Som Ranchan - Writing Career

Writing Career

The interest in writing poetry generated in Ranchan when he had just started his studies at college, as a student of graduation. During his sojourn in America he stayed with Raja Rao in Austin, Texas, (for almost a week) with whom he shared a lot of spiritual experiences which he had described in one of his lectures delivered in Himachal Pradesh University. On Walt Whitman, he did his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Thereafter, the passion for writing had taken a path never trod by anyone as the impact of Walt Whitman and his writings, somehow, still prevails in a latent form. As Kirpal Singh describes it : “the libidinous nature of touch in Whitman…equally pronounced in Ranchan”. The impact of such stylistics could be seen in his “America with Love.” Ranchan's Ph.D. dissertation substantially advanced the understanding of Whitman as the pre-eminent poet of the soul. He brought to his work on Whitman an insight and understanding only an Indian steeped in Tantra could reveal. Ranchan defends these claims with a note of relative vitality: “I am not a clone of Walt Whitman but do use chant, catalogue style.” It need be noted that Ranchan's poetry has a lyricism rarely felt in Whitman.

He came back from America and taught for three years as an Associate Professor of English in the Punjabi University, Patiala (1964–66). Soon after, he went back to United States of America and taught there for almost six years at California State University, Fullerton where he held many administrative responsibilities:“The Executive Council” (1970–71), “Comparative Literature Committee” (1972–1974), “Asian Studies Committee” (1974–75), “Interdisciplinary Studies” where he worked as a Professor (1968–77), “Membership of C.G. Jung Club of Southern California, U.S.A.”. Ranchan’s diaspora was full of joy, cheers, and a learning experience for him. It was in California that his interest in comparative literature developed Ranchan as a writer. The experience of which, he claims: “shows in my writings.” He became, as he quotes: “an Indo-American, mediating, relating across the board.” More than anything, Ranchan's range in poetry displays a remarkable mind with both profound curiosity and a nature with the deepest desire to explore the spiritual. The range of his poetry and its multiple voices is likewise quite rare. His oetry displays mastery of both Indian esoteric traditions of Vedanta and Tantra and, Western depth psychology and religious figures. More than anything, Ranchan's perceives and reveals the myth that operates in all of our lives.

His experience of teaching diverse courses, exposure to American people from all walks of life, his pastoral counselling for the Church of Antioch, Order of Missionary Ministers, become the tap root of his creativity and inter-diciplnary rangings in subjects as diverse as political theory, folklore, myth, psychology, therapy etc.

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