The Shadow of Light

Sibaprasad Dutta (born 31 August 1951) hails from an obscure village in India. He majored in English Literature from The University of Calcutta and then did M.A. in English Literature in Jadavpur University, Calcutta. After teaching for some time he joined a bank and as a bank officer earned the diplomas in banking like CAIIB (Bombay) and ACIB (London). He gave up the job in the bank as Assistant Regional Manager at the age of forty-nine in 2001 and joined Ramakrishna Mission Residential College as a Guest Lecturer. Now retired, Dutta is engaged in guiding students, doing research work, writing poems and short stories and translating into English ancient Indian scriptures written in Sanskrit. Poetry is the chief passion of Dutta, and to it, he devotes much of his attention. He believes in the spontaneity of poetical works, and does not write unless he is fully inspired and haunted. Although his poems contain allusions, he is not after uncommon mythological allusions and carefully, yet spontaneously, avoids complexities in thoughts and images. As a follower of Wordsworth, he believes in simplicity of diction sans colloquialism and slangs. His is a refined and polished language, rhythmical and melodious. Sometimes, he writes in free verse but even when he writes in free verse, he has a surprising rhyme scheme. To Dutta, poetry has a definite character marked by rhythm and rhyme. He believes that poetry without rhythm and rhyme is a belle with a flat chest.