A Serenade of Love
In a soggy London street he stood, shaking his dreadlocks like wind-struck branches of a willow and moving his weathered bow on the shiny strings of his broken violin.
10 August 2019
Requiem for the Rain
“Tell us a story, Khona apu,” Trina said. “You can’t go anywhere in this rain. I’m sure your flight will be cancelled. The runway has become a river by now!” She giggled. “Don’t give me that worried look! Mohon and I will drive you to the airport the moment the roads
21 June 2019
Musing Home
For orchid people like us, a tree from a land called home brings a sweeping breeze of mirth. That breeze dances around us and stirs our leaves of memories. Sometimes it comes in the form of a visual presence, sometimes as a crisp smell of some known delicacies, sometimes, as a familiar
7 June 2019
The Charyapadas: Where Bangla Began
Creating the world and nirvana on their own,
12 April 2019
Fall for Love
It was a hard fall. Kheya was astounded—not because she fell, but because of the person she fell for. The man was a magician of words, with a thick beard and a thin voice and was about one
15 February 2019
The Puzzles of Trees and Moons
“Everyone has a tree.”Golibe said. “And every man craves a moon. The moon is what he wants but the tree is where he ends. The tree is
1 February 2019
KHEYA'S WAR
The ant mound was intact until Kheya stepped on it. Pappu was trying to pick some ripe oranges from the big orange tree by the gate. While running toward him, Kheya stepped right on the mound and got attacked by a platoon of red ants.
14 December 2018
Things That Write Me
I do not write. I am not a writer. I am an active thought, willing to reveal through words the enigmas of human lives and the perplexities of women's stories.
2 November 2018
Not a Review, but Words of Heart: On Nausheen Eusuf's Not Elegy, But Eros
Life is an elegy, written by time. The instinct of life itself is elegiac, for it always reminds us of fragmentations and jouissance. Life reminds us of things that “are gone into a world of light,” (as Eusuf writes in her poem,
26 October 2018
The World is a Mirror of Water: Musing on Lalon and Beyond
It always amazes me how a simple illiterate man—'sahaj manush'—from the rural nineteenth century Bengal could have had such a magnanimous vision to assimilate in his songs the core ideas from the Vedic, Upanishadic, Vaishnavite, Buddhist, Tantric, and the Sufi philosophy.
19 October 2018
Name Me Not
It was a crisp midday. The scorching sun sat right in the middle of the sky, watching over the homebound school children.
19 August 2018
Death, Grief, and Mourning: Some Chaotic Thoughts
We always talk about life. And then when people die, we talk about their deaths in terms of life—a life they will live for eternity in all
10 August 2018
Fierce, Friendly Fire
Usually, newspaper pages are dedicated to venerable people who have passed away or won an award. The occasion for today's issue is neither.
27 July 2018
Aches and Auras
Shaji woke up with a pounding headache. The pain started in her sleep, so she thought she was only dreaming it. In her dream, she
20 July 2018
When I Met Pip
When I met Pip, he was hanging upside down. It was not by choice though; someone held him by his feet against his will and made
18 May 2018
My Life with Shakespeare
When you are asked to write a memoir or something about Shakespeare, you should know that you have reached your expiration date.
27 April 2018
The Death of Sorrow
Azgar Ali was not worried when the war broke out. Theirs was a quaint little village hiding by the slopes near the Garo Hills. It took
23 March 2018
Musing Lightly on the Issues of Translation
Recently, I have come across a significant number of Bangladeshi online journals, diligently invested in literatures in
2 March 2018
LOVE HAS NO STORY TO TELL
One evening, while standing on the veranda of their 6th floor apartment, Sonia fell—with a big thud—in love. The thud was so loud
9 February 2018
Specks of Dreams and Polarized Dusts
I fell asleep within my sleep and woke up to find myself in your dream, which is also mine.
5 January 2018