UpdateBot at 14:40, 7 January 2022

2022-01-07T14:40:05Z

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{{EngvarB|date=March 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}

{{Infobox writer 
| name = Ankur Betageri
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| birth_date = 1983
| birth_place = [[Bangalore]], [[Karnataka]]
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| occupation = poet, fiction writer, artist
| language = English, [[Kannada]]
| nationality = Indian
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| education =
| alma_mater = [[Christ University|Christ College]]
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| genre = poetry, fiction, drama
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| notableworks = [[Bhog and Other Stories]], Malavika mattu Itara Kathegalu
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'''Ankur Betageri''' (born 1983 in [[Bangalore]], [[Karnataka]]) is an [[Indian people|Indian]] poet, fiction writer, photographer and arts activist. He currently teaches English at Bharati College, University of Delhi. In 2012, he was named as one of the ten best writers in the country by the English daily [[Indian Express]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Best Young Writers|url=http://epaper.indianexpress.com/49394/Eye-The-Sunday-Express-Magazine/JULY-29-AUGUST-#dual/10/2|work=[[The Indian Express]]|accessdate=20 March 2013}}</ref> He holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from [[Christ University]], Bangalore.<ref>{{cite web|title=Muse India|url=http://www.museindia.com/authprofile.asp?id=120|access-date=27 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402185349/http://www.museindia.com/authprofile.asp?id=120|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Betageri is also known for founding the public arts and activist platform, Hulchul, whose artistic interventions in reclaiming [[Public space|Public Spaces]] like public washrooms and roadside walls, and the use of art to transform the everyday urban life have been widely appreciated.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Don't wash your hands off it|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/dont-wash-your-hands-off-it/article3744160.ece|work=[[The Hindu]]|accessdate=19 March 2013|date=2012-08-08|last1=Tripathi|first1=Shailaja}}</ref> As a poet he has represented India at The III International [[Delphic Games of the modern era|Delphic Games]] (2009) at [[Jeju City|Jeju]], South Korea,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jeju to Host the 3rd Delphic Games in September|url=http://www.youngsi.com/technote7/board.php?board=freeboard&page=3&sort=hit&command=body&no=111&PHPSESSID=c170302aeabe8687d2d3b17372405914|publisher=Youngsi.com|accessdate=21 March 2013}}</ref> and Lit Up Writers Festival (2010) at Singapore.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lit Up Singapore 2010 Comes to Innova|url=http://www.innovajc.moe.edu.sg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164|publisher=[[Innova Junior College]]|accessdate=21 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030002606/http://www.innovajc.moe.edu.sg/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164|archive-date=30 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Singapore lit up with shining letters|url=http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2010/08/08/mon01.asp|accessdate=21 March 2013|newspaper=[[Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka)|The Sunday Observer]]|date=8 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029200023/http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2010/08/08/mon01.asp|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Poetry and fiction ==

Betageri's poetry collection ''The Bliss and Madness of Being Human'' (2013) has been reviewed. Gopikrishnan Kottoor was critical, calling Betageri "self-indulgent" and noting that he "is trying to get at his own voice, and considering that he is just 30, he still has enough time. Ankur must take heed of real poetry happening all over, even as he cocoons himself in the illusions of his own penning." Kottoor added: "His [Betageri's] weaknesses include his fly-over statements, limitations of theme, and his predominating subjectivity. The 'I' element in many of the poems makes them much too personal, often fencing him in within the orbit of personal statements and observations. He'll do well to off-load his subjectivity, and externalise his poetry."<ref>{{cite news|title=A Poetic Journey|url=http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/a-poetic-journey/|accessdate=13 September 2013|newspaper=The Daily Star|date=13 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Self-indulgent Words|url=http://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/selfindulgent-words/article4884044.ece|work=The Hindu Literary Review|date=2013-07-06|last1=Kottoor|first1=Gopikrishnan}}</ref>

Speaking to [[The Indian Express]] in 2012, [[U.R. Ananthamurthy]] said of him: "Betageri writes his poetry and short fiction in Kannada as well as English, influenced both by the local and the global. Much of our Indian English writing is highly westernized but his is different. He writes in two voices both very significant... He reminds me of the great [[A.K. Ramanujan]] who wrote in both tongues with perfect ease."<ref>{{cite news|title=Best Young Writers|url=http://epaper.indianexpress.com/49394/Eye-The-Sunday-Express-Magazine/JULY-29-AUGUST-#dual/10/2|work=The Indian Express|issue=29 July 2012}}</ref>

''Basant Badal Deta Hai Muhavre'' (2011) is the [[Hindi]] translation of his selected English poems by the Hindi poet [[Rahul Rajesh]]. His poems have also been translated into [[Bengali language|Bengali]] and [[Korean language|Korean]].

Betageri's short fiction collection [[Bhog and Other Stories]] (2010) has been praised for introducing characters who "have been largely invisible in Indian fiction in English."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Ipadeola|first1=Tade|title=Illuminating The Infinite|url=http://indianreview.in/bhog-and-other-stories-a-review-by-tade-ipadeola/|website=Indian Review}}</ref> In a review the Nigerian poet [[Tade Ipadeola]] writes, "Betageri’s greatest achievement in this collection may very well be his unveiling of the world ''within'' India as well as the India to be found in the rest of the ''world''."<ref>{{cite web|title=Book Review|url=http://mtls.ca/issue9/writings/reviews/tade-ipadeola#more-824|work=The Maple Tree Literary Supplement|accessdate=20 March 2013}}</ref> While some stories depict "a world in which all values are suspect and all attempts to achieve identity are subject to frustration"<ref>{{cite journal|title=Book Review|journal=Transnational Literature|date=2 May 2012|volume=4|issue=2|url=http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/jspui/bitstream/2328/25916/1/Bhog.pdf|accessdate=19 March 2013}}</ref> others "take strange, allegorical forms"<ref>{{cite web|title=The sweet and sour of life, from a clinical psychologist|url=http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws050511BOOKS.asp|work=The Financial World|publisher=[[Tehelka]]|accessdate=19 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029201914/http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ws050511BOOKS.asp|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Review|url=http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/articles/archives-546/2011/may/5/short-story-collections.html|work=The Book Review Literary Trust|access-date=21 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029203349/http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/articles/archives-546/2011/may/5/short-story-collections.html|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Book Review|url=http://www.museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=37&id=2653|work=[[Muse India]]|access-date=19 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202832/http://www.museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=37&id=2653|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> Reviewing the book the poet [[Anamika (poet)|Anamika]] observes, "Defamiliarization of everyday reality by breaking it into micro-moments of non-happenings seems to be his patent technique especially in stories where he delicately handles post-modern techniques of deconstructing diary-entries (…Aftermath of a Broken Love Affair), confessions and mood-swings (Malavika), dialogues and reflections (A Conversation: Story Written in the Manner of a Movie Script)."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Anamika|first1=A|title=Deconstructing Everyday Reality|url=http://pillibooks.wordpress.com/2011/06/16/deconstructing-everyday-reality/|website=Pilli Books|date=2011-06-16}}</ref> Betageri's stories have been translated into [[Hindi]] and Italian.<ref>{{cite journal|title=lo specchio del desiderio|journal=El Ghibli: Letteratura della Migrazione|date=December 2013|volume=Anno 10|issue=42|url=http://archivio.el-ghibli.org/index.php%3Fid=1&issue=10_42&section=3&index_pos=2&inlingua=t.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Malavika|journal=El Ghibli: Rivista di Letteratura della Migrazione|date=July 2014|volume=Anno 10|issue= 44|url=http://www.el-ghibli.org/ankur-betageri-testo/}}</ref>

Betageri is also a translator<ref>{{Cite news|title=Neelu learns English|url=http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/06/20/stories/2008062050780400.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617124716/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2008/06/20/stories/2008062050780400.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-06-17|work=[[The Hindu]]|date=2008-06-19}}</ref> He has translated Indian writers like [[P. Lankesh|P.Lankesh]] into English,<ref>{{cite news|title=Poems of love|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/poems-of-love/article1418442.ece|work=The Hindu|date=12 June 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Neelu Poems|url=http://www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2012&issid=43&id=3343|work=[[Muse India]]|access-date=21 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316182713/http://www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2012&issid=43&id=3343|archive-date=16 March 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Door|url=http://www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2006&issid=10&id=499|work=[[Muse India]]|access-date=21 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316182541/http://www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2006&issid=10&id=499|archive-date=16 March 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the works of writers like [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]], [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]], [[Fernando Pessoa|Pessoa]], [[Marin Sorescu|Sorescu]], [[Arthur Rimbaud|Rimbaud]], [[Pablo Neruda|Neruda]] and [[Pier Paolo Pasolini|Pasolini]] into Kannada.

== Art and photography ==

Ankur Betageri has exhibited his photographs at various places including [[ICCR]], Delhi (2012),<ref>{{cite web|title=Exhibitions held from April 2012 to Nov 2012|url=http://www.iccrindia.net/exhibitions/exhibitionslist-dec2012.pdf|work=[[Indian Council for Cultural Relations]]|accessdate=26 March 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195513/http://www.iccrindia.net/exhibitions/exhibitionslist-dec2012.pdf|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Moon and the Spring of the Haunted|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P6S71dtMw|accessdate=19 March 2013}}</ref> [[St. Stephen's College, Delhi|St. Stephen's College]] (2012) and [[Delhi University]] (2011). His photographic work often juxtaposes text and image creating the experience of what he calls "existential pause" and "bare silence". Betageri's artistic practices involve interventions in [[Billboard|advertising billboards]]<ref>{{cite journal|title=Photos from Hulchul and Dawn Poems |journal=[[Indian Literature (journal)|Indian Literature]] |date=March–April 2012 |issue=268 |pages=195–210 |url=http://issuu.com/ankurbetageri/docs/il_268_photo_essay__1_|accessdate=21 March 2013}}</ref> and the use of [[Stencil graffiti|stencils]], reproductions of [[paintings]] and photographic images in unconventional places like [[public toilets]], public walls, [[parks]] and marketplaces.<ref>{{cite web|title=Art entering the everyday|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/275780/art-entering-everyday.html|work=[[Deccan Herald]]|accessdate=19 March 2013|date=September 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The new walls of fame|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Art/The-new-walls-of-fame/Article1-954467.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108161203/http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Art/The-new-walls-of-fame/Article1-954467.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 November 2012|work=[[Hindustan Times]]|accessdate=19 March 2013}}</ref>

Betageri is the founder of the public arts platform Hulchul, known for its novel [[public art]] practices like public art exhibits, washroom art projects, poetry reading in public places and creating [[social sculpture]]s with trees in the city of Delhi. Hulchul's washroom art project has been recognized as a first and listed in the [[Limca Book of Records]].<ref>{{cite web|title=First art project for washrooms|url=http://limcabookofrecords.in/recorddetails.aspx?recid=670|work=Limca Book of Records 2013|accessdate=17 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202308/http://limcabookofrecords.in/recorddetails.aspx?recid=670|archive-date=29 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
'''Kannada'''
* ''Hidida Usiru'' (Abhinava Prakashana, 2004)
* ''Idara Hesaru'' (Abhinava Prakashana, 2006)
* ''Haladi Pustaka'' (Kanva Prakashana, 2009)
* ''Malavika mattu Itara Kathegalu'' (Sahitya Bhandara, 2011)

'''English'''
* ''[[Bhog and Other Stories]]'' (Pilli Books, 2010)
* ''The Bliss and Madness of Being Human'' (Poetrywala, 2013)

'''Translation into other languages'''
* ''Basant Badal Deta Hai Muhavre'' ([[Hindi]], Yash Prakashan, 2011)

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.newenglishreview.org/Ankur_Betageri/ Essays and poems - New English Review]
* [http://www.softblow.org/ankurbetageri.html Poems - Softblow]
* [http://www.mtls.ca/issue7/writings-poetry-betageri.php Poems - Maple Tree Literary Supplement]
* [http://mascarareview.com/ankur-betageri/ Poems - Mascara Literary Review]
* [http://mtls.ca/issue9/writings/drama/ankur-betageri My Life too Pro-per: a play]
* [http://www.saatchionline.com/betageri Art - Saatchi]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betageri, Ankur}}
[[Category:1983 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]
[[Category:Artists from Bangalore]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian photographers]]
[[Category:Indian atheists]]
[[Category:Poets from Karnataka]]
[[Category:Christ University alumni]]

Ankur Betageri - Revision history

UpdateBot at 14:40, 7 January 2022