Seerat had a surreal journey making his way from a small village in India to his current life in California. He was born in Sadipura-Pulwama, Kashmir, India on September 19th, 1947 and was the first person in his family as well as his village to graduate from a University.
He received his Bachelors in Science, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and General English from Amar Singh Degree College, J&K, India in March of 1966 and then went on to receive his Masters in Science degree in Physics, with an emphasis in Electronics from the University of Kashmir, J&K, India in Oct of 1969. This was a huge accomplishment for him as he experienced many hardships growing up. His father was not educated, was poor and was raising a family of 9 children. On top of this, Seerat’s biological mother passed away when he was only 3 years old. He still managed to go through higher education as well as graduate school by supporting himself financially. He provided one-on-one and group tutoring service to high school kids and won fully paid scholarships during both his under-grad and graduate program years. During this time, he also developed a love and innate fascination for poetry and started writing poetry in the language of Punjabi and Urdu. Over the years he published seven poetry books, one novel, one short story and a book on Punjabi critics. Professionally, Seerat gravitated towards the teaching profession. He worked as a Professor of Physics over a period of twenty years, primarily at G.G.M. Sc. College in the city of Jammu, India. Teaching and mentoring a wide array of students made him realize how important a role one good teacher plays in a student’s life. He always taught with devotion, really enjoyed teaching and found it extremely rewarding. He was one of the State Level Associate Professors who was nominated and then selected in the highest grade of college teachers of the Country (India) under Union Grant Commission of India. (December 1987).
After serving twenty one years in the education industry in India he got an opportunity to visit California. Needless to say, he fell in love with the United States of America and the opportunity it provides to accomplish anything for anyone. He is extremely gracious that he became a naturalized U.S citizen, as this provided him the freedom to work at world-renowned and prestigious top technology companies like IBM and Iomega. He, later, went on to pursue a management role at USPS. Throughout his life, he continued his passion for poetry and wrote many poems and gazals. With his appetite towards literature combined with his leadership skills, he envisioned and founded a Punjabi literary organization, ‘Punjabi Sahit Sabha California’ (PSSC). This embarked a new era of Punjabi Literature in California w.e.f. 1992. In 2002, he further co-founded a more seasoned organization ‘Vishav Punjabi Sahit Academy, California’. He truly admires his poet peers and the pedigree of talent that surrounds him at ‘Vishav Punjabi Sahit Academy, California’. In 2011, he decided to go on a sabbatical and work on composing and publishing his poetry in the form of ghazals full time. He has recently been successful in his major poetic endeavor and launched an album of his work, Tashnagi. Seerat is passionate about life and has an interesting spin on it, which converges well into his poetic excellence. He is highly admired and credited among his poet peers. While residing in California, United States, he is working hard to preserve the art of Punjabi poetry. He is heavily involved in the Punjabi community, continuously igniting the spark and rekindling the love of classical Punjabi poetry to both the generations of today and tomorrow.
Literary Milestones
1968 – Started as a member in Punjabi Sahit Sabha in Kashmir,India
1973 – Joined Punjabi Lekhak Sabha in Jammu, J&K India
1980 – Joined Kendri Punjabi Sahit Sabha in Ludhiana, Punjab
1985 to 1987 – President Punjabi Lekhak Sabha
1992 – Founder and President (through 2002) of Punjabi Sahit Sabha California, US
2002 – Board of Directors and among of the founders at Vishav Punjabi Sahit Academy, California
Additional Literary Contribution
- Editor of a literary magazine, Neelsar (amongst best sellers in 1985 Punjabi magazines in Northern India)
- Author of various articles published in Punjabi newspapers.
- Author of various articles published in Punjabi Sahit Sabha and Vishav Punjabi Sahit Academy magazines in California.
Literary Awards
- Professor Mohan Singh Award for the book “ Aroope Akhran da Aks “ in Sept. 2014, held in Lathrop, California.
- Best book award from J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages for:
- Chhallan (book of open verse) in 1982
- Bharam Bullyan (A novel on stream of consciousness) in 1987
- Kirchan (a book of ghazals) in 1991