Vishwa Hindi Samman Recipient Proud to be BITSian Anoop Bhargava Alumnus of BITS Pilani Rajasthan

To quote English poet, literary critic, philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests” No one has doubt that language indeed shapes the way we think and determines what we can think about. It was on 14 September 1949, the Constitution-makers of India decided to accord the status of Official Language of the Union to Hindi written in Devanagari script.

To commemorate this historic occasion, Hindi Diwas is observed every year on the same date. Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon during the 8th World Hindi Conference on Hindi at United Nation headquarters in New York had said that Hindi is a language of harmony and understanding. The importance of Hindi in the global arena can be judged by the fact that the hugely popular and highly acclaimed social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter etc have included Hindi versions.

Anoop Bhargava is a Technology person by profession and poet by heart. His first poem was published in a literary journal when he was 13 years old. He did his BE(Hons) Chemical Engineering (1975-1980) from institution of eminence in India today Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani and Masters in ‘System and Management’ from IIT Delhi. At BITS, he was the Editor-in-Chief of Hindi Magazine, Secretary of the Debating Club, and a member of the Students Union.

During his BITSian days, Anoop took part in various Cultural Festivals including the Kohinoor in crown which is none other than the OASIS and won prizes at All India Level. He came to the United States in 1983 but kept his love for poetry alive. He was instrumental in bringing good poetry to America by inviting poets like Gopal Das Neeraj, Ashok Chakradhar Som Thakur, Kunwar Bechain, Surendra Sharma and organizing their Kavi Sammelan tours in various cities of USA.

With his technical background, Anoop realized the importance of internet early and founded a Yahoo group called ‘eKavita’ in 2003 to share and spread poetry using emails. At its peak, eKavita was one of the most vibrant groups related to poetry with more than 900 active members across the globe. Anoop was a member of the ‘Core Organizing Committee’ for 8th World Hindi Conference held in New York City in 2007 and presented a paper on ‘Use of Technology to promote Hindi’.

In 2007, Anoop was awarded “Hindi Videsh Prasar Samman” by ‘Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan’ for his contribution in promoting Hindi outside of India. He was also associated with ‘Kavita Kosh’ – the biggest collection of Poetry on the Internet since its early days and contributed to its success between 2008-2011. Right from childhood, Anoop was fascinated by Hindi poetry and wrote his first poem at the tender age of 9. According to him, poetry is not an option, it just happens.

Anoop and his wife Rajni, are frequently invited for Kavi Sammelans / Mushairas across USA. He is known for his rendition of short and crisp poems. Anoop founded ‘Jhilmil’ in 2015 to promote Indian art and culture in America and organized dozens of shows in performing and visual arts. In 2015, Anoop was given “Vishwa Hindi Samman” by Government of India. He was one of the youngest recipients of this lifetime achievement award given for his contribution in promoting and spreading the use of Hindi.

Anoop was invited to Bhopal where 10th Vishwa Hindi Sammelan was held in September 2015. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the award was given by Mr. Raj Nath Singh - the home minister of India. He was invited to Eleventh World Hindi Conference held in Mauritius in 2018. He was a panelist speaker in the session “Future of Technology – Important Initiatives”. He was the only poet from the United States to take part in the “Kavi Sammelan”. In 2019, Anoop was invited as an official delegate to the International Hindi Conference organized by ‘Lisbon University’ in Lisbon, Portugal. He presented a paper on ‘Case Studies in Use of Technology in promoting Hindi’.

In 2019, Anoop was invited to Vishwa Rang – The first International Literature and Art Festival organized by Rabindra Nath Tagore University in Bhopal, India. He took part and moderated two sessions including one on “Hindi and Technology”. In Aug 2019, Anoop was invited as an official delegate to the International Hindi Conference organized by ‘Lisbon University’ in Lisbon, Portugal. He presented a paper on ‘Case Studies in Use of Technology in promoting Hindi’ which was acclaimed by one and all.

In 2020, Anoop started ‘Kavita Ki Pathshala’ – a group to teach the techniques and grammar of Hindi Poetry to students from all over the world. The group currently has about 250 members. In November 2020, Anoop organized a three-day Literary and Cultural Festival called Vishwa Rang in association with AISECT University in Bhopal, India. He was also the Global Coordinator to organize the same festival in 16 other countries. In March 2021, World Hindi Secretariat in Mauritius recognized his contribution to the promotion of Hindi language throughout the world and appointed him the International Coordinator for the promotion of Hindi.

In the 2021 series of 1996 founded Gitanjali Multilingual Literary Circle - GMLC the 18th programme was scheduled on 12 Sep 2021 with famous American poet Dr. Vinod Tiwari a world-renowned physicist who had taught at BITS Pilani also and Proud to be BITSian Shri Anoop Bhargava who is presently one of the most renowned Poet, writer, litterateur and Hindi language lover from USA. Anoop believes that the Internet and the latest computer technology can play an important role in spreading Hindi across the globe and has been working aggressively on several projects to realize this goal.

For more on BITSAA see https://www.bitsaa.org/

Prof BR Natarajan
BITS Pilani Alumnus
C/o Jamuna Mishra Academy – JMA
Pilani, Rajasthan India 333031
Phone: +91-9799476406
Email: brnatarajan@bitsaa.org
Website: https://www.bitsaa.org

About BITSAA: BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) has emerged as one of the strongest alumni networks of any university. BITSAA International engages in charitable and educational activities by raising funds for setting up endowments, creating scholarships, rewarding teaching and research and generally promoting the development of resources at Birla Institute of Technology and Science at Pilani, Dubai, Goa & Hyderabad campuses. BITSAA International also aims to strengthen the ties, friendship and communication amongst former students, alumni faculty and friends of the Institute. BITSAA International provides a number of channels for people to stay connected with each other and with Birla Institute of Technology & Science. Notable other alumni initiatives for BITS Pilani include Prof SSR Memorial Teaching Excellence Award, Atma Nirbara multi crore Pilani Resource Centre by 75-80 batch alumni, Prashant Anuradha Palakurthi Research Endowment and many more. For more on BITSAA see https://www.bitsaa.org

This release was published on openPR.