Magazine

Sach chhuchha hota hai

Sach chhuchha hota hai

Kumar is a novelist, photographer, artist, and, on the evidence of the Hindi poems he has been writing in the last two years, a bilingual poet.

Leaving the Naipaul Myth Alone: On Sanjay Krishnan’s <em>V.S. Naipaul’s Journeys</em>

Leaving the Naipaul Myth Alone: On Sanjay Krishnan’s V.S. Naipaul’s Journeys

V.S. Naipaul was fond of repeating himself. We have heard him speak in his characteristic way, in recordings or at live events: the long pauses and the multiple stabs for emphasis at the same word or phrase.

To the Memory of Pavankumar Jain

To the Memory of Pavankumar Jain

Pavankumar Jain (1947-2013) studied at Bombay University and the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He wrote in Gujarati and English, and while still a student started the little magazine Tornado (1967-71).

GHALIB, A DIARY: A NOTE BY ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA– An Excerpt from Book of Rahim, a new book in the Literary Activism series

GHALIB, A DIARY: A NOTE BY ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA– An Excerpt from Book of Rahim, a new book in the Literary Activism series

Ghalib wrote the Dastanbūy (Nosegay) between May 1857 and September 1858. It is his formal petition to Queen Victoria for the restoration of his pension, which had been stopped by the East India Company.

‘We shall see’: an excerpt from a new book in the Literary Activism series, On Being Indian by Amit Chaudhuri

‘We shall see’: an excerpt from a new book in the Literary Activism series, On Being Indian by Amit Chaudhuri

Students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur sang Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s‘ Hum Dekhenge’ in protest and in solidarity with students..

Negotiating Oxford: A conversation between Jatin Nayak and Amit Chaudhuri

Negotiating Oxford: A conversation between Jatin Nayak and Amit Chaudhuri

The conversation that took place between the academic and translator Jatin Nayak and Amit Chaudhuri at Ashoka University on 12th April 2023.

Elena Lombardi on <em>Ulysses</em>, at Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford

Elena Lombardi on Ulysses, at Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford

In the second interview in the series, 'Interviews on Site', Elena Lombardi speaks about buying two copies of Ulysses (the second one was bought at Blackwell's) and her Odyssean journey

A Conversation with Charles Bernstein at, and on, the Museum of Modern Art, New York

A Conversation with Charles Bernstein at, and on, the Museum of Modern Art, New York

'Interviews on Site' is a new series of video interviews done for this website. The aim is to record a conversation at a location that is in some way related to the conversation.

Book of Lahore

Book of Lahore

I had always known of 11Temple Road. My mother, who was the eldest of Daddyji’s seven children, never spoke about it, never described it, and I never asked.

Ghazal

Ghazal

Tausif Alam's four-line ghazal came to the attention of people in Calcutta when he recited it during the Eid celebrations in May this year.

Reading Letters

Reading Letters

Peter D. McDonald, a professor at Oxford University, has been turning, of late, into a 'person of letters'.

By Way of Introduction: Thoughts on World Literature and Nirmal Verma

By Way of Introduction: Thoughts on World Literature and Nirmal Verma

World literature. It is a weighty little term that has evolved with the times, outgrowing old meanings and acquiring new, contentious ones.

Terminal (1992)

Terminal (1992)

She did not say anything, but he always knew when she had drifted away from him. He shook her by her shoulder. ‘Are you angry?’ She let herself be shaken like a wax doll.

‘I am lost somewhere’: Borges in London

‘I am lost somewhere’: Borges in London

Looking at him from a distance, it was impossible to think that he wasn’t looking at us—wasn’t looking at anyone—that he was walking alone in his darkness.

The Hour of Ribeyro

The Hour of Ribeyro

From time to time, over the many pages and years of his journals, Julio Ramón Ribeyro reflects with a certain melancholy on his inability to write those massive all-encompassing...

Ribeyro – a short story

Ribeyro – a short story

I had just sat down in a train going to London when I heard a muffled ding and knew an email had come in. It was from Pankaj Mishra: he had sent me a link...

‘Calcutta is a Great Gallery’: chaloman shilpa andolan, or The Dynamic Art Movement

‘Calcutta is a Great Gallery’: chaloman shilpa andolan, or The Dynamic Art Movement

The year was 1970 – the Naxalite movement was ebbing in Calcutta. I left my home in College Street for Tripura: a kind of exile.

Twins in Suffering: Dostoyevsky and Baudelaire

Twins in Suffering: Dostoyevsky and Baudelaire

Last summer, while preparing a chronology of the life of Charles Baudelaire, I hit upon a fact which I had not found in any book: Baudelaire and Dostoyevsky were born in the same year.

The Bengali Baudelaire

The Bengali Baudelaire

I was formally introduced to Baudelaire in the last year of the last century. I was a university student, and, the nature of such an introduction being what it is, chose to look away.

Mission Statement: ‘Decolonisation’

Mission Statement: ‘Decolonisation’

The need for the kind of rethinking suggested by the word ‘decolonisation’ is urgent because of the opportunistic, constricted versions of history...

‘English New Year’ and other poems

‘English New Year’ and other poems

The English translations below, of three poems by the 19th-century Bengali poet Iswar Gupta, are part of an ongoing project.

End-of-the-Year Counter-Question

End-of-the-Year Counter-Question

We live in a time when the main cultural events of the year are marked in advance on the calendar: like the Booker Prize ceremony when it comes to the novel.

Toward an Infrathin Reading/Writing Practice

Toward an Infrathin Reading/Writing Practice

The impetus for writing this book was an invitation I received in 2017 from Ronald Schuchard, the Director of the London T. S. Eliot Summer School, to give the annual address at Little Gidding, on the fourth of the Four Quartets, which bears that title.

Grasshopper versus Horse for the Sun

Grasshopper versus Horse for the Sun

I shall never forget that evening in my life. We had to walk nearly 5 km in the dusk to reach that little, sleepy tribal village at the foot of a hill. I, in the capacity of a facilitator, was with a group of activists working with a forest tribe, the Forest Shepherds.

A Launch Event Across Time Zones

A Launch Event Across Time Zones

This launch event for the website you’re looking at took place via Zoom (the new material reality of the pandemic) at 6 pm Indian Standard Time on 11th September 2020.

Cinderella: No. 4 from ‘Chain Letters, 2020’

Cinderella: No. 4 from ‘Chain Letters, 2020’

While self-isolating, a certain man, aged 65 plus, fell in love. A member of the humanist intelligentsia, he lived alone in a small fifth-floor walk up in Moscow and spent his days poring over a set of pre-Revolutionary encyclopedias.

Poems, Pictures, and a Reflection

Poems, Pictures, and a Reflection

"The thurn was harried from his home / by a bailiff beetle with an acid aura / in a waistcoat grand and red as Rome..."

Coming Out of Lockdown

Coming Out of Lockdown

A year or so ago, I invited the Scottish writer Duncan McLean to come down from the Isle of Orkney where he lives to Dundee where I was hosting a series of literary events we called 'Writers Read.' This was a monthly get-together of students, teachers and anyone who was interested in reading and publishing, held in a convivial cafe where the espresso machine blasted every few minutes...

The Tugboat and the Quail

The Tugboat and the Quail

Zoom is where poetry goes to die. Or where we, dying, go for poetry. Or is it the best available platform for poetry in the age of covidity?

Lakeside Walks

Lakeside Walks

"This lakeside,/this Inner Mongolia,/where the language spoken/is the one you speak..."