Ranajit Das (b.1949) started writing poetry as a schoolboy at his hometown Silchar, Assam and joined a group of local poets who centered on a little magazine called ‘Atandra’. After completing his college-studies, he permanently moved to Kolkata in 1971 and became a part of its vibrant literary circle. 

He joined the West Bengal Civil Service in 1976. His first book of poems titled ‘Amader Lajuk Kabita’ was published in 1977 which was greeted with acclaim. Thereafter he has published 9 collections of poems, including ‘Bondorer Kathyabhasa’(1993), ‘Ishwarer Chokh’(1999), ‘Sandhyar Pagal’(2004), ‘Selected Poems’(2002) and ‘Dhankhete Brishti Kabita’(2013). Besides, he has published two novels and two collections of literary essays. He has co-edited with a poet from Bangladesh, Sajjad Sharif, a large volume of ‘Selected Poems of Bangladesh’ in 2009. 

Ranajit’s poems are acclaimed for its fresh urban idiom and its distinctive poetic vision marked by deep human sympathy. Theoretically he opposes the modernist view of extreme individualism and concepts of alienation, ennui and urban angst, rejecting them as merely unscientific and narcissistic bourgeois sentiments precipitating moral anarchy and consumerism. He firmly holds that self is not superior to society, and believes in G.E. Moore’s maxim: ‘Art is empathy’. As regards the dialectic of his creative process, he says, ‘I choose emotion to become the seat of my intellect’. He believes in the close bond between aesthetics and ethics. 

He lives in Kolkata with his wife Sarmila and son Malyaban.    

All Poems of Ranajit were translated into English by Sri Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee and himself. All close-up photos of Ranajit in this site were taken by Mr. Sandip Kumar.

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