Three Poems by Proiti Seal Acharya
The sunlight falls like a baby
Walking for the first time-
The open sky watches patiently.
It knows of what is to come.
Day: January 26, 2023
Vermilion – Shahriar Shaams
“My family wanted to let the Man-eater out, even Ma, whose scars, dark red and wrinkled
mountain ranges of horror, ran straight across her stomach like train tracks.” ~ Shahriar Shaams weaves fantasy into realism in this poignant and powerful story.
“I’d just rather stuff birds”: Taxidermy and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho – Subarna Mondal
“Alfred Hitchcock, well-known for his fascination of filming fear, never uses overtly grotesque bodies to represent horror on screen. He manages to bring out the grotesque in ordinary bodies.”
~ Subarna Mondal’s insightful study of Psycho, through the lens of taxidermy, exploring the age-old discourse of destruction and preservation in the master’s work.
Hummingbird – Kamalini Natesan
“Her lies sound beautiful.” Miga was talking to herself, again.
~ Kamalini Natesan writes a twisted tale of love, loss, and inevitable grief.
Scattered Notes from Purab – Somok Roy
“Reba Muhury sings a thumri in raga Mishra Bilawal, Bajawa re bar bar baje. We hear an elderly voice against the drone of the tanpura, and no other instrument.” ~ Somok Roy explores the heart and history of the timeless music of Reba Muhuri.
The Night It Happened – Nadeem Zaman
“Humans are by nature seekers. Our minds require explanations to things we discover or uncover that fall outside our comprehension. Miracles and mysteries entertain us but ultimately, we crave, we demand, logic.” ~ Nadeem Zaman’s story blurs the lines between a lost friendship and a lost country.
India in Translation: Stories from a Land of Many Tongues – Varsha Tiwary
“In a world, where forces much-much larger than our puny selves, have a stake in the multi-crore enterprise of building reality-shaping narratives; the one act of resistance left to the individual is of never letting go of the right and the duty of connecting the zig-zag line from lived experience to felt reality.” – Varsha Tiwary writes a spirited and honest account of re-discovering her mother tongue in literature.