Born on 3^rd October 1987, Sushant Chattopadhyaya, a native of Allahabad, a city in Northern State of Uttar Pradesh, India; has a fascinating journey from being an IT Engineer in a leading Indian consultancy to drifting and following a path less taken i.e. poetry. An alumnus of SRM University, Chennai, he holds an engineering degree in Information Technology.  His family was no stranger to academics and art. His grandfather Pt. Kestreshachandra Chattopadhyaya was an eminent Sanskrit scholar and recipient of the President’s Award of Excellence from the then President of India Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was a close childhood friend of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and their association lasted till the very end. The letters exchanged between these two giants are just not great sources of inspiration for us, but also reflected the depth of their thoughts and love for India.

Sushant’s father Professor Mahesh Chandra Chattopadhyaya is a retired Professor of Chemistry and someone who was the Founder and remained Convenor of Allahabad University Film Society for decades. Cinema of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and other greats used to be screened in the Film Society. Little Sushant used to frequent there with his father. Though he was too small to understand those movies, the images left a lasting impression. Being born in a Bengali family which was musically and culturally inclined, played a vital role in shaping him. The seeds of poetry were sown from his very childhood which later blossomed into a beautiful flower forcing him to quit his corporate job and take the plunge into the depths of poetry.

From his very childhood, he was a recluse and to his own admission someone who found peace and solace in his thoughts and music. An avid listener of Indian music, he is no stranger to music from other parts of the globe. His deep love for Indian Classical Music prompted him to write a series of articles about legends of this genre. The series includes greats like Ustad Abdul Karim Khan, Ustad Ahmad Jaan Thriakwa, Ustad Inayat Khan and many more. Old Hindi cinema music is what drove a young Sushant towards poetry. Yesteryears, poets who wrote songs for movies gave wings to their thoughts. Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Shailendra, and other poets greatly influenced him. The city of Allahabad was once a cultural hub and boasts of producing great literally giants both in Urdu and Hindi. Akbar Illahabadi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Mahadevi Verma, Harivansh Rai Bacchan, Sumitra Nandan Path to name a few.

When it comes to Sushant’s poetry, he opted for Urdu as the language of expression. He admits the experience of life and listening to great poets shaped his poetry. He considers Firaq, Faiz, Majaz, Pirzada Qasim as some of the great Urdu poets who greatly impacted his poetry. Poets from other languages like Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam,  Kabir, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Alfred Tennyson too played a vital role in shaping Sushant’s poetry. Ghazal, Nazm, Rubai, and Qata are some forms in which he expresses himself. He uses Safeer as his pen name which means ambassador. His poetry encompasses great varied subjects like – love, humanism, nature, justice, etc. The following reflects his thoughts and gives us a clear picture of his thought process.

‘Mile hain  yun  ki  yaad nahi  kab hum begaane the

Tere  haseen  khwaab  shayad  hamesha  sirhane  the’

[The way we met, it never felt we were strangers | Close to me was always the dreams about you]

‘Sard hawaon mein lehrayenge, aag bankar

Khar-e-waqt ko mehkanyenge, gulaab bankar

Ish shab-e-sitam ki zindagi hogi muqtasar

Raahon  pe nikal aayenge inqilab bankar’

[We will brave the cold winds like the fire| Like a rose will drench the thorn of time with our scent | This night of tyranny will not last long | Will take the streets and bring the revolution]

‘Ek lamha sadi ban jata hain

Tere ehsaas kay saye mein’

[One moment becomes a whole century | In the shadows of your feelings]

‘Muntazir  hain dudhiya badal, chaand ko bahoon mein kasne ko

Jaise raat ki siyahi aakhon kay khwaab mein basne ko’

[White milky cloud awaits to embrace the moon | Just as the darkness of night awaits to settle in the dreams.

The young poet shows great degree of promise. With one hand he holds traditional aesthetics with other he paints the current time. He also ventures in territories like short stories, articles, and reviews. It will be quite interesting to see how this propitious talent shapes his poetic path. As for the immediate future, Chhayanat (Kolkata) in collaboration with Questz World will release his tribute poem to giant of Indian poetry – Kazi Nazrul Islam. The poem will be released in audio/video form for all the admirers of Kazi Nazrul Islam and lovers of poetry.