sentences:  He studied at Raffles Institution and University of Singapore from which he holds a Masters in Science (Marine Biology) and a Diploma in Fisheries (with distinction) but went into publishing on his graduation and worked as an international civil servant with UNESCO, first in Karachi (1981-1985), where he started painting, and then in Paris (1985 - 2004), where he now lives.Nair started writing at an early age and his first poems were published in his school magazine The Rafflesian in 1963.His first book of poems, "Once The Horsemen and Other Poems", (University Education Press, Singapore), was published in 1972 and was well received as was his second collection "After the Hard Hours, This Rain",(Woodrose Publications, Singapore) (1975), and he has co-translated with Malcolm Koh Ho Ping "The Poems and Lyrics of the last Lord Lee, the last Emperor of the Southern Tang Dynasty", (Woodrose Publications, Singapore) (1975).