Rabindranath in his Heart : International Tagore Award for Ratan Bhattacharjee 
Dr. Daniela Rogeobete
All his life being an admirer of Tagore and of his poetry and philosophy as a World Poet , Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee himself is a globe trotting academician who won both International Tagore Award 2024 and Bhanu Singh Award 2024 and saw Tagore mainly as a Lover of Humanity and World Peace. Dr. Bhattacharjee focused on these aspects of Tagore in the Special lecture delivered in Farirleigh Dickinson University on ‘Love Poetry of Tagore and Whiman’ which was much appreciated in the Pre-Covid days .Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee 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 His nearly 2000 poems of love both published and unpublished bear some influence of Tagore and Neruda and no less so of Lorca.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 .At present a senior columnist and Affiliate Faculty of English, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond USA, Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee has been selected for the International Tagore Award by 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. Dr Bhattacharjee also won the Bhanu Singh Award 2024 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 Amar 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. 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 woman 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 Professor 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. Dr.Ratan is a voracious reader and loved to teach Shelley and Keats , Lorca and Neruda in his long 40 year teaching career. 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.Basically a student of Calcutta University he passed from Scottish Church College and then in University of Kolkata .He was formerly Associate Professor & Chair Post Graduate Deot of English Dum Dum Motijheel College and also simultaneously 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 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 , He served 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 Famine 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 . 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’s literary excellence is also inspiration for him The .little five year old daughter inspires him everyday to write stories for her already one book of poems on her was published .In his boyhood days he used to bring out a hand written magazine where his school friends and family members used to contribute. .. 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 in VCU Richmond. .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 in Nagpur,Dharbhanga , 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
