Creative nonfiction / Growing up with a new nation: The Dhaka we once knew

AN affectionate biography of a much-maligned king who had the misfortune to be on the throne when the East India Company decided to usurp him.

He seemed to be in a paradoxical state of discomfort and pleasure. “It's as if you've never tasted anything spicy before,” I said. “You have to pay for that, mind you.” “Of course I will,” he grinned. Soon enough, the hot sauce began its attack and he began to draw in cool air to soothe his burning tongue. “Oi, give me a cold Coke!” “All right, hold your horses.” I replied, walking over to the refrigerator. A few minutes later he had emptied the bottle. I shook my head at him wearily.

The beeps of the monitors were mute for him. Everything was fading away.

Many years had passed since I last saw him. He used to sit under the bridge during the hot summer days; the quintessential jhaal-muri-wala.

From my balcony I look down at

I wept endlessly the day I turned twenty-two,

I wish I could, Fly for 22 days like a bird!

Here are the winners of our latest SLR writing competition.

Amit Chaudhuri writes on nothing in particular. His novels scarcely have any plot. They are written in a relaxed manner, with almost each line containing delightful descriptions that are meant to be read slowly, in leisure.

The amount of poetry on the net is simply staggering. All the great and popular poems we have – or ought to have – read are a mouse click away.

Amidst the endless contest for power, every nation-state is beset with insurgencies. A casualty in these conflicts is often the freedom of thought and expression.

I miss my unborn child

She believed she was about thirty

This week we welcome back the ever-prolific poet and academic Kaiser Haq tracing lines of connection between the wireless and the lyrical.

I bought a copy of Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass (1927—2015) around four years ago from Aziz Super Market, Dhaka and while going through the moving novel Gunter Grass seemed to me very close to Victor Hugo in terms of characterization.

IT'S not often you come across artists writing on artists.

CRAVING for some spinal tingling horror story? How about some classic Edgar Allen Poe Gothic Fiction that will leave you scared and confused?

Should a writer write to please the reader or himself/herself?

The alarm rings at the crack of dawn, but my body and mind fight.

Sadaat Hasan Manto, one of the most prolific short-story writers to emerge from the subcontinent, described the murder of a 'Muslim bastard' during the riots in his most famous short story 'Toba Tek Singh'.