HYDERABAD: Aditya Nath Das, a 1987 batch IAS officer and Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, is more than just an officer. He is a poet, whose philosophical and intimate approach towards life reflects in his writing. That’s evident in his latest book, Dancing with Dreams — A Collection of Poems, which comprises Das’ incoherent scrawlings and spontaneous bursts of emotions from his the moments of his life.
Releasing the book on Sunday at Taj Deccan, Das’ counterpart Somesh Kumar said: “When I was reading it, I found that it is not poetry if it does not make you pause. Aditya’s poems make the reader pause, they make them think and reflect about themselves.”
He said, Das comes from the land of Mithila, the foothills of the Himalayas which was the birthplace of famous poets like Vidyapati. The book of 40 poems reveals the philosophical, spiritual and humane side of Das. Somesh Kumar went on to quote William Shakespeare at the event: “The world is a stage, everyone is an actor, there is an entrance and an exit.” Professor N Gopi, former vice-chancellor of the Telugu University, who is soon to translate the book into Telugu, said, “Life makes poetry possible, and poetry enlightens life. This is the reason why a poet is more human in his day-to-day affairs. The officers don’t get enough time to explore the emotions and states of mind in artistic ways, but Adityanath Das has done it very well.”
Das wrote many of the poems during his college days in the early 1980s. “Today, every communication happens through technology, but back then, all communication had a human form which was easy to interpret and more pleasurable and emotional.”
He said the most difficult journey is to connect with oneself than connecting with the person next to you or to the abstract world. He concluded with a message, “Whatever life unfolds for you, welcome it with a smile.” Das has started writing more poems which are a reflection of his current collection. He has also finalised a dozen of them, which are likely to be published soon.