An Excerpt from an Upcoming Novel
The Firebird has flown back home, from Stanford to Ashoka. And with him, he brings flowers of flame with his new novel, to be published soon. Here’s an excerpt from the writer himself. From what we gather from this excerpt, the novel explores the queer relationships, which may not be so queer, and questions the queerness of the queer itself. The novel explores the borders overlapping borders between the geo-political, sensual, emotional and the cross zones of complexity. The
Meet The Author
Amruta Patil and her graphic Re-Interpretation of Mythologies … Research, reading, imagination and interpretation – these in simultaneity work its way into Amruta’s graphic texts. Possibly her graphic novels explore the narrative desire in the artist in her. It explores mediums of expression through the rich texture of colours, images and words, weaving and interlocking into each other as thought cobwebs from her to the reader and back to her again. A brief meeting with her
Award for Gokul Sinha
Born in 1940 in Maharani Division of Margaret’s Hope Tea Garden, Tung, eight kilometers from Kurseong and Sonada, Gokul Sinha has done his Ph.D. from the University of North Bengal as an independent scholar. He did his schooling from St. Alphonsus' School, Kurseong, and Intermediate, Bachelor's, Master's (Nepali) as a non-collegiate student. In 1957, after undergoing Teachers’ Training in Kalimpong, he started his teaching career as Head Master from Rangbull Junior Basic Scho
Readings: Rochelle Potkar
We are proud to have Rochelle as one of Caesurae members. As a creative artist, she came over to Gangtok for a Haibun and Haiku workshop and readings in a Caesurae-Rachna collaborative event, at the Rachna Bookstore. Caesurae members met her for the first time at the Hyderabad Literary Festival, 2016, and since then Rochelle has joined our Society and has been working closely with us. Fictionist and poet, Rochelle Potkar’s collection, The Arithmetic of breasts and other stor
Raaga Kedar by Shri Bhabanishankar Dasgupta
Shri Bhabanishankar Dasgupta is the elder son and disciple of the living legendary Sarode Maestro Padma Bhushan (Pt.) Buddhadev Dasgupta.
Raga Kedara, belonging to the Kalyan thaat, is a Night Raga, which is resplendent with the beauty of love. While the raga could be rendered as a sringara rasa, it ultimately transcends into mysticism. Human desire and yearning blends into sublime grandeur. Whether in music, dance or painting, Kedara has the resonance of emotions strung f
Poems and Perspectives
Manisha Shrestha Research Scholar Sikkim University Moments Many a moments bloom before me I pass them uninterested. Pearls fall in torrents from heaven And facing an oblivious awareness, Disappointedly, vapour back. The ticking of the clocks, The bells in the schools Alarm all, in an awareness Of time gushing by Enticing opportunities, that are swept away Into the fatal mouth of the beautiful past. Yet, Pearls caressing the cheek of Time As glistening drops, Are ruthlessly w
Poems and Perspectives: Samya Karpha
Samya Karpha, completed his MSc in Chemistry from Calcutta University. However, his love for Bengali language and literature inspired him to take up the job of a journalist with Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata. He is a student of Shrimati Bratati Bandopadhyay, who is a well-known elocutionist in Bengali. Samya recites here the iconic poem “Banalata Sen” by the modernist Bengali poet, Jibanananda Das. We include the first stanza of the two English versions of the lyrics which Sa
Poems - Lakshmisree Banerjee
Time Is it a cradle swinging in the void humming a lull-a-by to the ever joyful the ever crying baby of life now awake now asleep? Is it a pendulum between two eternities ceaselessly ticking on the listless glassy face of old grandfather on the wall moving yet motionless for centuries? Or is it a chugging train sometimes whistling sometimes speedily quiet but always beating the perennial rhythm of a journey? Or is it perhaps the hollow ghostly skull of a ravaged home burnt do
Poetry - Isis Zystrid
don't speak badly
of my father--
we are all created
on the premise of whims
not our own,
merely fragments of light until
we can elucidat
Lhamu's Scar & Memory
Lhamu’s Scar For years Amla would agonize over a scar on my sister’s forehead. Duplicating my aerial feat, Lhamu trips in mid air, falling like a drunk on the edge of a bed. Blood splatters and her cries summons a mother in her tigress avatar. I, too, have scars but they never seem to bother my mother. Cuts and nicks on my knees and elbows, some the size of coins, and others embedded like fossils under thighs and forearms. But the one I flaunt like a tattoo runs diagonal over
