Sutanuka Ghosh Roy (Voices Within)

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is Assistant Professor and Head Department of English in Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. She did her doctoral dissertation on Two Eighteen Century British Women Poets: Hannah More and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She has been teaching at the undergraduate and postgraduate level for twelve years. She is currently engaged in active research and her areas of interest include Eighteenth Century literature, Indian English literature, Canadian Studies, Post colonial Literature, Australian Studies, Dalit Literature, Gender Studies etc. She has published widely and presented papers at National and International Seminars. She is a regular contributor of research articles and papers to anthologies, national and international journals of repute like The Statesman, Muse India, Lapis lazuli, Setu etc. She is also a reviewer, a poet, a critic and an avid painter.

You and I

Let us go you and I

To a place where the sky is green and the grass is blue

Let us go together

And build a house whose walls are of ice

And there is fire inside

Let us go together

To a forest where there is only rain

And we can hear the drops of pain

Our fantasies become fireflies

Let us go you and I

To a river bank where there is a boat waiting for us

And together we will sail to the other side.

I Am Not Arjuna

I am not Arjuna

Why should I fight

Against my brothers in Hastinapur?

Standing knee-deep in snow

In the glaciers of Siachen

Crawling in the trench in Sopar

Keeping tired eyes in the telescope the entire day and night

Standing in the shores of Mumbai

Why should I fight?

I am not Arjuna

Why should I fight with Guru Drona and age-old Bhisma

For centuries I am inhaling the poisonous air,

How many years more do I need to live?

I am not Arjuna

Are my weapons that useless?

That I cannot bring an ounce of peace today?

Black Pearl Necklace

Surrounded by an array of Sangbaaz in a green valley

Young children of conflict start throwing stones at me

I am almost killed by these sharp stones

The warm blood tickling my bones

I stand with my broken body, blinding eyes and spine-chilling fear

How do I combat lovelessness with love?

I run and run until each of my scars

Become a black pearl necklace!!!

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Voices Within-2020 :: Setu, February 2020