Prof. Anand Kumar
Designation-National Fellow
Email- anandkumarrepbiol@hotmail.com
EPBAX-
Duration of Fellowship June 2022 to June 2024
Research Project Padmawat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi
About:

Professional Career
Prof Anand Kumar, MD, FAMS did his postdoctoral fellowship for 2.5 years at the University of Hamburg; WHO fellowship in Human Reproduction at the University of Bonn; he was a visiting professor at the University of Hamburg in 2001 and Visiting Professor of Physiology at the University of Science Malaysia in 2003 and 2009. He has been the Professor and Head of the Department of Reproductive Biology at AIIMS for 17 years and retired on October 31, 2016. An awardee of several prestigious orations and the National Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship.
His work is quoted in international references and textbooks. He has been the section editor and author of the chapters on reproduction in the 13th edition (2011) of the Best (Nobel Laureate) and Taylor’s Physiological Basis of Medical Practice. AK has over 100 publications and two books with international contributors. Another textbook on the Basics of Human Andrology: A Textbook, published by Springer, N.Y., Heidelberg, Singapore, is one of the best sellers in Andrology. His contributions to the knowledge of thyroid, is original and recognized worldwide.
Anand Kumar is a Visitor’s Nominee on the Selection Committee at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur. He has been in several ministries and government committees, including advisory and selection.Literary Achievements
Anand Kumar is a well-known and published English poet, novelist and short-story writer. He is also an Aurobindonian philosopher and writer. He mostly lives in Pondicherry. Since 2014, he has been Deputy Vice President of the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL), New Delhi and Director of Literary Festivals.
He has written articles in Indian express on medical education and research, and spiritual matters.List of Anand Kumar’s Literary Publications & Appraisal
Poetry

  1. Opium Den, 2011, Standard Publications, New Delhi.
  2. Eerie and Holi, 2014, AuthorsPress, New Delhi. Praised highly by Manoj Das, Sonal Mansingh, Anamika. Reviewed in 800 words in the Statesman (Kolkata).

Padma Bhushan Manoj Das, Fellow Sakitya Akademi wrote: An exquisite range of blossoms and buds, some with thorns concealed and some exuding intoxicating fragrance and weird hues—together make the moonlit valley called Eerie and Holy. And beneath the valley runs a magic stream—of a love that sustains and an empathy that nurtures it.
Padma Vibhushan Sonal Mansingh wrote, ‘I am a staunch Devi-bhakt. Having read Shankaracharya's Saundarya- Lahari and danced to many hymns to that most beautiful feminine in creation, I was shocked and delighted to read Dr. Anand Kumar's poem: Beauteous Tides: an Ode to the Ubiquitous Woman. New similes, adjectives and fleet-footed epiphany flit through this deceptively simple poem. I experienced goose-bumps as tears welled up. I had the Darshan!
Anamika, Sahitya Akademy award winner, wrote, ‘Read along Blake’s Song of Innocence and Experience, Anand’s Eerie and Holy strikes us as a meditation on the ironies of contrary states of mind fluttering in search of a luminous centre.’
Reflections in the Windowpane, 2018, Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature, New Delhi. Praised by Makarand Paranjape: “Anand Kumar is a literary phenomenon.’ Others include Keki Daruwala, CP Surendran, Bibhu Padhi, Abhay K, Usha Kishore and Rizio Yohannan Raj. He was interviewed in the Hindustan Times.
Bibhu Padhi, the poet, wrote, ‘These poems are highly metaphoric. Their additive nature takes hold of the reader and guides him through the poems. They are, at other times, quietly meditative. It is the character that gives the poems their thickness of tone and voice.’

Poetry Anthology

  1. Poets’ Travelogue: The Grand Indian Express, 2017, Access (AuthorsPress), New Delhi. Praised by Alok Bhalla.

Short Stories

  1. The Journey Times: 2012, Ocean Press (Prabhat Prakashan) New Delhi.

Novel

  1. The Flight of the Swans, 2021, Second edition is in the press. Praised by Manoj Das, Makarand Paranjape, Philosopher Christopher Macann and Jnana Peeth Awardee, Pratibha Ray.

A Book Chapter on AK’s works :

  1. Anand Kumar’s Poetry: Phantasmal Pulsation in Poets Renowned and Poets Flourishing by WB Rama Rao, 2019, AuthorsPress, New Delhi, pp. 85-108.

Print Ready Translation

  1. Padmawat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, Part 1 & 2

Praised by Padma Vibhushan, Dr Sonal Mansingh, Member Parliament (RS), Chief, Centre for Indian classical Dances (Kamakhya Kalapeetha), New Delhi, Trustee Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts, New Delhi, Former Chair, Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi, Public Intellectual, Administrator, Dance Diva. ‘Your deep and uncompromised understanding of the seemingly simple poetic text that suddenly blossoms into a cornucopia of multi-coloured flowers, fresh and fragrant, is stupendous. Your daring insights into Malik Muhammad Jayasi’s epic poem Padmawat and the originality of phrasing them had cast a spell over my mind even that first time when you offered a reading of your transcreation about ten years ago. I have danced to Nagmati Viraha-Varnan in 1972 in Delhi, for which I read the entire poem. From then, Padmawat stayed with me. Now I am absorbed in your poetry, which shines like a jewel. Jayasi is surely joyous and elated as I am.’
Kent Johnson, a US poet, wrote, ‘The poem entries are profoundly strange. In certain ways, they remind me of some of the most fantastical parts of Pliny’s Natural History, or George Psalmanazar’s 18th-century hoax, “Formosa,” which so riled up Dr Johnson. The most astonishing pieces are to be found in the ‘Appendix,” which has two sections. Make sure you don’t stop at the opening verses! The Padmawat builds in intensity, and Malik Muhammad Jayasi writes as if he is channelling ecstatic visions from beyond, like Robert Desnos at a Surrealist session, after four days without sleeping.
‘These poems, obviously, from another and far away time, and they have their own temporal and cultural location. Just as western poets of the early Renaissance had their historical location, where attitudes and gender relations were very different than they are today. We might be startled by the portrayal of women in Jayasi’s vision, but we cannot help startled either by the jaw-dropping poetic strangeness of the work. Even as it might discomfit, it is thrilling.
‘This is the first English-language appearance of the authenticated Awadhi text. I can’t believe that it is appearing here, but so it is.’
Arundhathi Subramaniam, Sahitya Akademi Award Winner Indian Poet: It is lush, sensuous, and full of unexpected turns.
A breathtaking mix of history, folklore, cosmology and arcana, Padmawat is a revelation. It embodies a striking religious syncretism, offers insights into a moment of cultural complexity and self-assurance, and invites us to the eclectic worldview of a 16th century philosopher-poet. Disconcerting and compelling, its strangeness is both a window to an elsewhereness and a nudge to us to examine our modern-day orthodoxies in the light of its imaginative freedom and theological daring.
Currently working on Padmawat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi.

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