Shiv K.Kumar Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Shiv K. Kumar, it’s true that you too a Lahorian,
One from Rawalpindi, Peshawar or Lahore
Just like Keshav Malik, K.N.Daruwalla, Mulk Raj Anand, Khushwant Singh,
Krishan Chander, Bhisham Sahni and Rajinder Singh Bedi,
Born in Lahore in 1921, matriculated from D.A.V. School, Lahore,
B.A. from Government College and M.A. Forman Christian College, Lahore

Again restarted you for your second innings
In 1943, you joined D.A.V. College, Lahore as a lecturer,
But moved to Delhi during the Partition
And after brief stints as lecturer at Hansraj College, Delhi
And as programme officer at the All India Radio, Delhi
And left India to join Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 1950.

In 1956, received Ph.D. in English Literature from the Univ. of Camb.
On 'Bergson and the Stream of Consciousness Novel'
Under the research supervision of Professor David Daiches,
It’s good enough to hear about
And also had the opportunity of being tutored by F.R.Leavis,
Quite important from the biographical point of view.

Shiv K. Kumar, you returned back to from foreign
And taught English at Osmania and Hyderabad Univs. of Hyderabad,
And during 1972-74, were a UGC National Lecturer in English,
Again held the position of being the founder HOD of English,
The Dean of the School of Humanities at the Univ.of Hyderabad
And finally retired as the V.C. of the University of it in 1980.

You had also been the Distinguished Visiting Professor at
The Universities of Oklahoma and Northern Iowa
And Visiting Prof.at the Universities of Drake, Hofstra, Marshall,
A Visiting Fulbright Fellow at Yale Univ-
This is what your bio-data says it, I mean your c.v.
With Trapfalls in the Sky given the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1987
And the Padma Bhushan in 2001 from the Govt. of India.

These are your details, sir,
You go on saying and I shall go noting,
Nothing my own, but yours,
Your fact and fiction,
Your degrees and the attendances for,
I am just noting
As per your notes.

But apart your works, had you told about David Daiches,
It would have been great,
The talks shared with your guide,
As say you,
I mean the great historian,
Whom the degrees cannot contain in,
Had, had you on him,
A biography of his,
It would have been more contributory
Than your poetry, just feel I.

Shiv, were you a late starter in poetry as the book-list shows it
That your first collection, Articulate Silences appeared from
P.Lal’s Writers Workshop, Calcutta in 1970
When you had been almost fifty years of age
And all this shows that you were a late starter
In your poetry-writing?

Again, when meet I, shall interview not from your biographical side
But from what you have written exactly,
How is your poetry candidly,
Without praising you
In my full Tartaric criticism,
Assessing what you have contributed to
Barring man-woman relationship stories?