By: Dr. Daniela Rogeobete
All his life an admirer of Tagore , his poetry and philosophy as a World Poet , he saw Tagore mainly as a Lover and delivered Special lecture in Farirleigh Dickinson University on ‘Love Poetry of Tagore and Whiman’ which was much appreciated in the Pre-Covid days . He read Tagore’s Red Oleander but he himself wrote more than 150 love poems only on Oleander , a floral image he chose as a postcolonial alternative image and for this The Statesman in a review described him as ‘Oleander poet’. However he loved fiction no less .Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee mused deeply on Tagore’s ideal of Education in ‘West Bengal ‘ and Yuba Manas ‘ and also in the Dainik Basumati paper. His book on Tagore’s Love poetry is coming soon from Patridge in 2025. His nearly 2000 poems of love both published and unpublished bear some influence of Tagore and Neruda and no less so of Lorca. Dr. Ratan believed in Tagore’s concept of love Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee, a senior columnist and Affiliate Faculty of English, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond USA, has been selected for the International Tagore Award from DRDC, approved by the Ministry of India. DRDC is the first Inter-Government Organisation and world’s first organization which is promoting entrepreneurship, Research & innovation, worldwide in a new way. He will also be getting the Bhanu Singh Award from The Global Nation media house from Bangladesh. Poems of Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee are being published for decades in Germany Phillipines Italy USA , and many African and Arab countries poems are translated into Lebanese Italian French His first poem appears as early as 2005 in online sites of the social media and blogs and over there he started writing pictorial poems on Love and Nature . Later he compiled some of them in Melodyand Maladies . Cyberwit Allahabad inspired him to publish his first book of poem The Ballad of the Bleeding Bubbles which was translated into Assamese as Raktakta Burburanir Malita jointly by Mr Utpal Datta ,famous writer and film director cum Deputy Director Guwahati Akashvani and Prof Karabi Hazarika of Naharkatia College Assam
That was a huge inspiration for being connected to Assamese writers and poets.Legendary poet Jayanta Mahapatra released his book in Pondicherry. Later Akademi Awardee poet amd editor Anuradha sarma Pujari published my Assamess poem in Sadin. Legendary Homen Borgohain actually inspired me over the phone to contribute to Niyamiya Barta . He started writing in Aamar Asom ,Dainik Janambhoomi , and Sadin. Mr Samdeep Sarma of Eastern Chronicle and Mr Rameswar Chouhan made me a regular contributor to Hills Times Patricia Mukhim persuaded me to write for Shillong Times and PJ Baruah published number of articles in The Assam Tribune and now inspired by Smita Bhattacharya i am a regular writer of The Sentinel Saturday Fare and Sunday supplement Melange . All these developed his love for Assam and its literature besides my writings in Bengali Aajkal Puber Kalom and Dainik Statesman
Travelling is his most favourite hobby and now universities in India and USA are inviting him for lectures on Promotion of Indian and American literature nearly every fortnight. He lectured on Love Poetry of Tagore in Fairleigh Dickinson University New Jersey Tagore’s poetry always inspired Dr Ratan as a poet and educationist. Tagore’s poetry primarily deals with love – love for humanity, love for divinity and love for nature. His early poetry is concerned with man’s love for lady, but his later poetry is mainly concerned with man’s love and longing for God’s beauty and love.Dr.Ratan subscribes to this poetic philosophy of Tagore and the award goes to him in this year. Tagore’s Red Oleander inspired him though his best seller Oleander Blooms is uniquely different from Tagore’s writings. He used the floral image of Oleander with a postcolonial motif and as a new alternative to Rose. Anthony Johae Shakepeare poet of Essex university wrote in his Preface to the book that Oleander reveals the dialectics of joy and sorrow associated with love. The trajectory of love as blissful and love as poisonous is focused in the bouquet of love poems on Oleander. Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee is fond of Keats’s worship of Beauty and Tagore too mentions Keatsian worship of Beauty. Like Shelley and Tagore , for Dr.Ratan love is a basic principle of the universe. His poems on this theme are published regularly in Saturno from Italy Global Nation and Kavya Kishore International from Bangladesh Raven Cage from Germany . His poems on Nature are published in Friendship of People from Tazakistan Antology from italy Summer Nights from Ohio and Orfeus .He is nominated as international judge in Passion Of Poetry from Philippines.
All through a poet , Dr. Bhattacharjee’s forte however is his academic potentiality. He has seen Universities in the USA which have better infrastructure and more organised administration free from politics Teachers get huge respect though they are seen as friends rather than as Guru. As a Visiting International Professor of USA he enjoyed the campus assignment in Fairleigh Dickinson University and Virginia Commonwealth University where he interacted with intellectual luminaries Dr Carey UN Permanent Ambassador at New York Dr Talinn Gregor at Princeton university who came from University of California , Ex CM Prithviraj Chavan , Provosts and Vice Provosts of many US universities and many Fulbright Scholars from India.
He was given well furnished personal office space with computer tea arrangements microwave and books in Hibbs Hall (243 room) while he was in Virginia Commonwealth University . Such things cannot be imagined in India Nowadays respect for teacher is compromised in many institurions in India . This is not found in the USA . He loved the food court RAM in VCU and student participation in all events with an incredible commitment
Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee well deserved the International Tagore Award and Bhanu Singh Award on this Birth Centenary of Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore. A great news indeed. DRDC feels privileged to confer the International Tagore award on him. . The same is true of the Bhanu Singh Award given to him by The global Nation Bangladesh which promotes World Poetry everyday in its special supplements .DRDC is Dawn Research and Development Council India and Global which aims at sustainable developmetn and promoting a a new way of promoting entrepreeurship Research and innovation worldwide. Global Nation of Bangladesh is also promoting World Poetry nearly everyday.
Dr.Ratan is a voracious reader and loved to read Shelley and Keats in English and later Lorca and Neruda Che Guevara also inspired him. Picasso and Beethoven are his good pastime. He loved to read ghost and detective books of Byomkesh, Swapan Kumar, Satyajit Roy and Nihar Ranjan.He never watched film in any hall except some talkies arranged shows. But used to compete in the recitation program and debates. As for his academic life, he was basically a student of Calcutta University . academic life is normal like any Indian village boy. He used to read in Scottish Church College Kolkata and then in University of Kolkata . Currently Affiliate Faculty English Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond Formerly Associate Professor & Chair Post Graduate Deot of English Dum Dum Motijheel College is at present Founder President of Kolkata Indo- American Society (KIAS) www.kias.org.in . He is a Trilingual Columnist cum Poet . He is the Author of Six Feet Distance : Looking Back to Lockdown (AuthorHouse Bloomington USA ) Francis Scott Fitzgerald:His Art and Vision (Patridge Singapore ) Thr Ballad of the Bleeding Bubbles : Melodies and Maladies of Love ( Cyberwit Allahabad) Oleander Blooms :A Bouquet of Oleander Poems of Love (Authors Press New Delhi) Theodore Dreiser Going Beyond Naturalism ( INSC ) Renee Rudhagnee (Authors Press) Our Daughter , Our Princess (Authors Press New Delhi) . He edited Journals Literary Confluence and Voice of Indian English Writers. He pioneered some ideas of Fourth World Literature in India and worked as Resource Person in a number of International Conferences on Gender Studies, Post Colonial and American literature in the country and abroad . His Collected works Vol I (Patridge) and Our Time Revisited : a Collection of Essays on Man Literature and Society (Patridge) My American Days are in press to be published in 2025 .Internationally acclaimed Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee is also felicitated and columnist who almost every week contribute to many articles in a number of national dailies in Bengali , English and Assamese. Recently he is busy in promoting Indian and American literature, media and culture studies through Kaleidoscopic Indian American Society as its Founder President along with Dr. Jill Blondin Associated Vice Provost of Global Education Services Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond. Hon’ble Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu of Andhra Prades awarded Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee in the International Meet of Multilingual Poets at Vijaywada Cultural Centre , Formerly as Associate Professor and Head Post Graduate Dept of English Dum Dum Motijheel College he served for forty years and as Part Time and Guest in Vidyasagar University and Rabindra Bharati University too.
Since his childhood days which he passed in the idyllic environment listening to the songs of innocence all around him in the first decade of the Post-Independence days. His grandfather as an employee organized labour movement in the Metcalfe Press and later Metcalfe was acting governor-general of India who particularly promulgated laws for freedom of the press .His grand father was elected Member of Legislative Council in 1935.His grandmother was married at the age of 9 but she used to teach the village girls and later she was appointed teacher in her own house and got a salary of 16 rupees in those days. It was a huge amount. This story was an inspiring one as it shows an atmosphere where service to the people was the motto and the house was crowded by common people .During 1942 Femine huge amount of Kichdi was cooked for the poor hungry people of the locality . His leading of a very simple life was a story of inspiration for all . As a boy he got two scholarships at Class V and Class VIII. It gave a boost to his studies. At that time he was fond of magic and romantic poetry of Jibanananda Tagore and Nazrul. .His father Chandranath Bhattacharjee was a teacher and a man of poetic mind and mother was a pious lady a worshipper of Durga mata and a lover of music . His wife too was a wonderful woman dutiful and compassionate . His wife Anjali accepted his maverick mood and gave him inspiring support each moment for the last 40 years of their conjugal life. His daughter Dr.Rituparna is also a child prodigy whose first story book Bhutiya was published when she was in the sixth standard in Christ Church School. She usually wrote in the Ananda Bazar Group of publication and at one time the leading writer of Unish Kuri and also in the prestigious Desh and Ei Samay Indian Express She is now busy in America with her job as a Chemical Scientist in a multinational company after her post doc from Purdue University Indiana USA with her husband Dr. Upamanyu who is also senior Chemical Scientist and did his Ph.D from Pittsburgh University Ohio. They are happy with their little five year old daughter Renee who is no less busy than them with her piano class, playschool activities, swimming bike riding and playing with toys in the playhouse wearing Elsa dress and hair. Staying with them in their New Jersey house or Glen Allen House is always a pleasure for Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee and his wife Anjali who love snowfall and cherry blossom and the neat pollution free atmosphere.
He recalls the moment when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and said , ‘One step for me is a Big leap for mankind.” He used to listen to Voice of America in a small radio which was broken because a thief stole it and finally left it on the ground. The class VIII boy wrote a letter to the VOA and got a good amount of pictures by post. He got respect from the madding crowd of his locality as a hero when he showed them the pictures of man setting foot on the moon. Today India sent Chandrayaan Rover to the moon. \
He used to bring out a hand written magazine where my school friends and his brothers even even his parents maternal grandparents who was a poet in spite of being a lawyer by profession also used to contribute. . He loved to pick green mango, black berries and palms and during the hailstorm he never used to be inside the house as he loved ice falling from the sky even when he lived some time in Shillong at NEHU.. He did his M.Phil in British literature . Charles Dickens was his favourite . He compared Charles Dickens’s Great Expectation and F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in MPhil Dissertation when few opted in India for American literature Later he was the executive member of Indian Association of American Studies IAAS in Mysore University ..Finally he did his Ph.D . on American Literature under Professor Laxmi Parasuram who was a renowned professor in American literature and his book on Theodore Dreiser and F.Scott Fitzgerald were highly praised by Emeritus Professor of VCU and a great Fitzgerald Scholar Dr. Bryant Mangum .For his research interest he specialized on Theodore Dreiser Studies , he got offer for doing post doctoral from the USA. But for his family problems he did not accept the offers. His guide was unsatisfied with him. Inspired by Dr. Bhabatosh Chatterjee Sir Gurudas Banerjee Professr of Calcutta University he developed a love for ASRC Hyderabad and he was selected Scholar in Residence twice for for three months..
He along with Dr. Jill Blondin Associate Vice Provost Global Education Services of VCU opened a new Society KIAS ( Kaleidoscopic Indian American Society ) and they are now opening regional centers all over indian Higher education institutions . We are associated with universities and colleges Nagpur,Dharbhanga , Jhansi Delhi, Meerut Jaipur ,Kanpur, Madurai Annamalai Unviersity and Manipal University and others. He got inspiration from his Principals Late Sukumar Gupta Late Ranaji Bagh and Dr. :Pradeepta Gupta Roy the later one being a writer and researcher of international height. However love from his readers on social media and his popularity in the universities in all over India and abroad are his real award,.They all are now happy when he bagged the International Tagore Award and the Bhanu Singh Award at the same time this year. Other awards he got make a pretty long list which includes, APJ Abdul Kalam Education Excellence Award as Dynamic Professor of the Year 2021,Certificate of Commitment World Book of Records Switzerland 2021,Winner of International Award 2020, Literamo Golden Star Awards 2020, INS Research Excellence Award 2020 ,Best Professor of the Year 2020 Award , International Research Scholar Reviewer ( Lifetime), International Educational Excellence Award Dynamic Professor of the Year 2021 etc. Still Dr. Ratan remains humble and down to earth in his approach to life. His message is simple but profound, “ Like Tagore I want to say , Love for humanity is my motto and Promotion of global peace is my mission.”
Dr.Daniela Rogeobete Associate Professor of American Literature and English University of Craiova, Romania is a versatile writer ,Email, dani.rogobete@yahoo.com