Given below in alphabetical order are bios of all ZESTPoets members who cared to send in their bios. If you haven't, please do! Post it to [EMAIL PROTECTED] And if there's anything about your bio here that you'd like to be changed, post that too, or approach the moderators directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] These bios are also available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/database
* Adreesh Katyal, Lucknow Adreesh Katyal is a student at the University of Lucknow. Since the classes at the university are so uninspiring, he spends his time (no, not writing poetry!) doing a hundred other things. Such as helping out with the ZEST lists. Adreesh is interested in popular culture, open source software, vaccines for canines and World War II movies. He aspires to be a wine taster. Adreesh reads poetry just for the music of words. He does not write any poetry himself, but is here in ZESTPoets just to read, and more importantly, to help Juhi, Monica and Shivam with the day to day travails of the thankless job of running a mailing list. * Anand Vishwanadha, Hyderabad I have always had an identity crisis, and writing does help me find an answer to what I am, who I am. I am based in Hyderabad, call advertising a profession, am a Telugu Brahmin by roots and upbringing and a jack of all trades by fast-changing interests (and a master of none thanks to paucity of time). Well, to state two more facts, I am 32 and single. Honestly, for me poetry has to have pith, angst, humour or any other emotion and of course also some soul. My poetry has no strict style and I rarely plan it for that matter. I must also say here that most of my poetry is derived from what I see around me, or the happy, poignantly, pregnantly, blissfully bucolic childhood I enjoyed, back in Orissa. Poetry apart, travelogues are another muse, but then there are just 24 hours in a day, oh-so-sadly. * Anand Vivek Taneja, Delhi Anand Vivek Taneja is a researcher with Sarai CSDS and works on contemporary media histories in Delhi. He is also deeply involved with the history of Delhi and its monuments and has made a film on twentieth century histories of the Purana Qila called The Past is a Foreign Country. * Bikram Bindra, Delhi I am Bikram. a student of management in the University of Delhi, and stay in north campus itself. I am an engineer by profession, but this supposedly mechanical field has not killed the artsy in me, and I love to debate and write on issues pertaining to societal trends, gender issues and sexuality. The university of Delhi is an amazing place to explore ones persona, and the various sights and sounds I encounter daily have helped shape my creativity and sometimes, break the mould. Poetry of any kind appeals to me for its pithy attack, and occasionally, engrossing narrative. * Debanjan Bagchi, Singapore I am Debanjan, I work with money (banking) in Singapore. At age 30, I am living my last few days of bachelorhood. I am in a profession that probably requires qualities which are exactly 360 degrees opposite to those of a poet. And probably that's why I have not been able to write anything that can by remotest chance be called a poem. Nevertheless I love reading any kind of good literature and someday I hope ZESTPoets will inspire me to write something on my own. * Harris Khalique, Islamabad Harris Khalique studied social development at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and engineering at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi. He now heads a national community development organisation in Islamabad, and writes poetry in Urdu and English. His earlier collections include "Purani Numaish" (Urdu, 2001), "Divan" (English, 1988), "Saray Kaam Zaroori Thay" (Urdu, 1997), "If Wishes Were Horses" (English, 1996), "Aaj Jab Hui Baarish" (Urdu, 1991). He is also author of "Pakistan: The Question of Identity" (2003) and co-author, along with Rohini Kohli, of "Unfinished Histories" (2002). "Harris Khalique comes from a generation of poets who have internalised both English and South Asian poetic traditions. Also, through English he has imbibed a lot from world literature. His experience of living in both South Asian and European cultures brings a rare synthesis in both thought and expression. But what makes him unusual is his ability to express his emotions with a unique directness and a remarkable combination of paradox and simplicity. His poems are widely acclaimed and considered much deeper than conventional poetry by leading critics and writers. He is counted among the most significant poets of his generation who use English as a medium linking local feel andexperience with the universality of anguish and wonderment." * Indira Babbellapati, Vishakapatnam Im referred to as Indira and to my son, Inda reducing the maternal burden. A teacher by profession, I tell myself that cheating is what my profession is all about (no, Im no cynic). Im in my mid-forties though I got stuck with time. Ive been living in a port town. Theres no room for choices. Thats where i work. Most of my time is spent in meeting everyday challenges with gusto. I hardly realised what I write could be called poetry until I began posting to ZESTPoets. If one calls me a poet, ZEST is responsible. Wonder why I write in English in spite of my Telugu formative years. Wonder why what happens any where in the world stirs me though Im pretty provincial in my upbringing. Im never specific of the choice of my subject as its the subject that chooses me. Scribbling is a compulsion. For my balance and to balance others. * Jane Bhandari, Mumbai I was born in Edinburgh in 1944. I came to India 38 years ago. It would be hard to get rid of me now: the Mumbai culture - with a Punjabi bias - has made me semi-Asian. The European beneath the patchy Indian veneer has diminished somewhat over the years; I am comfortable with this duality. Our children are true Mumbaikers. My writing has nothing to do with being Western, or a Punjabi graft: it is everything to do with the way I am, which crosses all cultural lines. I think most women have a bawdy sense of humour, which they hide from their men. It's our secret weapon. At sixty-one I still find myself debating the phallic significance of microphones, and giggling at the unexpected humour of life. I write about it too, for the sheer pleasure of it. * Maya Ganesh, Mumbai I have two names, one real, the other unreal. One official, the other unofficial. But you will only know me as Maya. Everyone does. And Maya doesnt exist on this plane - no bank account, no passport, no lease nor telephone bill. Much of my life so far has been about bridging this gap between a corpo/reality and an imagined one. Some days the duality feels as intimate as the skin I was born in. On other days it feels like a mask that has been worn so long it has become my skin. So I write. I always have. In the last three years I have chosen to focus entirely on writing, casting away other things that felt untrue. I write to pay the bills, and I write to feed the soul. By day I am a consultant to inter/national agencies and NGOs in the gender/sexual health/HIV&AIDS prevention sectors as as a writer and researcher. Apart from writing I enjoy yoga, travelling, and cooking exotic meals. I moved to Bombay 18 months ago and I dont think I could live any where else now... The short story is what I enjoy writing the most and find it the most challenging. I read a little bit of poetry everyday (because "it makes you exercise muscles you never knew you had" - Ray Bradbury). Now I just make poems on my fridge door with my magnetic poetry pack. Writing poetry usually inspires in me a rare terror like no other form of writing does. * Monica Mody, Delhi To her growing astonishment and consternation, Monica finds that she can no longer relate to cities other than Delhi. What is even more remarkable is that she actually enjoys living in a sand-walled house at Jangpura Extension, and the daily drive to work through Lodi Road. She believes the days spent here form a significant part of her Experiments with Truth. Monica's poetry is fairly intolerant of dissent these days. She welcomes emails that are ecstatic about it. * Paromita Patronobish, Durgapur/Delhi I stole money from home to get hold of a Dead Poets Society V.C.R and ran it twice every day till the video rental people came hounding me at my doorstep three months later. this was when I had been grounded and denied TV for a month after flunking my English Lit paper for being overtly prolix. My association with poetry has been rather strange. just like my personality, my poetry is defined by paradoxes. In pure poetic terms, I see myself as an abortive cross between Nietszche's Zarathushtra and the dove from Noah's ark that flew. and found its "Space" in Wole Soyinka's "Shuttle". Doing an under-graduate course in English Literature can really, seriously brain damage ones "poetic sensibilities", or so I think. * Rinku Dutta, Noida/Delhi I'm a Bangalee from Jhargram, West Bengal, still very much under Tagore's influence. I am a molecular biologist and biochemist by profession. I did my PhD from Rutgers Univ, NJ. While I was there I met Sarmad Abbasi, who is from Sindh, in Pakistan. We got married in Lahore. Since this is a poets' group, I can add that our nikkah was performed by Faiz's son-in-law Shoaib Hashmi, at Faiz's home. I returned from the US to South Asia in 2002. For a year I taught Eng. Lit. and Drama in a school in Lalitpur, Nepal. I moved to Lahore in 2003 and am now in Noida, since Aug 2004. Sarmad's still in Lahore. We're trying to juggle several lives. I write as Rinku, Tanu and Tanya. My poetry's moody. Moody Poetry Poetry must punch like Ali And move as sure-footedly; "Fooling around Is okay too, some-time"; Bursting into bubbles of mirthful giggles, occasionally!; Or coupling like pigeons Cooing in contentment, part-time. Tanu 01-25-02 Noida * Shivam Vij, Delhi Initiator, the ZEST groups. I am prosaic. * Vivek Narayanan, Delhi Well, this is Vivek, I'm 32 and not single, studied historical anthropology and creative writing, and work at Sarai in Delhi as a content editor. I won't say too much more about myself because a) the poem "Death Wish" (to be included in the next mail) more or less sums up what I am and also what I would like to ideally be and b) I've already written to this list about who I am and who I am not, what I've written and what I have not written. Googling myself used to be an ego-boost, now it's a Borgesian nightmare. Each day more Vivek Narayanans arrive on the net, and some of them write poetry, prose, or play the cello. Whence all these Vivek Narayanans? Will we form a club, a world-plundering army, a cabal with secret designs, or merely duel amongst ourselves with hand-held weapons of mass-Vivek-destruction until the last Narayanan standing? Will we all ascetically give up our names or force all 4 billion of the species to also change their name to Vivek Narayanan? Only time will tell. About poetry: poetry for me should be a legacy, a seance with the dead and also with the not-yet-born. Because poetry is a dialogue, a collaborative collective safety net, the reading of poetry and the writing of poetry should always go hand in hand. One ought, as Calvino advises, to read in equal parts the classics, the work of contemporaries, and the work of a few quirky, unknown personal discoveries, so as not to be overly seduced by any of the above. Poetry is far beyond form and yet, paradoxically, it is most often released through a mastery of form. And as for poetry and spirituality, I think of Les Murray, who said something to the effect of: when it's standing still, it's religion; when it's in constant flux, it's poetry. -- You are encouraged to post poetry, respond critically to the poems circulated and participate in discussions. To post, email your message to [email protected] OR post online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/post/ Tell friends to subscribe to ZESTPoets by sending a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], OR, if they have a Yahoo! 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