Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1919-2003) was one of modern India's most brilliant poets, and he earned both the Sahitya Academy Award and the Gnanpith, the country's two highest literary awards. 'Padatik', his first book of poems published when he was twenty-one, remains a milestone in Bengali poetry. His refreshingly original diction, his sparkling wit, his incredibly sure command of metre and rhyme patterns and his unfailing ear for the music of the spoken word marked him out as an outstanding poet even among his illustrious contemporaries. A political activist almost all his life, he spent many years as an organiser among factory workers in several industrial towns around Kolkata. The tumultuous forties and fifties of the 20th century, over which World War Two, famine, the partition, ghastly communal riots and gigantic migrations of whole population groups loomed large, shaped his persona and his poetry. His oeuvre includes 'Agnikone', 'Phul Phutuk', 'Jato Durei Jai', 'Kaal Modhumas', 'Ei Bhai', 'Chheley Gechhe Boney' and 'Ektu Pa Chaliye Bhai' - poetry books that are classics of Bengali literature. He also wrote luminous prose: fiction, travelogue, children's history and journalistic memoirs were all part of his repertoire. Described as 'a truly political being in the deepest sense of the term', Subhash was adored by all that knew him for his vivacity, sense of humour and humaneness.