Betrayed by Hope by Namita Gokhale & Malashri Lal

A Review of Betrayed by Hope

Authors: Namita Gokhale & Malashri Lal

ISBN:  978-93-6313-350-2

Edition: (2024)

Price: ₹ 299.00

Published by Harper Collins Publishers India

Reviewed by: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

 

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

       ‘I am thinking of blazing out in prose to reduce to cinders the impudent pretensions of the “mob of Gentlemen” who pass for great authors! Great authors! You may take my word for it…that I shall come out like a tremendous comet’ writes the maverick Michael Madhusudan Dutt in a letter to Raj Narain Basu, 1861. Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1824-1873) is a revered name in Bengali Literature. To gauge his excellence is a gruelling task. It is he who changed the 19^th-century literary sky of Bengali literature with grace and élan. He began writing English poetry at the age of seventeen and started sending his works to publications in England, including Blackwood's Magazine and Bentley's Miscellany. However, his desire to go to England and make a name in English literature became largely unfulfilled. “Betrayed by Hope is a play-script based on the letters Michael Madhusudan Dutt wrote to friends, well-wishers, and patrons, paints the portrait of an artist as he plunges headlong into crisis after crisis, even as his imagination and creativity soar. Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal pay tribute to his extraordinary life in a story that will lay bare our deep-set contradictions about art and life”.

       The volume offers a refreshing perspective on a meteoric talent who filled the literary sky of 19^th-century colonial Bengal with new light. The play script has a taut structure and is divided neatly into five acts. Betrayed by Hope reveals two truths—one, that Michael Madhusudan Dutt continues to remain arguably one of the best authors, and classics/ classical texts/subjects are still subjected to serious scholarly interpretive experiments. Gokhale and Lal turn to the timeless maverick to search in theatre/play for a stirring expression of the massive surge of raw angst in Bengali literature of 19^th-century bringing into sharp focus the cavernous rift that had emerged between the elusive hope and its betrayal resulting in the constant struggle in the life of a meteoric talent. In addition, the authors have introduced an interesting character Sutradhar Rubina Rahman ‘a self-proclaimed lazy researcher stuck in a stuffy Department of Humanities at a private university in Dhaka’ ‘looking for an easy subject for a PhD’ ‘and thought’ ‘that an Anglophile who loved England would suit’ her ‘studies well’. As in Sanskrit drama, Rubina is the narrator and the stage manager the "thread-holder" of the play-script. While concentrating on the literary works of Madhusudan the Sutradhar is also ‘curious about the writer’s hidden self’.

      The authors’ mastery of scenography is extraordinarily evident in the lighting scheme-- criss-crossing light is made to slant at the characters of the Sutradhar and Madhusudan underlying the clash of conflicting ideologies. Sutradhar cries out “Sir, Byron! Why Byron? Why don’t you consider your Bengali legacy? It’s utterly frustrating! The Young Bengal Movement had you in thrall even though its founder Henry Derozio wasn’t there when you enrolled at Hindu College. Social reform, protest—these things were in the air but you turned a blind eye. You turned to the Romantic poets in distant England. Why? What were you trying to escape?” As Sutradhar and MMD as she calls him debate their perspectives, the stage setting allows them the necessary space and the authors help the readers/audiences visually map the crests and troughs of the argument between them. Almost like the readers’ response to the text/author, the duo’s engagement in a battle of ideas is crafted by Gokhale and Lal in the manner of a waltz piece. Not only did the authors capture the talent of the maverick through a careful selection of letters but they have resurrected the crucial role of simple chador-clad Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in Madhusudan’s life. The Sutradhar has effectively woven the thread joining the letters (Madhusudan wrote to his friends, well-wishers, and patrons) with her narrative highlighting important links in Madhusudan’s literary journey. R. C. Majumdar acknowledged Dutt as ‘the first genius who infused a new life into Bengali dramatic literature’.

    Madhusudan had reshaped and resurrected old Sanskritized Bengali literature by infusing a new variety of heroic poetry following the footsteps of Homer and Dante but Indian at the core in Meghnadbad Kabya (1861) or The Slaying of Meghnad. “He composed sonnets in an Indian language for the first time, and then went on to confidently compose in ‘blank verse’ writes Jawhar Sircar in the afterword of the volume. Betrayed by Hope chronicles the time the dogmatism of the caste/class-ridden Colonial Bengal and traverses the spaces that help contemporary readers understand the maverick in a better way. The play script has been consciously used for asserting identity, fostering academic discussion, and giving rise to a new direction in scholarly engagement.

***

 

BIO: Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan, India. She is a reviewer, a critic, and a poet. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives and Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, Asprishya (The Untouchables, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale translated into Bengali). Opera is her debutant collection of poetry.

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Setu, March 2025

The Dying City

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Pinning

The billboards smirk

at the stretches of the EM Bypass

and allures us to dream of Babel

the overhead serpentine lines spread its 

 tentacles into the arteries

honking cars chant incessantly

the LED light sequins the lanes and by-lanes

the insomniac city pines

for sleep.

***

Holding On

The heart of Kolkata soaked 

in hot and cold water

for eons

the liver slow cooked as in Dum-pukht with

bland tears, turmeric fears, kesar umbrages.

The burnt charcoal heart thick with

centuries-old history float like coriander leaves

in a copper cauldron where it  

holds on to the last bud 

of Heron flowers. 

***

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Setu, November 2024

Special Edition: The Dying City :: Setu, November 2024

A Review of Ekalavya Speaks

Ekalavya Speaks
Author: Sanjukta Dasgupta
Tranlator: Rajorshi Patranabis

ISBN: 978-81-966577-9-6 (Hardbound)
Edition: (2024)
Price: ₹ 300. $ 35
Published by Penprints

Reviewed by: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

 

         Ekalavya Speaks is the ninth poetry collection of Sanjukta Dasgupta a poet, short story writer, critic, and translator. The title is intriguing and endorses the intensity of the work that dates back to The Mahabharata. In ‘History of Ekalavya’ (in On Hinduism) Wendy Doniger observes,” The myth of the weavers’ thumbs may also have grown out of the famous Mahabharata story of Ekalavya, a dark-skinned, low-caste boy whose skill at archery rivalled that of the noble heroes, the Pandavas; to maintain the Pandavas’ supremacy as archers, their teacher demanded that Ekalavya cut off his right thumb”. The collection of 100 poems is astoundingly powerful, awe-inspiring, and cheerily avant-garde. Although it questions grave issues like othering, patriarchy, and tyranny layered with grief, familial allegiance, and good intention, it never loses its infectious humour and charm.

       The opening poem ‘Accident of Birth’ is interspersed with personal experiences and contemporary references which both interrupt it as the title suggests—and make it more engaging and accessible. Dasgupta writes, “If only the Dalits, Rohingyas,/ Jews and Muslims/ Could have chosen/ The branded wombs carefully/ Who is a Rohingya/ Who is a Jew/ Who is a Hindu”. There is a sense of urgency, in movement and monologue alike, in this retelling of the contemporary times. New meanings emerge from the ‘interruptions’, which offer fresh entry points into the tragedy of dissent embedded in the mythical history of Ekalavya.

     ‘Sikhandi’ celebrates the non-binaries and bridges the gap between ancient mythology and modern, irreverent egalitarianism. “That Great Indian story/ Is awash with blood, sweat and tears/ Fratricide, killing of kin/ Deception, gambling, disguise/ Confidence trickery/ I am just a footnote/ A user-friendly/ Not quite non-binary”. In ‘Chuni Kotal’s Query’ Dasgupta writes, “Ekalayas and Shambukas/ Were depressed victims/ Nothing has changed/ We are depressed now/ As they were depressed then/ Dear Saviour of the have-nots/ Shall we remain/ The outsider ‘Others’ ”. We are going through a kind of turbulence a time when speaking the truth has become more fraught with danger to life and livelihood, ‘Chuni Kotal’s intransigence in the face of autocracy acquires a profound significance. She enquires into the premise of the female body as an object of oppression and her agency as an aggressive tool of opposition. “A Masters degree student aspirant/ Stripped of all human identity/ Stripped of all human dignity/ Bore the brunt of casteist slurs/ Every day in class”. A lone figure of resistance, she revolts proprietorially against a brutal marginalisation that has been foisted on her.

      The vocal inflexions in ‘Manipur’ are etched in sharp lines of great physical and psychological detail. “Cry bejewelled Manipur/ Cry, beloved land/Your innocent people/ Denuded, devastated / Ravished, abused/ Drenched in blood/ Branded blood groups/ In a killing spree/ All in the name of God”. Dasgupta offers a persuasively visceral experience of a subversive spirit with complete autonomy. She writes, “The silence of India/ Often more ear-splitting/Than speech/ Are you listening?” Such is the power of Dasgupta’s communication that she holds the readers in her thrall as she tells the story of Manipur.

     Some poems like ‘The Time is out of Joint’, ‘Undefeated’, and ‘New Normal and I’ remind us of the times when human beings were out of joint and crematoriums became the destination. Women have always captured a veritable space in Dasgupta’s poetic journey. But what ‘Indian Women at Home and in the World’ does differently is that it just does not offer an alternative version of a story about an Indian woman from a feminist perspective: the poem gives a different story altogether—when the Indian woman/(en) is ‘In the World’ she is an avatar of Durga with ten hands doing ten things simultaneously. The poet writes, “I am a smart Indian woman/ I work harder on weekends/ I sometimes have weekend helpers/ I have to clean my bathroom/ I have to scrub the potty” When she is at home she scoffs—“I have maids to bake, cook and clean/ I am an Indian woman who turns crazy/ If a helper fails to turn up for half a day”.  Judicious use of humour enlivens what could have become a preachy sob story.

    ‘The Third Alphabet’ is overwhelmingly intense and there is wild energy—“Conniving irresistible greed for more/ Cruelty froths unabashed/ Curdling and churning and chuckling/ Coins cryptic and crypto tantalizers/ Catastrophic cataclysmic Implosion”. These 100 poems give the readers an ‘immersive experience’ as Lakshmi Kanan observes. Eklavya Speaks is here to bridge the gap between ‘othering’ and ‘acceptance’. The evocative book cover evokes emotions that truly resonate.

***

 

BIO-NOTE: Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. She has published widely and presented papers at National and International Seminars. She is a regular contributor to research articles and papers to anthologies, and national and international journals of repute like Text, Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Australia, Kervan International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies, University of Turin, Italy, Fiar, University of Bielefeld, Germany, Muse India, Setu, Lapiz Lazuli, The Times of India, The Statesman, Life and Legends, Kitaab, etc. Her poems have been anthologized and published in Setu, Piker Press, Harbinger Asylum, Teesta Journal, etc. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives, Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, Ashprishya (translated into Bengali, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale,). “Opera” is her debutant collection of poetry. She is also a reviewer, a poet, and a critic.

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Setu, June 2024

A Review of Some Resonance Some Desire

Some Resonance Some Desire

Author: Gopal Lahiri

ISBN: 9798215452554

Edition: (2022)

Price: ₹ 500 | $ 30

Published by International Publishing Centre.

Reviewed by: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

        Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual Kolkata-based poet, critic, editor, writer, and translator. A Geoscientist by profession “Some Resonance Some Desire” is his nineteenth book in English. In the Preface to the book Lahiri writes, “In this collection of poems, I instigate a different kind of possibility in poetry and a more sustained attention to language. The resonance and desire widen the space for individual feeling, for self-examination, for second judgments, for admission”. The collection has a taut structure and is neatly divided into three segments, ‘Effulgence’, ‘Cadence’, and ‘Tapestry’. Each section carries inquisitiveness about how our physical world and selves are continually heaved toward disbanding and dispersal. The poems in this collection employ various forms of poetry, like free verse, sonnet, haiku, senryu, haibun, and memoir that create a magnetic pull through the montage of images and metaphors resulting in a pure unadulterated poetic mien. What is most interesting is that language operates here in different ways.

        Lahiri’s writing has a subtlety that uniquely prompts new techniques and language usage. Wyndham Lewis refers to the image as the ‘primary pigment ’of poetry it primarily relates to the painterly content of the language. In the foreword to the book Santosh Bakaya writes, “To one’s joyous amusement and serendipitous glee, one realizes that some images have furtively crept into one’s heart and settled there, refusing to be nudged away.” In ‘Beyond the Visual Realm’, Lahiri writes, “stillness rewrites the morning glow that is spilled/ memories from the branches/ the breeze, then and now, perfectly weightless”. The spillage of one imagery/poetic experience into another is intentionally curated to enhance the delicately embroidered words, “listen to the wind, wood cracking, leaves rustling/ take inside the sounds of the natural world/ the pure joy extends beyond the visual realm”. With quietude still reverberating in the poetic language with the synesthetic vibrations and cascading overtones we go on a pilgrimage in quest of fulfilment. This desire for the other nudges the unprecedented experience of coming together of the poet and the reader. The poet brings resonance and desire and the reader has the unique poetic experience of overlapping beats of emotions—“Window sills scribble poetry behind the flower pots,/small shops sell marbles and lollypops./The black coffee turns cold, cigarettes burn to ashes,/words hide behind the clustered stems”. 

       There is perhaps no poetry without desire, in Shelley’s words “the desire of the moth for the star”. This desire brings together the poet and the reader through a midway path, and the result is an ingenious act of devotion that gives birth to a poem. The desire of the poet and his/her readers are mutual—“The moment of truth comes well after the dawn/ without anybody’s knowledge” writes the poet. In “Hope” there is a palpable image that has a haunting effect, “Strapped in grey surrounds, the distance/ between the unheard voices increases, / you expect the light to go in silence, / what to do with the motion of the sea/ yet hope glistens from afar”. Each word of the poem is so finely produced that it can engage the readers for great lengths of time. 

      The collection has a section on haiku, thirty-five poetic gems—it is easy to visualize how the poet has intricately dipped his ink to add depth to his haikus—“stretching the old truth/ evening melts in your coffee/ birds’ tweet in silence”. “In Stillness” which is a haibun Lahiri emphasizes that nature can be temperamental. “The silence surges forward. It hushes, leaps, seeps. The quiet and quaintness of the tea gardens inhale the calmness under another sky. Tea bushes have a different kind of intimacy. They tap breeze at times writing dozy metaphors. All the shadows are buried near Eagles Crag. Are they absurd evil? On the hill slope, the red of the tin shades disappears in the mist. Prayers fall into the void”. 

     There is calmness in Lahiri’s poetry and there is a silent power and panache to captivate the reader. He is a keen observer and has a playful finesse to wrap truths in a surreal realm. The magic of turning the mundane into ethereal is key to the collection. Aesthetics is kneaded into intellectual capability resulting in giving shape to the image that Lahiri has in his mind. Without a pause he writes, “I know that in all of these places where the color blooms and a part of me stands there still, till a few drops of rain wet the soil and I cup my hands, follow it out, as I do always break into a song, ‘The stars in the sky do not respond to my call’.  As one comes to a close there is a crisp desire for more resonance that creates blueprints of intricate and elaborate poetry. “Some Resonance Some Desire” is here to leave a footprint on the annals of English poetry. 

***

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is Associate Professor in English, Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. 

 

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Setu, April 2024

A review of Legends Speak: Bengali Women’s Narratives in Translation

Legends Speak: Bengali Women’s Narratives in Translation
Translators: Amita Ray, Chaitali Sengupta, Lopamudra Banerjee
ISBN: 978-93-90873-62-3 (Paperback)
Edition: 2022
Price: ₹ 550.
Publisher: Avenel Press.

Reviewed by: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

        Throughout the centuries women’s voices have been muted. Women were/are considered to be the epitome of sacrifice and posited by society as carriers and preservers of culture and tradition and expected to bear the cross silently for ‘motherhood’ and ‘nationhood’. When women started speaking for themselves they were ‘labelled’. When they did start writing their writings were put into ‘brackets’. The Bengali women writers are no exception. In their writings, they have pointed out how society has failed to give them what they deserve.

       Three contemporary translators Amita Ray, Chaitali Sengupta, and Lopamudra Banerjee across three continents have successfully put in their efforts to represent Bengali women’s creative fiction straddling a wide-ranging trajectory from the colonial period and thereafter contemporary times. The translators have selected novellas written by Swarnakumari Devi (1855-1932) Ashapurna Devi (1909-1995) and Suchitra Bhattacharya (1950-2015). “The novella, as a literary genre, can be positioned mid-way between the concise short story and the expansive novel. The novella therefore can be described as a literary sub-genre, which borrows its structural uniqueness by combining the precision of short stories and the novel” writes Sanjukta Dasgupta in the Foreword of the book.

      Swarnakumari Devi’s Chinna Mukul—The Uprooted Blossom was published in 1879. Chaitali Sengupta has translated the multi-textured narrative with grace and élan. The story is about Kanak and her failed love for Hirankumar, a deputy Magistrate in Alipore Court. The plot is intriguing and full of twists and turns and keeps the readers glued to the last. The prose is gender-neutral there are no feminine effusions or emotions or use of proverbs or sentiments that are womanish. This shows the contemporaneity of the novella. The Clarion stated, “Remarkable for the picture of Hindu life, the story is overshadowed by the personality of the authoress, one of the foremost Bengali writers today.” (36, Thakhurbarir Andarmahal). Sengupta has succeeded in retaining the fervour and essence of the original writing. The novella laced with humour and wit makes strong jibes against systematic patriarchy with light-footed ease. Swarnakumari did not show any self-conscious cultural project to situate the historically and culturally grounded feminist concerns. But in Chinna Mukul, she raised questions that foreshadowed the future intellectual and political constructions of Indian feminism.

        The next translated novella Nachhor was written by Ashapurna Devi in the 1960s. It was later published in her collection of novels titled Shreshthya Panchti Upanayash. Nacchor translated into English effortlessly by Lopamudra Banerjee as The Incorrigible chronicles the emotional journey of Neera as she juggles between her marital life with Biram and her childhood love Kunal. Neera could never muster courage enough to proclaim her love for Kunal and lived on with the emotional baggage. The author deftly points out how Neera/(woman) is/are tamed into being the right fit for her family and society at large. Ashapurna had a keen eye for understanding the psyche of women and in a way, she was a game-changer and subverted the stereotype of the Bengali woman and portrayed her in a new light.

          Ace translator Amita Ray has translated Suchitra Bhattacharya’s novella Shunya thekhe Shunya published in 2010. Shunya thekhe Shunya –The Void captures the essence and change in Bengali society over three generations. The little world of Bandana her son Sagnik, the new-age daughter-in-law Riya, and her grandson Rwik are painted in subtle deft strokes by the author. After her husband’s demise the world changed for Bandana and the void was a permanent one. Perhaps in the modern world, one has to live with fissures and voids. The story ends; it begins where it ends. Suchitra’s penchant for allowing her readers to find a reflection of themselves in her works and her beguiling presence in the novella makes her a favourite among her readers.

         Legends Speak resonates with feminine voices of resistance and resilience though they were written at different points in time. One can feel the pulsating grains of history laid across the pages of these three novellas. Conventional values of traditional Bengali society are closely interrogated as part of the reaction to changes brought about by the changing times. The readers are implicated in the novellas, which brings to the surface questions around where lie the boundaries beyond which women are condemned of transgression; in the private moments when they desire. When their desires burst male hegemony? When they are resolute and unabashed in their word? When their roars threaten age-old notions of middle-class Bengali sophistication? A volley of nuanced questions makes these novellas resonate across class, gender, and cultural contexts.

       Legends Speak (Bengali Women’s Narratives In Translation) evokes an intimate feminine space by revealing the truth one a woman’s stories lies in the plunge that these translators take while sharing them, in the intimate acts of transfer the readers are enriched, it is a collection where women (original writers and translators) wear themselves and the volume is bound to attract and connect global impulses of feminine voices.

Works Cited: Deb, Chitra, Thakhurbarir Andarmahal., Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, 1983. Print.

Bio: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor of English, at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives, Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, Ashprishya (translated into Bengali, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale,). She is also a reviewer, a poet, and a critic. 

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Setu, April 2024

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy (Women and Spring)

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Offering

Fiery red Palash
grabs me in his arms
raceme petals kiss
the nape of my neck
like a coy bride
I shudder at the soft touch.
The flame burns
my unshared desires
out of ashes
I rise to become
Palash
an offering
at the altar of the
Troika.

***

Bio: Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. She is currently engaged in active research and her areas of interest include Indian English Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Dalit Literature, Gender Studies, etc. She has published widely and presented papers at National and International Seminars. She is a regular contributor to research articles and papers to anthologies, and national and international journals of repute like Text, Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Australia, Kervan International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies, University of Turin, Italy, Fiar, University of Bielefeld, Germany, Muse India, Setu, Lapiz Lazuli, The Times of India, The Statesman, Life and Legends, Kitaab, etc. Her poems have been anthologized and published in Setu, Piker Press, Harbinger Asylum, Teesta Journal, etc. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives, Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, Ashprishya (translated into Bengali, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale,). “Opera” is her debutant collection of poetry. She is also a reviewer, a poet, and a critic.

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Setu, March 2024

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy: A Poet’s Journey

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

(The noted academic and poet, Sutanuka Ghosh Roy discusses her recent book of poetry with the editor, Sunil Sharma, and allied topics, in this wide-ranging literary conversation for the Setu’s series: Author Interview.)

Q: Congrats on your debut Opera Poems? How does it feel as a poet to see the collection of poems in a book form?

A: Thanks a lot, Sir! It is a surreal feeling. I’m thankful to Hawakal Publishers, (New Delhi, Kolkata), Bitan Chakraborty for the alluring cover of the book and Kiriti Sengupta for his poetic expertise and care for giving shape to my thoughts.

Q: Please briefly share with us your journey as an academic, critic, poet and editor so far.

A: Two decades ago, I started my journey as an academic. It has been a great learning experience for me so far. I have learnt/ learning the tropes of literature. I have taught and now teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students. My students are my assets and their unflinching love and honour help me to remain passionate about my teaching. My teachers, my colleagues, and my compatriots helped me to keep the fire burning.

I am fortunate to guest edit two issues of the unputdownable Setu Pittsburgh USA. Both the issues-- one on “Children’s Literature” ((July 2020) and the other on “Tribute to Tagore on His 161st Birthday” (May 2022) received rave reviews from the literary fraternity.

I started writing poetry at an early age-- during my childhood, I used to write a line or two and show it to my parents and teachers. For a long time, I did not write at all however over the past few years, I have been writing poetry. My poems have been anthologized and published in national and international journals of repute.

As a critic, I am happy and honoured to find a little space in the literary map. My book reviews have been published across the globe and have been received well among my readers.  I have a book Commentaries: elucidating poetics Hawakal 2020 which is a collection of twelve book reviews of poetry of eminent poets. And the journey continues…

Q: The title of your book is intriguing. What made you select this title?

A: Thank you, Sir! Etymologically the Italian word opera means “work” both in the sense of the labour done and the result therein produced. The Italian word derives from the Latin “opera”. The collection of poetry is my labour of quite a few years and the result produced so it is in keeping with the literal meaning of opera. Here my poems are sung to the music of life.

Q: Opera as a distinct musical tradition and performance is very enthralling. So, any parallels with the classical art form here in this selection of poems?

A: As a student and teacher of English literature I always fall back on the tradition the collection is a narrative of the music of life--pain, sorrow, umbrage, loss, joy and hope provide the poetic plot line and elaborate chorus of life.

Q: How relevant is poetry to the new millennial generation? Especially, poetry written in Indian English?

A: Phillip Sidney in “An Apology for Poetry” elaborated on the supremacy and relevance of poetry.  The same tradition continues and will continue. The new millennial generation is equally passionate about poetry. Poetry written in Indian English is now the in-thing. There is no dearth of talent and with so many online journals/magazines one can get published too. Moreover, the new generation kid is more comfortable speaking his/her mind in English than in the vernacular.

Q: What are the major themes that unify this collection?

A: Desire, pain, loss, silence, angst—the poems are sung to the melody of life. The broken crayons of life are kneaded with the colours of the rainbow.

Q: What is your writing schedule? What inspires you the most?

A: I have no fixed writing schedule. Usually, I write during the weekends. Taking up new challenges, working out of my comfort zone and pushing myself beyond my boundaries motivates me to work and hope for the future.

Q: Your favouraite books? The ones that have stayed on and talked to you?

A: Golpoguccho of Rabindranath Tagore, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Pather Panchali Satyajit Ray’s Adventures of Feluda, Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, and T.S. Eliots’ poetry are some of my favourite books.

The poetry of Robert Browning has also stayed on with me and I keep on reading these eminent authors time and again.

Q: How does your Bengali heritage shape up the artist within? The rich Bengali language, culture, Tagore and others?

A: The Bengali heritage and culture have in a great way shaped my life. Both my parents were students of Bengali literature. Coming from an academic family I have spent my entire childhood learning about the great maestros of Bengali literature. Most of my afternoons during the vacations were spent in Baba’s library reading Bankimchandra, Tagore, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan, Bonophul, Manik Bandyopadhyay, Ashapurna Devi, Jyotirmay Devi and all others. Listening to the songs of Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Atul Prasad, and Dijendralal Roy from my childhood helps me to remain close to my roots. It has given me an edge in life planted the seeds and shaped my form.

I am immensely grateful to life for honouring me with such a great heritage. This is perhaps the greatest gift of my life.

Q: How does your profession of teaching English Lit define your worldview as a poet, female academic and sensitive human being?

A: It has broadened and added to my intellectual horizon. I carry a treasure trove with me. I feel the strong aroma of the wonderful works around me and I keep learning.

Q: Does English help in capturing the essence of everyday realities of India for writers that prefer to write in this language?

A: We were a colony for two hundred years. The British have gifted us their language which we have made our own. Now we keep on adding specific cultural nuances to the language. We are comfortable and adept at expressing our everyday realities. This is perhaps one of the reasons why a large number of writers prefer to write in English.

Q: Very best wishes for the success of Opera Poems!

A: Honoured and humbled!

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Setu, January 2024

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy (Voices Within 2023)

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan. She is currently engaged in active research and her areas of interest include Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Indian English Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Dalit Literature, Gender Studies, etc. She has published widely and presented papers at National and International Seminars. She is a regular contributor to research articles and papers to anthologies, and national and international journals of repute like Text, Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, Australia, Muse India, Setu, Lapiz Lazuli, The Times of India, The Statesman, Life and Legends, Kitaab, etc. Her poems have been widely anthologized. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives, Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, Ashprishya (translated into Bengali, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale,). She is also a reviewer, a poet, and a critic.

 

 

Remembrance

 

The last time I saw you

did I notice one more crack

in the skin of your step-well

the last word that you spoke

was it a plosive or a deep glottal?

was there a faint smile or a grimace?

a slight movement of the hand

or a waking call?

 

Festivities

 

The ebb and tide of selling

rainbow dreams

the heart thumped

with great expectations

 sweat and grime

moisturized the skin

The LED lights made the eyes fireflies

the smoky aroma of food

made the nostrils swell

with pride

 hunger tastes sweet as a honey-drop.

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Setu, November 2023 :: Voices Within 2023

Book Review: Raindrops on the Periwinkle

Raindrops on the Periwinkle

Author: Nishi Pulugurtha

ISBN: 978-93-90873-62-3 (Paperback)

Edition: (2022)

Price: ₹ 200 INR

Published by Writers Workshop Kolkata.

Reviewed by: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

      Among all other things, the Pandemic taught us to find joy in the little things of the earth. Life is uncertain almost like the raindrops any moment it can evaporate so while it stays there on the Periwinkle one can freeze that moment into eternity. Nishi Pulugurtha an academic and creative writer based in Kolkata writes in the Preface to book, “It is the trying times that the pandemic brought about, the experiences of strange times that are still so much a part of life, of learning to deal with things in such times with all their restrictions that made me work at writing more form poems”. The slim volume comprises 52 haiku, five haibun, and three tanka. Haiku has its roots in the sixteenth century and is considered to be the most popular in Japanese form poetry, consisting, in English versions, three unrhymed lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.

Nishi Pulugurtha

        Haiku is composed of 17 sound units divided into three parts in 5-7-5 formats. The sound units are much shorter than English syllables the modern variant of haiku in the English language however does not follow the 17 syllables which are mandatory in the traditional fixed format of haiku. On the other hand, Tanka is a 31-syllable Japanese form poem and is written in five lines with a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count form. The shift of an image to a personal response is seen in Tanka. Haibun is a prosmetric literary form, combining prose and haiku. The range of haibun is all-encompassing and includes prose poems, short stories, autobiographies, travel stories, diaries, essays, etc.

     Pulugurtha has followed the traditional fixed format of Haibun in some of her poems and in some she chooses the modern variant. This eclectic mix has brought freshness and variety to the collection. A close reading of the volume shows that she has tried to find peace in nature-- the blue sky above, the myriad cloud shapes, the bird headed home, gathering for a while and dispersing, the kites in the sky, all find a home in her poems. 

the lone ant moving

slowly leisurely here there

lone periwinkle

fiery bright yellow

amaltas sunny shiny

in isolation

There is an overwhelming sense of loss, pain and suffering,

there is no joy here

only shrieks and tears of pain

suffering and loss. 

These lines speak volumes ---Pulugurtha captures the frightening image of the deadly virus,

Screams shrieks cries for help

that go unnoticed unheard,

unseen—Worm eating

 The loss of memory of her Amma—is also a subject matter of these form poems. Despite being conscious of the pandemic these poems are a story of a subtle calm acceptance of life.  Pulugurtha uses memory as a trope to relieve herself of its burdens. Although she keeps this dance between time and memory simple--

she looks here and there

a little unsure about

what she’s looking at

     Pulugurtha deftly juxtaposes the imageries of loneliness with hope and explores the comforts of language and literature with references to the cyclical form of life and nature. She puts into words the beauty, pain as well and complexity of human nature. She uses simple language, this simplicity is a literary tool—it often reveals more than what meets the eye. These form poems use this tactic to their advantage; the advantage of saying more with less,

yellow little blooms

breaking through the concrete path

grass trammelled yet up

a little touch of colour makes her portrait colourful. Rain commonly signifies misery, gloom, or dejection. Rain also symbolizes life, purity, cleansing, or ablution—the title Raindrops on Periwinkle is thus significant. The slim volume is wrapped in a fabric that speaks of holding on to a forgotten art. The haikus, haibuns, and tankas cast a spell and the lingering effect continues long after one finishes reading the book.

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Setu, November 2023

Vigil (Gandhian Philosophy)

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Nowadays the streets are invaded by

Duryodhans

Draupadi, Dopdi, Nirbhaya, Asifa, Susan

are dragged by Dushashanas in the sabha-griha

Krishna forgot to send them rolls of fabric

Bhisma burns his mid-night oil to make laws

Vidoor’s shoes are torn as he runs

from one court to the other

a pair of round glasses

and a lathi watches.

 

BIO: Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan, India. She is a reviewer, a critic, and a poet. The titles of her books are: Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives and Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study, Asprishya (The Untouchables, a novel by Sharan Kumar Limbale translated into Bengali).

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Setu, October 2023 :: Gandhian Philosophy

SUTANUKA GHOSH ROY, INDIA (Peace Poem)

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Rhododendrons

With clouds in the pockets of the overcoat

orange wedges in the mouth

saunter around the ridge of the mountains

trying to cement the cracks in the cold palm.

The cautious arthritic knees stagger on the rocky pebbles

forgets the balance and falls on the shoulders

of the Rhododendrons

touching the sky.

Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is an Associate Professor of English at Tarakeswar Degree College, India. She has published widely and presented papers at National and International Seminars.

She is a regular contributor to research articles and papers to anthologies, national and international journals of repute like Muse India, Setu, Lapiz Lazuli, The Statesman, Life and Legends, Kitaab, Kevran, Journal of Afro-Asian Studies, etc. She has guest-edited the July 2020 Issue of SETU on Children’s Literature. Her poems have been anthologized and published in Text, Setu, Piker Press, Harbinger Asylum, Teesta Journal, Das Literarisch, etc.

The titles of her book are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives and Commentaries: elucidating poetics, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban. She is a reviewer, a poet and a critic.

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Setu, September 2023 :: Peace Poem

Game Changer: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Game Changer

 

I now stand in the 78 feet long and 27feet wide clay court

standing at the baseline Life takes its first serve

I the opposing player is the receiver. The match starts.

For the first point of the match Life the server

stands beside the baseline, between the centre mark

and the side line

my palm is sweaty, my grip on the racket is loose. I falter,

Life scores 1-0

I the receiver start again on the side of the net

 the receiver fails to play to the pace of the serve

Life wins the first game point.

 

Service alternates game by game

I take a long serve the ball hits the net

lands in the service box, this is a let or net service which is a void

I retake that serve

this time there is also a “foot fault” where my player’s foot touches the baseline

the second service after a fault is also a fault,

this is a double fault and Life wins the point.

 

I come back with a heavy foot, a leaden heart and a clinched fist

manage a good point, I score 2-1

Life now makes a double fault

I come back with a cheetah’s chutzpah

the referee calls out “deuce”

 

I now change my sweat-dripped shirt and mud-smitten skirt

trailing behind I win the game, a tie-break is played

We play the best of three set matches, I change my game

At the end the chair umpire announces the receiver to be the winner of the set and the overall score

 with a muffled groan, a pulled muscle and a suppressed laughter

I shake hands with Life!

***

 

In Love with The World

She was asked not to look outside the window

she spoke only to the distempered walls

she was asked not to look outside the window

if she looks outside the mirror would break

she did not know how the outside world looked like.

The sun-kissed rays, the breezy balm, the birds, the butterflies

the mirror in front of her showed her nothing

she could hear no songs which she wanted to hear

one day she gathered herself, opened the window with nimble fingers

the mirror cracked with a thunderous sound

shards of glasses pierced her hands and feet

she looked outside with a smile and fell in love with the world!

***

 

Broken Crayons

Popping in and out of anaesthetic beds

life revolves on its axis from old wheel-chairs

 to Nuhenz, Themicaine, and Betadine

the antiseptic air wears a different smell profile

with undertones of the artificial fragrance

Craning my neck

I look up

and gulp a cup full of mustard nectar

my broken crayons

fill the sky with colours.

***

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Setu, July 2023

Elemental: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

Born of earth

a winged seed 

 nostrils full of body odour

I weave an earthy civilization.

Born of air

kneading the azure sky,

I whisper into the 

ears of Sundari 

and Hetal trees.

Born of fire

I burn my frame 

in the ghats of Manikarnika

sprinkle the ashes over the 

ruins of Lothal

and walk bare feet down

the course of ancient Sabarmati.

Born of water

a blue hyacinth

I listen to the daily chores of Grey Heron

 and Little Egret.

The water chestnut touches

the navel

the feet touch the step-well of yoked desires

I wait for tomorrow’s rainbow.

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Setu, April 2023

“Open Sky and Earth”: a review of Home Anthology

Title: Home Anthology
Author: Gayatri Majumdar, Sekhar Banerjee & Gopal Lahiri
Page: 120
ISBN: 978-93-84216-05-4 (Paperback)
Edition: (2022)
Price: ₹ 300 INR
Published by Brown Critique Books

Reviewed by: Sutanuka Ghosh Roy

       When a creative journey of three poets unfolds in a retrospective, its poetic resonance lingers. Edited by Gayatri Majumdar, Sekhar Banerjee, and Gopal Lahiri, The Brown Critique Home Anthology includes works of fifty poets from home and the world. The volume excavates the concept of ‘home’ through a contemporary lens. As goes the popular saying ‘home is where the heart is. A cozy corner in a room or a hot cup of tea at the end of the day or a smile on the aged lips of a mother makes up the home.

      The introductory poem “When my Breath becomes Air” sets the tune, Abhay K. writes “don’t care/ to build a shrine/ read my poems/ I live in them/ they’re my home”. In “The Voice” Amanita Sen redefines home as the primary connection between us and the rest of the world. She writes, “hold on to, cuddle, be lost into it, / be lost unto it to be found again, like/ it is not merely a voice, but a form”. Aneek Chatterjee delves into the sense of ‘homelessness’ that can perhaps be attributed to the distance—of realities, class, lifestyles—that separates the poet from the subject, “Shattered railings on the footpath/ are perfect shelters for amused clothes. & the rice boils in tandem/ with the anger & anguish of the lady” (“Home”). In “Tonight” Anu Majumdar has keyed in visual narratives in a colourful, animated, and innovative manner “but tonight I am still/ a wave in the heart/ a feather grown free”. Anju Makhija In “Sometimes it is a bird” writes of dark thoughts for the mind to battle as the concept of ‘home’ is becoming illusive. “Why then/ Must we still remain/ So human?” Ayaz Rasool Nazki is “In Search”  “of my home/ in the rubble/ Of memories/ Among the debris / Of time”. Thus he makes it clear that ‘home’ is an idea, a social construct, a narrative we tell ourselves about who we are and who and what we want closest in our midst. In “This Dark House” Basudhara Roy further explicates this idea. She writes that there is no place like home because home is not a place. “The house looks different all the time, they whisper. / I tell them it is growing steadily each day. / They are bewildered”.

     “Home could be a place with no walls; a place of unimaginable horror, a room without a view or emptiness without belonging”. This is echoed by Candice Louisa Daquin “but when night pulls her skirts down and darkness envelops/ the quiet, I wonder how/ anyone survives/ a home without/ you”. In “Elegy on the Way Home” Dustin Pickering writes about a sense of alienation and purposelessness, thus providing us with an alternative concept of ‘home’, “after the initial shock of the fall,/ i looked where i landed/ but,/ like Icarus,/ I was alone to suffer my fear…” “Dasvidaniya” in the Russian language means ‘until (the next) meeting”. Gayatri Majumdar goes down the memory lane “ Remember the forked-tongue propaganda/ at home those days?—Hissing static blue 45 rpms-/ while Soviet clouds, gorgeous folk dancers/ floating about our rooms; Span, Vogue from America?” and brings a chunk of the yester years in an evocative manner. Perhaps the entire idea of ‘home’ is metamorphosed. Nostalgia casts a spell as one reads Gopal Lahiri’s “One Evening” where “in break of day, at least one evening you feel/ home is only a white pillow, a murphy radio,/ an old wall-clock and those blue white rubber slippers”. Thus the poet has interpreted the theme of ‘home’ in a variety of ways including the physical characteristics.

      Jagari Mukherjee has an altogether different take on ‘home’. “My room is a poem/ written in a garbage can./ My double-bed is a library/ of books and handmade diaries/ that have stone-embedded magic covers”. The city of Bombay has ensnared Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca as she feels the pulse of the city every day : “This is the city that haunts me day and night/ This is the city of darkness and light. / This is the city with the octopus arms/ It has me ensnared forever with all its charms!” A pair of birds find a home in an empty house while the rightful owners were away “just a week”. Once the owners came in the bird couple gave them “jaded looks/ Like old men at a village chaupal”, Lina Krishnan thus weaves a story in “Bulbul”. Megha Sood on the other hand has “called many places home/ I have yet to make one though” (“I have called many places home”). Raja Chakraborty’s “Whitewash” is a layered, cerebral exploration of the concept of ‘home’. “Only memories knew it was a place where they/ could forget themselves, in quiet arrogance of a / whitewashed past”.

     “Yet, it can always be argued that Home is not always a sanctuary of hopes and dreams, an abode for peace and tranquility,” as echoed in Robin Ngangom’s “My Invented Land” where he writes, “My home is a gun/ pressed against both temples/ a knock on a night that has not ended”. “With constant reminders to stay home since the pandemic hit this planet nearly two years ago” this volume delves deeper into the very concept of what constitutes a home. Sanjeev Sethi’s “Home Truth” is a reminder of the dark eerie days of Covid-19, “when I realize there is no call, no email. / C-19 hasn’t revived us. / The whirligig of wooing is behind me. / I’m home-bound”. As one reads Sekhar Banerjee’s “In a Gooseberry Forest”, “Now I don’t know who is lost./ It might be you, / the moon or all of us; / Home is never a mutual world’; one understands that ‘home’ is perhaps more than a physical domain, it is a psychological/imaginary concept. Sharmila Ray writes, “home” is a manuscript framed, beaten out of/ love spent and unspent…” Thus these modernist poems with their unique identities and idiosyncrasies look at ‘home’ through an up-to-date lens.

      In “The Houses of Nattalam” Sonia Nair plays with the old memories that are in sync with the form of the poem that is peppered with idyllic breaks, the skillful maneuvering of the village (Nattalam) conjures up a remarkable verisimilitude with the real ‘home’ which of course, is instrumental in stirring the emotions of the readers.  The concept of ‘home’ is beyond ‘home’ as envisaged by “the homeless duo on/ the pavement, under a broken/ awning, / claim the open sky and earth as the/ original home” in Sunil Sharma’s “An Unacknowledged Cell…And Freedom Reclaimed”. For Vinita Agarwal “Home is a crusade” and “good to believe in/ good to lean on/ good to bleed into, every single day” (“I have Five Homes”). . The Home Anthology is thus a seminal work on the ‘concept of home’. The editors deserve all praise for putting together the myriad hues that are kneaded into one haven and one heaven called ‘home’. The cover design by Kavita Dutta and the subtle illustrations on each page speaks volumes.

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Setu, October 2022