ANURADHA BHATTACHARYYA, INDIA

Dr. Anuradha Bhattacharyya is a widely published author known for her poetry, novels and short stories.

SILVER

It shines every time –

Humiliation.

Silver made itself useful

In mirrors, for reflection,

Bought in the bazaar

Under-priced,

Centuries later, silver still stands strong

While gold has been locked up.

Dug out along with iron,

Silver glowed with pride;

Moulded along with gold

Light denied

Silver dropped to the humble side.

Projection in telescopes,

Depth in microscopes,

Her accomplishments,

Nothing next to gold,

Yet used and abused even to the day,

In solar cells… 

Lustre enough

For the humble soul.

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Solitude of Soul 2023 :: Setu, March 2023

Dr. Anuradha Bhattacharyya, INDIA

Exclusive: Best of Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

VIRTUAL REALITY

She enters virtual reality –

In infinitude,

A beautiful loneliness

Welcomes you

Always;

An always imminent departure

Produces courage.

She enters virtual reality –

Lives her life inside

Of a safe environment,

Accompanied by a song.

She enters virtual reality –

Comes into contact with the things she fears;

She lives the story of living

In cyberspace;

An avatar

As it were,

A movable image

Better than ourselves.

Gods, demons, empires, and souls

Represent themselves in virtual reality,

Remaining in a controlled environment

That people design

In hope, which is the opposite of hate.

Dr. Anuradha Bhattacharyya is an Indian writer. She has been awarded the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi's Best Book Award for English Novel of the years 2016 and 2019. She is Associate Professor of English, Postgraduate Government College, Chandigarh.

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Best of Women Poetry -2020 :: Setu, March 2020

Dr. Anuradha Bhattacharyya, INDIA

BINDING LOVE

Your pounding heart

And the fond incline

Of your erect form

Touched my fancy with

The beauty of desire.

There’s that well

Of your yearning eyes

Brimming with memories,

Often aroused

By present reality.

Thirty six or sixty three –

Age makes no difference;

As long as the banyan

Puts forth leaves

There’s rejuvenation.

Binding love is rare

Sacrilege to façade.

What keeps hurting you

Can chop the roots

Of denigration.

Yet, somehow

I need not speak;

A little wine in

Quiet company

Is more desired.

SHORES APART

There was once a man

With hurt pride

And a bleeding heart

Who sang melodies of fulfillment,

Welcomed every travelling smart

Woman of her choice

To tread yet again

On his aching heart.

I warned him not to go overboard

With docility as it were…

The man in him I tried to wake up

And he shuddered at the insignificance.

There he lay shattered

And I on the opposite shore stood helpless,

As much as I would want to restore

The blighted pride

And his forlorn consciousness.

Often in my dreams I see him wafting

Ashore on my side

And me nursing the heavy head,

But it’s the waking hours that tell the lie

And bleeding still he lies listless.

When creation placed us shores apart

Our will could never cross the sea.

Our hearts can race and match the pace

And that’s just as much as we can expect.

THE WEAPON OF INFAMY

We never go beyond the arms and the eyes

Never ever seek the smell of semen.

We never linger in the fumes of the cunt

And rush to rinse us of the residual stain.

We never bite into flesh of those we hug

We never tousle limbs and check their stretch

We never think of hair as necessary ornament

And never leave behind a body in pain.

Yet poetry, so to say, a weapon of infamy

Serves men to defile all womankind

With words of unkind ingratitude

Even if a life has gone in service blind.

I for one would rather bear in mind

The lyrics pulling men’s dirty legs,

Rich in sarcasm and profound in lore

Witty and poignant and poetry at its best.

Dr. Anuradha Bhattacharyya is an Indian writer. She has been awarded the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi's Best Book Award for English Novel of the year 2016. She is Associate Professor of English, Postgraduate Government College, Sector-11, Chandigarh. Her forthcoming novel is called Still She Cried.

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Women, Power & Creativity :: Setu, March 2019

Voices Within: Anuradha Bhattacharyya

Dr. Anuradha Bhattacharyya is an Indian writer. She has been awarded the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi's best Book Award for English Novel of the year 2016. She is Associate Professor of English, Postgraduate Government College, Sector-11, Chandigarh. Her forthcoming novel is called Still She Cried.

In Retrospect

The stage was set

By tiredness.

It could have been

Clear enough.

The mouths denied

Words to flow.

The function was

Called off.

Our bodies met

With hallowed eyes.

Passion could not

Be entertained.

That lingering message

In our tongues

Does not go down

The throat even today.

Facade

Keeping fake appearances

Has become a habit with me.

The most common is the smile.

One of those denials of the flesh

That does not want to yield to jest;

The poor thing, gets no rest.

And the converse is with tears;

Sorrow expressed in public sphere

Is not an inner stress.

As though it were not enough –

There’s that eloquence in praise

For a slovenly work of no consequence.

Spurious Poetry

He stands erect, taller than

The humble camel

With his hump in cervical pain

Complying with people around

Who try hard before him to impress.

The judging heart recommends all

And hopes one day to challenge

That lofty ideal of poetry,

The type for years he’s not read.

Each moment of beatitude hurts –

Pinpricks of the heart with memories

Of times spent in solitude

Writing real poetry.

Fossilized Desire

With you in mind

I chanted on a prayer

Of plaintiff’s summoning,

A cry for attention,

A speech for release,

Frothing in the mouth

For lack of reckoning.

It could be that the sun

Faded out of sheer

Lack of fuel

And fossilized.

Or it could be a mute

Acceptance of every guilt

I thrust on him.

Should my eloquence fall short

Of hearing

And stand undelivered

Undeliverable

So, to say,

Will passion come to the rescue at last,

And you’d wrap me in your arms

For recompense?

Voices Within - Complete List of Poets :: Setu, January 2019