A TRIBUTE TO POET-EDITOR D. C. CHAMBIAL
--R.K. Singh
It was shocking and emotionally disturbing to learn about the passing of my dear poet friend, D. C. Chambial, from a post on Facebook by K.V. Dominic on 20 November 2024. It was so unexpected that I couldn’t call up anyone to talk about it. In fact I couldn’t think whom I should contact to know what caused his ‘untimely’ death. No media reported, no poet mourned, except some RIPs by viewers of Dominic’s post.
Though I never met Chambial physically, we knew each other well and interacted telephonically as and when felt like. We would talk about each other’s health, weather, political degeneration, our sons in the Army (they are both graduates from the prestigious National Defence Academy, Pune), declining interest in writing and reviewing, future of Poetcrit, and such other critical metrics that matter to our post-retirement sense of well-being. However, despite despair, hope has kept us going, both personally and poetically.
The last we talked to each other was in late June when jokingly I had said we’re living a grace period and didn’t know when our life would end. He had some old and new age-related health issues which must have aggravated with sudden change in weather and caused his end. We are in the same boat and anything may happen.
He shared with me that he had told the present publisher of Poetcrit to take full charge of the journal’s publication and distribution, even as he had been grooming a teacher-researcher to take editorial responsibility from 2025. We regretted that younger/newer academics showed little interest in quality writing, including research articles and book reviewing.
Chambial had single-handed nurtured Poetcrit for nearly 38 years as a poet academic with sensibility not only for international poetry and criticism but also personal commitment as a bilingual poet, competent translator, friendly reviewer, discerning critic, and empathetic editor. Hundreds of poets and authors, including myself, earned national and international visibility via their publications in the journal. I feel honoured that he trusted me and invited me to publish my poems, articles and book reviews regularly from the very first issue, Vol.1, No.1, January 1988, as also to collaborate with him as member of the journal’s Advisory Board from January 1992 to date.
I felt a natural ally to him because he sought to promote new and neglected voices in Indian English Poetry. Through out his life, he had been committed, like me, to strengthening Indian English Criticism. In fact, as an examiner of his Ph.D. thesis, entitled ‘The Theme of Death and Suffering in the Poetry of Krishna Srinivas, Shiv K. Kumar and O.P. Bhatnagar’ in 1993, I discovered his critical acumen in dealing with the (then three emerging) poets’ diverse sensibility and technique and establishing a common bond to develop his thesis with a remarkable impact on scholarship.
No wonder, he founded Poetcrit to provide an “open forum for the exchange of varied ideas and trends in contemporary poetry and poetry criticism” and “engender a spirit of global fraternity and peace through poetry.” His inclusive approach to bringing together the new and emerging voices alongside the established ones has now made the journal as highly respected both in academic and literary circles. Let’s hope his legacy continues to foster the vibrant literary culture Chambial worked hard to promote and contributed to as Poet and Editor.
