Poetry

Lyric Embarrassment: Or, Why I Can’t Tell a Story

Lyric Embarrassment: Or, Why I Can’t Tell a Story

When I first received Amit’s concept note for the symposium with its opening provocation, ‘Fuck storytelling!’ I felt a little pop of relief in my chest, and in the parts of me

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.

Reshma Aquil of Daryabad

Reshma Aquil of Daryabad

There are, in India, two kinds of criticism. The first kind is criticism as unconsidered praise, in which the writer, having done little more than give documentary confirmation...

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.

‘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.