Gita Govinda: Jayadeva's Divine Odyssey is the first-ever fully-rhymed translation -- in English verse of the twelfth-century great Indian poet's Sanskrit epic, known all over the country (and its neighbourhood) through chanting, choral recitation, traditional music, classical dance, miniature painting and intricate sculpture. Its annotations and commentaries have appeared in all the Indian languages over centuries. This book attempts a completely-poetic translation with the following distinctive features. First, its verse rendering attempts to follow Jayadeva's original construction of meters and rhythmic patterns. Second, it tries to create his nuances of brilliant alliterations and frequent "internal rhymes" in English to convey the lilt of the original. And third, it remains as faithful to the original Sanskrit meanings and implications as has been practicable. While this book is modelled on Edward FitzGerald's world-famous verse-translation of Rubaiyat of Omar Khaiyam published in 1859 and afterwards, this work is a departure - in the third aspect from the Rubaiyat, in the latter not converting all the original couplets into expanded quatrains and causing "transmogrification". In that sense, this book is also a departure from all the available English translations from India and abroad, which are no doubt lyrical, but only. attempt prose: thus missing out the cadence and resonance of Jayadeva, the Kaviraj (king among poet), whose "word-perfect" composition has not undergone an iota of change anywhere: in it's near millennium existence! About The Author Dr. Utpal K. Banerjee has been an adviser on Management and Information Technology for 15 years, after obtaining PhD in the University of Manchester, UK, as Commonwealth Scholar With an abiding interest in Indian Art and Culture, he was "National Project Director for IGNCA relating to the UNDP project on Multimedia Database for Art and Culture Documentation and Computerisation (1991-93). He lectured at universities, educational institutions and museums on Indian art and culture in Canada (1990) and in South America (1998) under the ICCR, and gave similar lectures in Canada (1992, 1995) under Kalabharati, Canada He give regular lectures on Indian art and culture to the IFS probationers at the ICCR and to Afro-Asian diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). His article on "Role of Cultural Diplomacy" appeared in Indian Foreign Policy Agenda for the 21st Century from FSL He presented Tagore's Dance in "World Dance Alliance Global Summit" in Brisbane, Australia, 2008, resulting in Tagore's Mystique of Dance (2011). He was awarded Senior Fellowship from Government of India, 2007-09, for working on A Journey with the Buddha (2010, 2-volume). His major books on theatre are: Bengal Theatre: 200 Years (1998), Indian Theatre in 21st Century (2009) and Theatre in South Asia Frontiers of India, Pakistan Nepal Bangladesh and Cherseas (2012) As a senior performing arts critic, he has contributed a regular cultural column in The Pioneer from 1994-2016. On Indian poppetry. his collaborative books are Indian Puppets (2006). Indian Puppetry & Puppet Stories (2007), and Puppets of India and Abroad (2014). Ho other works are Hindu Joy of Life (2006), Laminous Harmony Indian Art & Culture (2011), Rainbow Rhymes of Tagore for children in four volumes (Sahitya Akademi, 2011). Tagore-nama (2011) and Tagore's Dance-drama Omnibus (2012). He has done tri-lingual translationic Mystic Songs of Tagore, Romantic Songs of Tagore and Patriotic Songs of Tagore (2012-13). With books published on Tagore in the single year of his 150th Birth commemoration, he received "All-India Record" from The Limca Book of Records (2013). Since 1990s, he has been chronicling the trends and overview of Indian performing arts and culture in a series of eight books beginning with multi-edition book Inilian performing arts (1992) and the last being in The Canvas of Indian Perfuming Arts (2019) (still counting). All the books are enlisted in Wikipedia and available on Amazon. He planned and executed, for DD Archives, a act of DVDs on Tagore's memorable songs and provided full texts for 53 episodes of Bharat: Ek Kho by Shyam Benegal for their 14 DVD A frequent contributor on cultural and professional programmes to London BBC AIR and Indian Television over last 32 years, he conducted in-depth interviews on Indian dance music and theatre luminaries for the DD Archives "Great Masters Series: He was "Chief Coordinator for the official "Leaders of India pject under Prasar Bharati, for collecting audio & video holdings on Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi & Rajiv Gandhi for archiving and eventually creating an interactive Website, 2009-10. He was "Tiger Research Scholer under Min Of Culture at 1GNCA for metadata management of their cultural archives, 2012-14. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2009 by President of India.