Description
Yes, that flower
is still there, pressed
into the pages
of my poetry book,
a scintillating flame of love,
because some bonds
do not fade,
no darkness can dissolve
the intensity of love —
it’s a blissful dance.
Kusum Ansal’s poems sit heavy with emotion “on the wings of time” as she reflects on her life. A streak of deep pathos runs through her verses urging release. When laughter is “a long, lost luxury” and tears stare back from the paper as a language, that’s when her flights of imagination take place and her poems travel from city to city, to lands of happiness as well as misery, and finally to the present times within the trappings of the pandemic. Her poems identify the visible as well as the invisible cages if only to get free from them.
— Sukrita Paul Kumar, author of Vanishing Words
Dr (Mrs) Kusum Ansal is a well-known name in the writers’ world. She is an extraordinary novelist, a poet and a short story writer. In her writing, she puts together vivid, haunting recollections of incidents and people from different walks of life with an unusual skill, which explores the inner terrain of individual existence.
She possesses a Master’s degree in psychology (1961) from Aligarh Muslim University and a PhD in Hindi literature (1987) from Punjab University. She is the author of 32 books, which includes 10 novels, 10 collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, besides three travelogues, an autobiography and two stage plays. Her works have been translated to languages, such as Russian, Greek, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam, etc.
Her popular novel Uski Panchvati was made into the film by the celebrated director, Basu Bhattacharya, with Deepti Naval, Suresh Oberoi and Akbar Khan in the lead roles. She wrote the screenplay and dialogues of the film, Panchvati, which was selected for the Indian Panorama in 1999, and was shown in Tashkent and Toronto Film Festivals. A serial based on social, human and relationship issues called Titliyan and ten episodes of children’s serial called Indradhanush and Isi Bahane have been her contribution to television.
She is the recipient of various literary awards, such as Hindi Academy Sahityakar Samman (2005), Sahitya Bhooshan Samman, UP (2006), IWEC – International Women’s Challenges Award (2010) in South Africa for her novel, Beyond Silence, a novel about India Diaspora in South Africa, to name a few.
Dr Kusum Ansal was also the National President of FICCI – a lady’s organisation (FLO) in 2001. She is actively associated with several philanthropic organisations, such as Women International Club and was the President of the Quota International Club (2004-2005).
Dr Kusum Ansal is also a trustee of the NGO Divyachaya Trust and in that banner, she is actively involved with a senior citizen home called Chiranjiv Karm Bhoomi. She even received a Respect Age International Award for her social work in 2015.
Dr Kusum Ansal used to give talks on All India Radio regularly on a variety of subjects. She has worked with IPTA, a leading theatre group of yesteryears and acted in many plays. Two of her novels, Rekhakriti and Uske Hoton Ka Chup were adapted as plays by Feisal Alkazi and were staged successfully in several cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Pune.
Dr Kusum Ansal, along with a group of literary luminaries of the country has established the Kusumanjali Foundation, a non-profit organisation in 2011 with the aim to promote the artistic, literary and cultural heritage of India. Every year, the foundation offers Kusumanjali Sahitya Samman National Awards to two best literary works of the year. One award is given to a literary work written in Hindi and the second award is given to a literary work in one of the remaining recognised Indian languages. Each winner is presented with a cheque worth Rs 2,50,000, plus a citation, a shawl and the award statuette.