Sreyash Sarkar

Born to noted physicist professor of the University of Calcutta, Samir Kr. Sarkar and Pushpita Sarkar, a professor of Political Science at Bangabasi College,[1] Sarkar grew up in Calcutta, India and studied at South Point School.[9] From his school-life onwards, he was a student correspondent for Voices, the literary supplement of The Statesman, Calcutta, India. He received his initial musical training from his mother and later in Hindustani Classical Music in the Kirana and Gwalior gharanas, from Bidhan Chakrabarty, Rajyasree Ghosh, Sandip Ghosh, a disciple of Pt. A. Kanan and from Pt. Keerti Kumar Badsheshi, a disciple of Pt. Vinayak Torvi. His maternal grandaunt is the noted Hindustani Classical vocalist Padmashri Vidushi Sumitra Guha and his paternal cousin-in-law is the American cellist, Dale Henderson.[10] He obtained his bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka. Having read letters of his great-grandaunt, the social activist and chairperson of the Committee of Status of Women in India, Phulrenu Guha, written while she was pursuing her doctoral studies at the Sorbonne, Sarkar was lured to the idea of moving to Paris, France.[11] Finally in 2016, he did move to Paris to pursue his post graduate studies for his diplome d'ingenieur in Microelectronics and Nanotechnology at ESIEE Paris,where from he graduated in 2018 with top honours: mention très bien avec les félicitations du jury[12] and is presently pursuing his PhD on Metamaterials.[13][14][15]

Notable poems written by Sarkar are listed at Eye on Life Magazine[16] and include:

• Whirligig[17]
• The Optical Symphony[18]
• The Cage
• The Macrame of Carnal Waves
• I'm 23 and I'm Wearing a White Kurta[19]
• A Tibetan Epistle[20]

Sarkar's works, as reviewed in The Galway Review[21] and Red River Review, represents an endearing world of 'some basic formal truths'.

Le Mauricien goes on to comment that,

Sarkar thus delimits a position apart in the debate on the question of representation and brings up 'some basic formal truths' in pictorial space. The reflexive space, the powerful creations are not synonymous with anarchy. It is about safeguarding the autonomy of artistic creation and affirming a critical attitude towards the present world. Sarkar seems to question all objectivity in art, to approach the work as such, the expression of a search.[In his works] We see the misuse of motives, a short prosodic structure, a dry recitative and a rhythmic pattern constitutive of an intimate rumination, the effect of distancing and the search for an intimate cohesion.[3]

In an interview for Arty Legume, he had indicated his principal poetic influences to be Rabindranath Tagore, Rainer Maria Rilke, Arthur Rimbaud & Sylvia Plath, who taught him, poetic restraint and the 'economy of balance'.

Sarkar refuses to be labelled as an artist and remarks that 'there is an inherent difference between craftsmanship and artistry' and instead prefers to be called a 'technician, who picks up the pen or brush to accomplish the job. Whether the end result is art, is unknown [to him]'.[22][23]

I do what I do apart from writing, painting, or singing because I get bored with one activity. I can’t sustain myself on one particular activity for a very long period of time. I need diversity in my life. That is why I embroil myself in all of these activities that I do. I think the relationship between written and visual forms is that it’s only a matter of profound expression. For me, in a particular moment in my day or my life, I find the inspiration. But to sort of categorize that inspiration into an application, I only find it in one particular form. It’s a line of expression. And this strand of emotion, it’s not a singular strand of emotion, it’s also immensely fruitful and enriching and heartbreaking at times, and at times loving. But all of these complexities find their voices in that particular expression at that point of time...Poetry for me is not just a matter of theme, it’s also a matter of immediacy. Because when I write anything in the form of poetry, it’s always letting my thoughts run unfiltered. If I put a filter in between my thoughts and what goes on the paper, what happens is sometimes I lose the economy that I need in the poetic form.

- Interview to Awakenings Art, 2020[23]

Publications containing Sarkar's works are listed as:

English

• Five Poetry Magazine
• Literal Latte
• B O D Y
• UReCA[24]
• Southlit Literary Journal[25]
• Indiana Review[19]
• Ember[26]
• Red River Review[27]
• The Eastern New Mexico University's Art & Crafts journal, El Portal, list including Whirligig by Sarkar[28]
• Circus Book[29]
• Ijagun Poetry Journal[30]
• Pif Magazine[31]
• The Write Place at the Write Time[20]
• Scarlet Leaf Review Magazine[32]
• The Legendary[4]
• Indigo Rising Magazine[33]
• Galway Review Magazine[6]
• Cecile's Writers Magazine[34]
• Creativica[35]
• Poetry Pacific[36]
• Tin House
• River River Journal[37]
• Poetry Pacific[36]
• Plainsongs, Literary journal of Hastings College Press
• The Cape Rock, Southeast Missouri State University Press
• Fifth Wednesday Journal
• Fowl Feathered Review
• Dumas Demain
• Griffel[38]
• The Paragon Journal[39]
• Leaves of Ink[40]
• TreeHouse Arts[41]
• The Bitchin' Kitsch[42]
• The Non-Functioning Scribblers[43]

Bengali

• Anandabazar Patrika[44][45][46][47]
• Sangbad Pratidin[48]
• Adorer Nauka[49][50][51]

• Roots, Oil on Fabriano cold press canvas, 'Bloom' exhibition at the Awakenings Art Gallery, Chicago supported by the Chicago Foundation for Women,2020-2021.[52]

• I'm 23 and I'm Wearing a White Kurta by Sreyash Sarkar on Issue 9, River River Magazine.
• Official website