Fakir Lalon Shah: Subjects, Sites, and Signs

Fakir Lalon Shah—who orally composed thousands of songs in Bengali —died on October 17, 1890—on Kartik 01, 1297 (the Bengali year).
6 November 2020

The Cosmic Lover

O Allah, into your endless plays Who could delve— You call out to Allah Being Allah yourself.
6 November 2020

Kissed by the dusk: Eugene O’Neill

On the 132nd birth anniversary of Eugene O’Neill, the Shakespeare of American Theater, the question is: did he ever die?
23 October 2020

Translation, Culture and Politics

A discussion of Translation and its theories often remains circumscribed to a discourse arguing about the issues of authenticity.
23 October 2020

The spirits of the forest

The spirits of the forest
16 October 2020

Something missing

Something missing from this dish and that.
16 October 2020

Clipped wings

I’ve been screaming for so long My aching throat feels raw,
16 October 2020

On Vocabulary in Writing

Back in the mid-90s when I was majoring in English literature at a public university in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was a cricket buff. For the Bangladeshis, cricket was a transnational love affair in the 90s.
16 October 2020

Nazrul beyond Bangla

Kazi Nazrul Islam needs no introduction to those familiar with Bangla literature. He and his works are, for cogent reasons, less known in other circles.
9 October 2020

Reflection

My mother has a habit of staring intently at reflective surfaces. When alone, she will look directly into mirrors with a vacant look in her eyes.
9 October 2020

American poet Louise Gluck wins Nobel literature prize

American poet Louise Gluck won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature for works exploring family and childhood in an "unmistakable...voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal", the Swedish Academy has said.
8 October 2020

The Nest

(I guess) some birds don’t return to roosts.
2 October 2020

Farewell, Dear Moon

Body trembling, tears falling
2 October 2020

La Luna

Every once in a moonlit midnight
2 October 2020

Cricket in the Dock: A Duty of Care

Cricketers are accustomed to hearing about cricket balls being caught but not of a ball being brought into Court. Appeals concerning a ball at Lords, home of cricket, are familiar enough but an Appeal in the Lords? In 1951 cricket figured in a landmark legal decision in the House of Lords.
2 October 2020

Sand and Water

Shutters clicked away. Flashes dazzled eyes. News reporters jostled with each other to hold out their mikes as far as their arms allowed. Busy fingers gripped their ballpoints tighter.
25 September 2020

Of Fireflies and Slime

I stood before the door of the house where my grandmother once lived. Age and infirmity had jaded what might have once been a proper door.
25 September 2020

Commute of an old man

Year 2060: I was a lonely kid. Sometimes I felt as if I lived my whole life alone. There were different people here and there, flittering in and out, at the intersection where our lives crossed, before the roads untangled and moved apart.
18 September 2020

Mathematics and Poetry: Some Impressions

I think I’ve always loved mathematics in my own ways.
18 September 2020

Kabarsthan

As the mangy fingers of fascism grew out of the copper earth,
11 September 2020