It was your year of last things,but you were luminous,within those final fires. LAST. Such an enormous word. So deep that one may spill an entire lifetime between its spaces and remain bereft of any desire to add a single extra syllable during their remaining time ahead. A bracket that holds the precious and the … More Of youth journals and parallel lives
About last month. Actually, an entire month. That’s how long it has been since I heard ‘em. Words. Words. What else do I love more than their soft, unwavering power to make things go and take shapes of wonder? Those who know me, know I am a logophile – to spot member of the community … More Meeting Words, once again.
After the opening day frenzy, the second day left me with comfortable spaces between sessions I had shortlisted to attend, turning the Day 2, a buoyant but not busy day. Conversation with the Nobel Laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah was a riveting one that spanned across his childhood and youth, his years as an academician, his process … More Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 Diaries – Day 2
Let me be like you,Showing up everydayDespite the blues. Let me be like you,Fighting the oddsOf roots and dew. Let me be like youSharing the spaceWith old and new. Let me be like youTaking in the toxinAnd giving life hues. Let me be like youAccepting and sewingA melange of sinews. Let me be like youQuietly … More Let Me Be Like You
Born in a corner, desolate and numb, or on a slate shaking with indignation; Sometimes, on a feather of enviable calm and sometimes, from sheer indecision. Your womb has many colors and so, does your skin; But in each of them, I stand witness, you are my kin. On days of cantankerous mayhem, your pages … More Mo Sangaata, Thank You
You have waited patiently, like stars that don’t know any other sky; You have kept me company even when I have casually passed you by; When days have placed the taste of today on my fickle tongue, You have silently pinned your hopes on tomorrow’s song; When nights have heaped on me, a torrent of … More To unfulfilled dreams…
मधुशाला by Harivansh Rai Bachchan My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars यह १३५ बेशकीमती रुबाइयाँ मात्र किसी मधुशाला के लिए एक क़सीदा नहीं है अपितु गाती हुई रूपक है ज़िन्दगी की , वह ज़िन्दगी जो उजाले और अंधेरे से, न्यायनीति और भेदभाव से ,आलिंगन और अभाव से परिपूर्ण है | अपनी कलम को नीली … More Poem Review: मधुशाला by Harivansh Rai Bachchan(1935)
In Custody by Anita Desai My Rating: 3 of 5 Stars ‘The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” It is befitting to quote Rumi to introduce the middle-aged protagonist of this book who sends swirls of a bruised dream into the air even while chugging along life with a rusted body. Deven, … More Book Review: In Custody by Anita Desai (2007)
The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil My Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit. – The man is either mad or he is composing verses. But what verses, would you say, emanate from the bosom of passion that borders on delirium? What timbre of voice floats in the smoked air … More Book Review: The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil (2017)
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino My Rating: 5 of 5 Stars You landed in my world on a calm, dewy evening And struck was I with a song I was about to sing; A song that lay hidden in the silhouettes of each letter That protruded from the cover, all poised to embitter. But waited … More Book Review: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (1972)
SEEMITA DAS 