He uses examples to illustrate how the ‘limitations’ of Urdu poetry described in those histories did not give any sense of the literary or cultural histories of these forms.
It is widely believed, not too erroneously, that Urdu poetry, since its inception, has been narrating tantalizing tales of unrequited love, rejoicing in pain and spiritual sublimity in an evocative idiom. It seeks to juxtapose individual feelings of desolation and deprivation
Peter Friedlander’s Kabir Poems in Transformation is a convergence of poetics, history and politics of translation and reception of Kabir in the last four hundred years.
2023
With her latest novelistic offering, Trin Dhari Ot she makes a significant literary intervention in the mythical, feminist and creative thought space of India. It is a retelling of Sita’s tale mediated through a reformist-womanist gaze, fortified by historicism, cultural politics and contemporary contemplations.
This is the second of the powerful trilogy of novels by Manoranjan Byapari. It tells the story of Jibon, the central character whose desperate struggle for survival forms the basis of the plot and interconnecting narration spanning all three novels. The Runaway Boy, published in 2020
By Jyotirindra Mohan Joardar. Translated from the original Odia memoir Manua by Himansu S. Mohapatra and Paul St-Pierre
Following My Heart is published by Dhauli Books—a cherished homegrown publishing house known for nurturing and supporting local literary initiatives. It is befitting that Joardar’s Manua, deeply entrenched in the vivid tapestry of the sights and sounds of Cuttack, should find a place for its English avatar in Dhauli Books.
Varavara Rao: A Life in Poetry—Is it a life in Poetry or A Livewire of Poetry? ‘Livewire is Better than a Poet’ is the title of an early poem and ‘Birds like my urge for freedom/ Waiting on the power line’ are lines from another poem titled ‘Companion’.
2023
Enoch’s Ananta Jeevanam describes the life of Anantpur city caught in incessant rains in a drought-prone region. He portrays how the lives of the people of the town were overwhelmed by the devastating downpour. The book reminds one of James Joyce whose work Dubliners captured the essence of Dublin. It also unearths stories of the unwept and the unsung many, along with the fortunes of the feudal family of Nelagallu Zamindar.
While raising her concerns over calculated cultural coercion and divisive politics, Maninder Sidhu presents Sahgal as a crusader whose literary writings caution against the thinly disguised hegemonic practices to dismantle the social-cultural fabric of India.
The novel is premised on the inner lives of three eponymous and devoted women on the Coromandel Coast during British imperialism. Their intertwined lives along the Coromandel coast aim to recover and reframe the personal and public lives of women in the subcontinent, especially during the British colonial period.
2023
Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much. To stop writing would kill me. I’d never be able to walk through a bookstore without fingering the spines with longing, wondering at the lengthy editorial process that got these titles here and reminiscing about my own.
At one point in Rimli Sengupta’s debut novel A Lost People’s Archive (2023) the ghost of the novel’s protagonist Shishu laments that Indians never kept archives unlike Romans and Chinese
2023
Mallika’s memory loss of three days. From there on we are led on a voyage of perspectives, and each of them showcases the richness of the inner lives of these characters.
Arefa Tehsin’s work of fiction The Witch in the Peepul Tree gives a peek into the myriad changes unfolding in the nation through the lives of the people in Dada Bhai’s house.
2022
The poetry here is not in-your-face. Its intention is not to shout out, convert or proclaim; never wanting to draw attention to its intense gaze and its whispered yet assertive commenting voice.
This is a collection I have enjoyed reading.
As India celebrates its 75th year of Independence, Indian English poetry enters into its most robust and refulgent phase. Hitherto derided as a derivative discourse, imagined and expressed in a language which is not just alien but is patently colonial, Indian English poetry announces its ‘freedom’ from such insidious denunciations.
Like the scraps of a quilt, the poet Indu K Mallah stitches the pieces of fabric together with the invisible thread of warmth and empathy in her slim volume of poems.
The narrative describes Phalke as a versatile personality, whose ‘tenacity’ brings the Indian filmmaking industry to where it is today.
This book is a collection of essays in honour of Professor Krishna Kumar, doyen in the education world in India, by his former students and colleagues. The Department of Education (or the Central Institute of Education (CIE), as it is more popularly known) is the premier Department for Education Studies in India including the professional courses of B.Ed. and M.Ed, in its academic programmes.
Anurag Behar has a rich experience in the field of education in working with Azim Premji Foundation and travelling extensively at the grassroots level. Like others who have worked in the field, he points out quite rightly, good education is in the end, ‘A Matter of the Heart’.