Brief
Biography
Born on 10th
February 1948, at Chhattabal, Srinagar, Kashmir,
Maharaj
Krishen Raina (MKR) is a civil engineer by
profession. Having worked in his professional
capacity at Baramulla in J&K Flood Control
Deptt, at Uri in Uri Hydel Project, at Kangan in
Civil Investigation wing of Power Development
Deptt, and finally on Upper Sindh Hydel Project
– Phase-II at Kangan and Sumbhal, MKR migrated
to Jammu in February 1990 at the height of
militancy in the Valley. In 1995, he shifted
along with his family to Mumbai for a peaceful
living and for providing better education to his
children. He is now settled in Vasai, a northern
suburb of Mumbai.
MKR has four children. Eldest
is Mansi (BE., MBA), married to Nikhil (BE.,MBA),
S/o Shri Shiban K. Nagri and settled in Delhi.
Second is Vishal, who has passed BSc and is now
specialising in Computer Animation. Other two
Ashwin and Shifali are still in college. MKR's
wife Sonia, who has a Master's Degree in
Education, has been a great support to MKR in
his zeal for service to Kashmiri language &
literature. Her abnormal patience has
contributed heavily to the ambitions of her
husband.
Born to Smt. Shamrani Raina
and Shri Shamboo Nath Raina, MKR is the second
child of his parents. He has one elder sister
Usha Razdan (W/o Shri Jawahar Lal Razdan,
settled in Mumbai), two younger sisters Lalita
Koul (W/o Shri Maharaj Krishen Koul, now settled
in Mumbai) and Sarla Bhat (W/o Shri Ashok Bhat,
settled post-exodus in Jammu) and a younger
brother Rajinder Raina (settled post-exodus in
Mumbai).
MKR lost his father in 1959
at a very young age, when MKR himself was only
11 years old. Left without any regular income,
mother Shamrani took up the challenge and worked
hard for the survival of her children against
all odds. The courageous lady did not allow her
children to think even for a while, that they
were without a father. And she succeeded in
providing good education to her children and
bring them up at par with those in the close
relations and neighborhood. MKR considers all
his assets as a consequence of his mother’s
will and hard work and above all, her great
motherhood.
In connection with his
service in Kashmir, MKR spent most of his time
at various scenic places, on snow-clad
mountains, in dense jungles, at lakesides and
the like. He got used to live a camper's life
for most part of his service at the places like
Booniyar (famous for heavy snowfall and Mahaseer
fish), Mount Hatam Mir (famous for Budloo pine
and birchwood), Nav Baalan (the high altitude
snow-clad route from Uri to Gulmarg, passing
through LOC at various points), Mount Viji (the
high mountain separating Uri and Handwara),
Bandi Brahmana, Wangath, Narain Naag (a Hindu
Tirtha with old temple ruins on the banks of
sacred Krenka Nadi, Mahalish (a vast meadow at
the top of mountain range below Harmukh), Koul
Sar, Brahma Sar, Nundakhol and Gangabal (all
sacred lakes at the base of Harmukh, Gangabal
being the largest, about 3.5 Kms long, half a
Km. wide and more than 80 meters deep at the
centre), Sonamarg and other places of tourist
interest. This brought him closer to the
charming scenic beauty of the Valley and also
provided him the peaceful atmosphere to write.
He is as comfortable with Nastaliq as he is with
Devanagari script.
MKR had a natural tendency to write poetry from
his childhood. He wrote some poetry and short
stories in his school and college days. His
first published poem was ‘ya dekh kar woh chup
hai, ya la-makaan hai khali’ in Urdu,
published in the Srinagar Times sometime in mid
80’s. Later his poems, mostly in Urdu, were
also published in other Urdu dailies like Aftab
and Shahmir.
MKR started writing on a
regular basis only after his exodus from the
Valley in 1990, when he got attracted to write
in Kashmiri language in Devanagari Script.
Koshur Samachar of New Delhi and Milchar of
Mumbai provided him a platform to make his
writings public. His write-ups are a regular
feature of some KP journals like Vitasta,
Milchar, aalav, Panchtarni, Harmukh, Sharada
Tarangini etc.
MKR’s first collection of
short stories in Kashmiri ‘tsók módúr’
containing 6 short stories, was published in
January 2004. His second collection of short
stories in Kashmiri 'kénh nón, kénh són'
came out in May 2006. 'Pentachord', comprising
his 5 short stories in English was published in
April 2005. His collection of poems ‘pévàn
chhúm yàd’ is also slated for release in the
near future. He composed the title song of the
Kashmiri TV serial ‘Kashmiri Bachon ki Lok
Kathayen’ and worked on its 12
episode-screenplay with Shri Vikas Kapoor,
writer and producer. He has also written
screenplay for two Kashmiri films (both
comedies) for Shri Jyoti Sarup (Director of film
‘Bub’).
MKR is the Convener of
Project Zaan, a joint project of Kashmiri
Pandits’ Association and Lalla Ded Educational
and Welfare Trust, Mumbai. His contribution to
the cause of Kashmiri Literature and Kashmiri
language is well known. He is the Co-author of
‘Basic Reader for Kashmiri Language’ and the
'Information Digest' series published under the
Project Zaan. MKR is the Co-ordinating Editor of
‘Milchar’, a bi-monthly KP magazine
published from Mumbai and Editor (Hindi &
Kashmiri) of monthly ‘aalav’ published from
Bangalore. He has also been instrumental in
development of software for Kashmiri language in
Devanagari-Kashmiri and the Indo-Roman Scripts,
under an arrangement with the Cyberscape
Multimedia Ltd., the Akruti software people. He
has already transformed the Bhajans and Leelas
of Swami Krishen Joo Razdan and the ‘Man
Pamposh’ of Bhawani Bhagyavaan Pandit into
Standardised Devanagari-Kashmiri. He has
provided the Standardised Devanagari-Kashmiri
text for 'A Dictionary of Kashmiri Proverbs' of
Prof. Omkar Nath Kaul. He has also compiled
Lalla-Vaakhs, Sheikh-ul-Alam's Shrukhs, Poetry
of renowned Kashmiri poets and Kashmiri Mystic
Poetry in Devanagari-Kashmiri scripts. Apart
from writing short stories in Kashmiri and
English himself, MKR is currently engaged on the
transliteration of some valuable Kashmiri
literature (including some old classics) into
Devanagari-Kashmiri and Indo-Roman Scripts for
benefit of the general KP masses.
Present address:
101-A, Pushp Vihar, Shastri Nagar,
Vasai Road (W), Dist. Thane 401 202,
Maharashtra, India. |
Tel: 0250-2340110.
Mob: 09422473459.
E-mail: rainamk1@yahoo.co.in |
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