Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee, a columnist and Affiliate Faculty of English, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond USA, has been selected for the International Tagore Award from DRDC, approved by the Govt of India. DRDC is the first Inter-Government Organization and the 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 have been published for decades in Germany, the Philippines, Italy, USA, as well as in many African and Arab countries where his poems have been translated into Lebanese, Italian and French. His first poem appeared as early as 2005 in online sites and blogs and from that moment on he started writing poems on Love and Nature. Later he compiled some of them in the volume entitled Melody and Maladies.
All his life an admirer of poetry and philosophy, Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee delivered a Special lecture at Fairleigh Dickinson University on ‘Love Poetry’ which was much appreciated in the pre-COVID days. He explored the theme of love in his work, choosing the Oleander flower as a central image. A review in The Statesman described him as the ‘Oleander poet’.
However, he loved fiction no less. Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee mused deeply on his ideal of Education and published his thoughts in various newspapers. His nearly 2000 poems of love both published and unpublished bear some influence of major poets and no less so of other literary figures. Dr. Ratan believed in the concept of love as a universal force.
Cyberwit Allahabad published his first volume of poetry The Ballad of the Bleeding Bubbles, which was translated into Assamese. Being connected to famous Assamese writers and poets was a huge inspiration and an immense honour. Legendary poet Jayanta Mahapatra released his book in Pondicherry. Later another poet published his Assamese poems and articles. He started writing in various Assamese publications. Patricia Mukhim persuaded him to write for Shillong Times and a number of his articles were published in The Assam Tribune and The Sentinel. He is a regular book reviewer and feature writer for several publications including Northeast Now and now a regular weekly column writer for The Sentinel. All these developed his love for Assam and its literature. In Bengali, his articles and poems are published in Aajkal, Puber Kalom and Dainik Statesman.
Travelling is his favourite hobby and now universities in India and USA are inviting him for lectures on the Promotion of Indian and American literature nearly every fortnight. He lectured on Love Poetry at Fairleigh Dickinson University New Jersey. Poetry inspired Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee as a poet and educationist. It dealt with love – love for humanity, and love for nature. Dr. Bhattacharjee subscribes to this poetic philosophy and the award goes to him in this year. His poems on this theme are published regularly in various international magazines. His poems on Nature are published in publications from Tazakistan, Italy, Ohio and New Zealand. He was nominated as an international judge in an International Poetry Contest.
Although a poet, Dr. Bhattacharjee’s forte is his academic potential. As a Visiting International Professor, he enjoyed interacting with intellectuals for the promotion of literature.