My Heart Is Beating

I was born in 1962 in Kanker, into a poor family facing extreme hardships. My father, Shri Anant Singh Nag, worked as a lineman for the Madhya Pradesh Electricity Board, and my mother, Smt. Kala Devi Nag, was an illiterate yet deeply compassionate and devout homemaker. My early education began in Jagdalpur, and I completed my higher secondary schooling at Government HR Secondary School, Keshkal. Despite not being affiliated with a college, I pursued and completed both my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. I hold a Master of Arts in English from Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur—as it is formally known—Chhattisgarh’s oldest and largest institution of higher education, established in 1964 and named after the first Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh I began my career as an Assistant Teacher in the Makhri Block of Kondagaon. A sudden inner inspiration stirred me to begin composing poems—a creative journey that continues to this day. In 1982, my poem “Marghat Kidhar Hai” ("Where is the Cremation Ground?") received high praise from literary circles. I was invited multiple times to recite my work on All India Radio in Jagdalpur and Raipur.