhyme/ From the earliest of all times/ You awoke us/ Making your own sand and smiles/ Creating your own gods, grains and grass/ Gliding gently, dashing wildly, turning seductively/ Reclining piously on flowers and brass/ From sweating snows to sleepy morning dew/ From hot and humid days to a regional blue."^[1]

Subhash Misra’s second book of poems: ‘Exiles Always: Poems from Other Geographies’ (footnote – ISBN 978-93-80397-43-6) is a compilation of poems written between 2005-2013 depicting a sense of exile as he worked for Tsunami rehabilitation in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, was in the midst of Afghanistan and then Iraq fraught with violence – religious as well as political. His poems convey loss, and loneliness but also realism and hope in varying degrees. He carries his exile with him it seems.

Subhash Misra has worked for UNICEF and has headed the Tsunami Recovery Program in Andaman & Nicobar^[2] and then contributed to the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and subsequently managing the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund for eradicating poppy cultivation as an adviser with UNDP, Kabul. He started the development organisation OASES in 1982. Subhash Misra has also contributed personal experiences to various Indian newspapers. He worked with UNICEF in Iraq and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, living for more than two years in Pyongyang, and is currently based in Bangkok where he continues to work with UNICEF, and lives with his wife.

He has two daughters both living in New York working for fashion industry and development respectively.

He also manages a poetry page on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Poetry-Passion-240085479383346/?ref=hl and, his poems can be found on the web: http://www.poemhunter.com/subhash-misra/ http://whyareweiniraq.com/author/author0105.htm

References

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111209/jsp/opinion/story_14841763.jsp