Know Your Babu: New Hupa secretary Anita Agnihotri is a noted Bengali writer, poet

“Those Who Had Known Love”—is an English translation of Bengali lyrical novel Jara Bhalobesechhilo written by an IAS officer of 1980 batch, Anita Agnihotri. As Agnihotri of Odisha cadre has recently taken over as secretary of the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (Hupa), BoI here presents some of the highlights of Agnihotri’s career as a writer, and also as an…

IPS officer's poem lands herself in a row; senior asks who gave permission

SENIOR IPS officer from Kerala B Sandhya has landed up in a controversy not because of any of her file noting, but for writing a poem which depicts politicians, media and bureaucracy in poor light. The 50-year-old officer, currently an Additional Director General of Police, was asked to give an…

Poet By Heart: Bureaucrat Bishnupada Sethi’s World of Words

MEET this bureaucrat by mind but poet by heart. For Bishnupada Sethi, a 1995 batch Orissa cadre IAS and director, Census Operation of Orissa, life is a bigger canvas and poetry is his art. Bishnupada Sethi is a confirmed poet with two poetry books already in his kitty.
His latest book, My World of Words is a collection of poems with an underlining theme that words are central to human existence. After all, human experience, intelligence, belief etc. are linked to the world of words.

Sample this:

Lying quietly on a wooden cot,

kept on the verandah of a mud hut,

I move my eyes slowly

like the rare waves

in the cool waters of a static lake.

You may wonder about me-

Relating to people like you,

while knowing that I do not have any name,

like other old members of the tribe

as naming was never our old tradition.

This is Sethi’s one of many poems called “An Unknown Tribal” where he narrates what life means for a simple tribal villager. For the record, there has been a massive debate in Orissa about tribal rights vis-à-vis commercial utilization of its vast resources.

Sethi’s first book named, “Where Shall I Go” was published in 2005. The book became so popular that its Urdu version was published later in 2009, and its Oriya version in under print.

Amarendra Khatua, a 1981 batch IFS officer, is yet another bureaucrat-cum-poet. His Ek Kavi Ka Khamosh Ho Jana received accolades in the poetry circle.

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Action and Appointments

a) Anil Kumar, a 1976 batch Nagaland cadre IAS, presently Principal Adviser, Planning Commission has been appointed as secretary, department of AYUSH, under the ministry of health and family welfare in place of Ms S Jalaja, a 1974 batch Bihar cadre IAS who is retiring on October 31, 2010.