Naina Dey Death in the Holy Month by Sufia Khatoon Hawakal Publishers, December 2018ISBN 978-93-87883-43-7, INR 300 Key words: death, love, loss, loneliness, desire The title could have come straight out of an Agatha Christie murder mystery. But when one delves inside there is a rush of passion in every line as the poet tries…
All posts in Issue 2, December 2019
A Chair by the Window: A Review of Jharna Sanyal’s The Nomadic Trail: Seventy Poems
Amit Shankar Saha The Nomadic Trail: Seventy Poems by Jharna SanyalNew Delhi: Rubric Publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-81-938312-5-0, Pages 88, Price INR 300 Jharna Sanyal’s debut collection of seventy poems has a sort of accomplishment that one usually does not assume for a debutant. It is a book that delves deep into the psyche of a…
TATHAGATA BANERJEE
[M.A. (English), The Bhawanipur Education Society College, CU] Farewell… Almost I will be awake until the midnight sleeps, doing nothing…I’ll be reading the last words of a lost love letter…I’ll be busy thinking of the shameless idiotic tendencies of mine…In front of you… I’ll cling on to the last words of your text messages…The warmth…
Sangeeta Banerjee
[M.A. (English), University of Calcutta (College Street Campus)] Forever Free The sun lashes on her back, everyday,When she sells dreams on the money-laden streets.Mercy! Mercy! Shouted her soul,Pained but calm like the Christ on the Cross.She is nailed, everyday, by people, known and unknown.She knew that fear had a moustache and she heard heavy footsteps…
Sunwrita Dastidar
[B. A. (English Honours), Miranda House, University of Delhi] Sunflowers little girlyour little handsshould holdsunflowersnot the deadweightof my skin you follow mestep for stepswallowing my tearsmy bare, pulsing blooddo you not have a hometo return to? sunlight hitsthe mess of curlssunflowersflecked with browncan I drown in the seaof your big, dark eyes? little girltake me…
SANTASREE CHAUDHURI
“Tears of Blood!” The inauspicious 13th of 1919Innocent civilians were randomly killed on the holy day of BAISAKHIThe annual harvest festival of faith and galore turned into a history of atrocity and mass murder.It was a beautiful day, spring birds were getting ready to shake off the doldrums of winter,tuk tuk the sound was insistent…
Amita Ray, Madhu Sriwastav
Tribute to the Firebrand In the annals of Indian revolutionary nationalismIs carved many a nameTreading the bloody path to the altar of sacrifice.Among the unsung, unhailed, namesIs Pritilata Waddedar, the first woman martyrTo rise from the heart of Bengal. Blessed was our motherland on 5th May 1911When Pritilata saw the light of day,Her icon Rani…
Aratrika Baidya
[M.A. (English), University of Calcuttam, (College Street Campus)] Downpour It’s hard to run in the desertYour feet sink into the sand.Every step feels like twenty.You hate the heat. You hate the sand.You hate the sun.You hate because hate is cold.Rain was a dream you had centuries ago.You dream of the desert.You live in the desert.Concrete…
Madhu Sriwastav
Desh Child in armsShe left her hearthTo save her DeshTo listen to the oneHundreds gatherIn unisonReligion, caste , classAll mergeUnite to holdThe oppressor at bayThe outsider, intruderWhose power is forcedBut without supportFrom withinCan it brim?When Dyer the beastBlood hound, stood stillOur own hands shotOur ownInnocent, unarmed, helpless soulsIntruders goneNow we are on our ownStill innocent,…
Aparna Singh
Jallianwala Bagh They knew notVagaries of faithFaith led them toThe edge of deathDeath duped themSecretly flashingIts ravenous claws Chorus:Cannon to right of themCannon to left of themCannon in front of themVolley’d and thunder’dStorm’d at with shot and shell. They were not martyrsShining out of glowing lines Martyrs they never wanted to beWaiting in desolate historyDeath…