

Always in rapt attention, they watch us
Wall Street was set up at insider desks.
Gandhi too had to fight a roundtable
The table at supper foresaw the kiss,
The Grail, the alchemy of a grapevine,
Victors and victims, peace and the ping-pong;
Look at Watermelons
an eyeball
a solid face.
***
Watermelons
and juicy
like you and me
***
Watermelons
dolls
water colour
***
Watermelons
models
casual wear
***
A watermelon
a real green
beauty queen
This Christmas and After (2016-17)
think of the trees
in the storm here,
after Nature
belong to, never own?
Who’ll
think of the birds,
nests and young ones,
abandoned,
without rights?
Who’ll
think of the grief
December deluge,
to Earth’s distress
the mindless rat race?
Who’ll
think of the past,
bloody habits,
with the crooks
up our planet?
Who’ll
think of the youth
to hate, crime and war,
difference and
up a world that cares?
Who’ll
think of rivers, hills,
close to the soil,
and sunshine
that sustain?
Who’ll
think of others
belong to us
to somebody
their right to be?
Who’ll
think of the loved ones
take for granted,
we got lucky, so
them for the grace?
The Thing
thing that’s nothing
anything but a thing
the real thing.
Rapprochement of Cultures
iii.
Hermann Hesse: Revolt and Enlightenment | |
Hermann Hessse (1877–1962), whose birth anniversary we mark on 2 July, was born into a German Protestant missionary family which had worked particularly in India. His mother was born in India, and his maternal grandfather had translated Christian scriptures into Indian languages and later in his life developed a German- Indian languages dictionary. His father had also been a Protestant missionary in India, but by the time Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 had returned to Germany to the Black Forest area where he founded a small publishing house to publish Protestant books. Hermann’s father thought that he should follow the pattern of both sides of his family, become a Protestant minister and perhaps go and preach in Asia.
![]() He first thought of becoming a painter and then decided to be a novelist while earning his living in odd jobs, his father having cut off all financial support. In the years prior to the First World War, he wrote a number of novels in the romantic style of the time. He started to earn money from his writing and editing. In 1911, he went to India but not to convert Indians to Christianity but to learn about Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese philosophy. Hesse’s Indian experience set the stage for his awareness that true freedom must be an inner one.
The outbreak of the First World War had a heavy negative impact on Hermann Hesse, a pacifist who believed that an avenue to peace was to build bridges between cultures. As he was already living in Bern, Switzerland, he refused to return to Germany for war service. He lost his earlier popularity among German readers who were, for the most part, caught up in the war spirit. He was denounced in the press as”a viper nourished at the breast of an unsuspecting audience.” By 1916, his marriage and family fell apart, and he was under great mental strain, his wife confined to a mental institution and his son seriously ill.
Thus, in 1916-1917 he undertook a psychoanalysis supervised by C.G. Jung. Through Jungian psychoanalysis he developed the idea of a correspondence between an inner state of being and its expression in the outer world. The war was not only raging on the battlefield but also within the spirit of a generation whose values had collapsed. He wrote Demian in 1917. His hero says “The world wants to renew itself. There is a smell of death in the air. Nothing can be born without first dying”. Demian dies on a Flanders battlefield unable to develop a new system of values. The book was taken up by youth in the years following the end of the war when many came to wonder if the outcome was worth the sacrifices.
Rebellion against established structures, the quest for personal values and a religious impulse are all elements in Siddhartha, published in 1922, perhaps his most widely-read book. Hesse reworks the early quest of the Buddha into a life-long process. In the novel, Siddhartha, son of a Brahman, has been brought up a faithful observer of his father’s religion. At 18, deciding that he cannot find true fulfillment in conventional Hinduism, he sets out in search of an even more austere religion. Three years of asceticism brings him to the realization that extreme and exclusive concentration on the spirit cuts him off from the world of nature and thus takes him even further from the harmony he seeks.
In a reversal, he devotes himself for 20 years to a life of the senses, becoming a successful merchant and finding sensual love. However, he understands that a life of matter has brought him no closer to tranquility. Thus he abandons his wife and his possessions. He spends 20 years as a ferryman on a river. He listens to the whisperings of the water and in the company of a sage, he achieves a harmony of being. As Hesse writes “From that hour, Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny. There shone on his face the serenity of knowledge of one who is no longer confronted with the conflict of desires, who has found salvation, who is in harmony with the stream of events, with the stream of life, full of sympathy and compassion, surrendering himself to the stream, belonging to the unity of all things.”
It is not clear that Hesse found the harmony of enlightenment in his own life. In his last major work The Glass Bead Game (1943) he describes what might be an ideal Buddhist monastery devoted to the discovery, preservation and dissemination of knowledge. The chief monk leaves and goes out into the world where he quickly dies. Hesse stresses his faith in a society that treasures the traditions and culture of the past while remaining open to the future. This is the Middle Way, the core value of the Buddhist view of Enlightenment.
|
Poonam Mulchandani 3 poems
Fairytales
Is this what fairy tales are made of?
Of long nights under the flowers?
Or tall trees covered with stars?
Of cabins in the woods?
Or of the last drag that I took?
Of my heart wrapped in wool?
Or of the moon that spun so full?
Of the love that I escape from?
Or of the joy that I grow on?
Of the legends of Mohicans?
Or untold stories of the Indians?
Of the sweet sound of freedom?
Or of the ripples in the lily pond?
Of strings that strum my pain?
Or the warning of the rain?
Of the mystery that I await?
Or is it just a picture that I create?
Is this what fairy tales are made of?
To be lost in which
from the frost
infant
engine
never been
v.
Elizabeth Cherian 6 poems/4 paintings
One day after I woke up
This caused friends some heartache and grief
![]() ![]() |
Red Pan-1 – Elizabeth Cherian |
![]() ![]() |
Red Pan-2 – Elizabeth Cherian |
Red Pan 2
Baya Weaver
![]() ![]() |
Great Bear – Elizabeth Cherian |
Great Bear
So we can fly high
When he’s out of his lair.
The Wooly necked Stork
the drudgery of day to day duty when the mind settles for some rest, the
oppressive bouts of morbid thoughts come back like a moribund psychological
novel. Inside the chest cavity the heart shrinks amidst the expanding emptiness
and then starts burning in loneliness. The footprints that have left my home
are indelible, but after some distance they are no more visible in the
moonlight that seems to have spread a gentle pale white shroud over them. My
memory keeps awake and awaiting for their knocking on the door, but I know the
last wish will always be to silence them, to wish them dead and buried, as in The Monkey’s
Paw. The mystery why they have left my home in the first place is
unanswerable. I do not like to blame them; they have their own understanding of
the situation. Only thing I know is that with every footprint going out of my
home my stature as a human being comes under doubt and test. There seems to be
a great leak somewhere in my being, like my leaking organs. The half brothers
of guilt and remorse go on playacting in the backstage with the famous Macbeth
lines ‘…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’.
of alienation in me. The winter solstice is a difficult time for me. The sun
goes far away over the Tropic of Capricorn. My Tropic of Cancer becomes
destitute of the sun and I am alienated from everything. More and more I find
myself sun-centric. With the sun I feel safe. Warmth and heat from the blazing
sun keep me naturally fit. Summer fuses me into oneness with nature and I feel
myself like being Pan. The summer solstice is the time of abundant energy and
joy. I like to breathe the hot air, bathe in the hot air and cool in the hot
air with sweat. Then rain comes like a climax with the fulfillment and bliss of
orgasm. Raindrops fall on every pore of my skin and make my body hair dance
like peacock with life. Winter is backward, mechanical and joyless. The soul,
like metal, expands in summer; in winter it shrinks and freezes. Winter is
oppression and bondage. Summer is liberation and rain is its blessing. With the
fecundity of summer I perceive; with the barrenness of winter I create.
something is breaking
earth
tectonic plates are breaking
something is breaking
galaxy
hole is preventing
a new star
something is breaking
dissipates
chronic hate mauls
frame of a volcano
tears down
of hearts
of confusion
prevails
darkness
burning
of broken images
light of release from fear
recovery of faith
beauty and power
soul
and light.
vii.
Abishake Koul 4 poems
Songs from
the Past
can feel the gentle wind
the nagging chill
I walk barefoot
sand is everywhere
it doesn’t cling
rustling of leaves
the waves along the shore
me down
amidst the ruckus
sometimes wish
can go back
those innocent times
up as an elderly
pen resting in my diary
the shady trees
a cushion
the green grass
my thoughts soar
remember the face
smile and the eyes
boy who sold lemonade
library by a corner
seat for an elderly
reserved, always waiting
guy who sold momos
free soup tasted better
winters were a delight
of mindful aberrations
glances on mirrors
without a care
walks, long talks
future and growing old
receptive to nature
powers and sanctity
were certain beliefs
even bigger dreams
I still search
that smiling face
the earthly shade
I turn the smelly pages
my old diary
simple valiant past
its songs unwritten
behind in crevices
an elderly brain
I got the part,
I didn’t sing too well,
The song was lengthy,
And they were all gonna watch it.The music stripped me bare at times,
A feeling so overwhelming,
That I forget about time,
The pace was set too fast.
I have been playing the role far too long now,
The words don’t mean the same anymore,
The silent trumpet letting out a cry at times,
Some days I don’t look at mirrors.
I tried to run away once,
My bags were always packed,
And a list to manage contents,
Perks of living out of boxes.
There was a romantic in the play,
A die hard blue eyed lover,
Never trimmed his mustache,
The role never let him.
He sometimes cried at night,
And then went for a smoke,
I never asked him why,
He never shared.
Maybe it was he never found love,
Not even in lively retreats,
Of tents and canvasses,
Living reel in real.
Do I even know
you?
Cinderella asked,
Sitting with poise,
On a starry night.Her eyes shining,
Like white diamonds,
And a smile that would,
Make stars shoot & fly.
Beautiful,
No need to even ask,
So, the fool said no,
To dream another time.
dead Girl & a Boatman
and keeps climbing up a trail on the mountain side,
He tells about his past demons up there which antagonize him,
His nightmares keep him busy as does the daily uphill grind,
Too much labor seeping through, drowning the music and time.They kept calling the girl, the one already long dead,
They wanted to keep their promises made over guilt,
A blue old place ready to be rented, the doors open,
They feared that wrath of Gods hadn’t been felt in a long time.
The boatman kept waiting, the long call of sea always came,
Rowing was a means to wash sins, hollowed and diabolical,
Telling legends to little kids and secretly blessing couples,
He rowed faster when he carried priests across the bay.
viii.
Sneha S poem
Barnali Ray Shukla film
Musings & Reflections on Satyajit Ray’s iconic ‘Feluda’




Right from the illustrious Soumitra Chatterjee to the current favourite, Abir Chatterjee.
This documentary, Feluda—50 Years Of Ray’s Detective, premiered in the United States at the New York Indian Film Festival 2017 on May 2, which happens to be Mr Satyajit Ray’s birthday.(Barnali Ray Shukla’s article originally appeared on Flickside – published in brown critique with permission)
book news
x.
Steffen Horstmann
Jalsaghar
- Publisher: Partridge Publishing India (2016)
For more on Steffen and his work, please check his site http://www.steffenhorstmann.com/
xi.
Goirick Brahmachari
Joining the Dots


Nivasini Publishers
Gayatri Lakhiani
Invisible Eye


a collection of 45 poems. The poems are a mélange of emotions: loss of
Homeland, Sind and roots find a centre place in the poems. These originate from
childhood stories reiterated by the poet’s father who was born in Karachi, Sind
Undivided India. Isolation, distances, voyages of the mind are some of the
other themes interwoven in the poems. The poems wear happy and sad Greek masks
depicting life in its candid form; exploring newness and staleness of
relationships, nostalgia of places, and stillness of moments captured in
frames. Colours in their unique hues diffuse the poems with shades of desire
and delusion treading on unknown paths.
Gayatri Lakhiani Chawla was born in Mumbai she educated at Narsee Monjee
College of Commerce and Economics and did her Masters in Commerce from Mumbai
University. She received her Degree from Alliance Française de Bombay and an
International Diploma in Teaching from University of Cambridge. A poet,
freelancer and French teacher her poems have been published in periodicals
like The American Poetry Anthology, The Indian P.E.N., The Brown
Critique, The Journal of the Poetry Society (India), The Brown Boat, Taj Mahal
Review, Pea River Journal and Open Road Review. Her poem
“Anagram” won the 2013 Commendation Prize at ‘The All India Poetry
Competition (New Delhi, India).
Publisher: Authorspress; Ist Edition edition (2016)
Paperback: 60 pages
xiii.
Mihir Chitre
Hyphenated
A moment. An era. A space. Chitre through his poems manages to give us a glimpse of the fissures that are created by time. The first section compels the reader to come out of their comfort zone. It is the description of Bombay or Mumbai as we now call it. The poems are not a sweeping statement on the city but are an acute observation of people and the place.
The book begins with a poem on the school – the elephant in the room – the sexuality, the repression, the frustration, the anger, the abuse; towards the end of the poem, the poet writes:
has dismantled
into disorder
xiv.
Adil Jussawalla
Gulestan


The interpretation of Gulestan is helped by introductory and closing notes informing the reader that the poem was begun during the 2006 attack on Mumbai, when Jussawalla was turning 70, and that the concluding words of the poem constitute “the first of the one hundred and one names of God in Zoroastrian scripture”. This is a poem about the disenchantment of ageing, loss of belief and fear of approaching death, coinciding with the murderous attack on the city where Jussawalla lives and has long been at home.
Publisher: Poetrywala
Publication Year: 2017
xv.
Benrali
Gardens Without End
Explorations and quests are usually written about discoveries of unknown lands, treasures, stars and medicines. But artists are explorers too! When you enter Gardens Without End, you are at the center of a crossroad of several cultures. The combination of naturalist, surrealist, fantasy and children’s book styles with the usage of a ghazal, an Indo-Arabic form of poetry written in rhyming couplets makes Gardens Without End a truly unique artist exploration.
This is the 2nd book of a 2 part series that includes earlier etchings, drawings and the artist’s process but still weaves in the original story : An artist has a dream where a key is found in the pattern of a box turtle’s shell. In a daydream he wonders what the meaning of the key is? He wonders if one of the Earth’s oldest inhabitants, the tortoise, could dream how far back could they dream? With rich pen and ink drawings, etchings and watercolor illustrations, these musings lead Benrali to make his own discovery; A Garden Without End.
You can read the free version of Gardens Without Ends here.
xvi.
Chandramohan S.
Letters to Namdeo Dhasal


I write poems – people have the right to bear arms.’ (‘Write Poetry’)
Chandramohan S’s second collection of poems titled Letters to Namdeo Dhasal released in Delhi stands proof to his Dalit aesthetics.
Why does he writes poems? Chandramohan answers: ‘I write poems-People have the right to bear arms’ (‘Write Poetry’). Language and the caste ‘hymens’ are his major concerns as he knows language is hijacked for ideological purposes. ‘The adjectives were abandoned/suffixes and prefixes scrambled/Vowels lynched and hung upside down/epithets beheaded’ (‘Occupied Language’). He proudly says: “This poem is not pimple free/is printed on rough paper.’ (‘Plus Size Poem’). There is an urgency to evoke, there is an anger to protest and there is sarcasm to irritate in his poems.
Publisher: desirepaths Publishers; First Edition edition (2016)
Paperback: 67 pages
traditional publishing and
the new wave of self-publishing
been working with established and emerging authors, providing guidance and an
individual specialized approach to maximize publication distribution and
exposure in the marketplace.
highly effective marketing campaign leveraging social media and other web
outreach channels, focusing on the publications desired audience.
Titles published by Sun Publishing
(www.sunpublish.com)
Beyond Milestones — A Journey Through Life
Surinder
Rametra & Akash Wasil
Pastoral Pang Yet Hangs
(A collection of poems from the Land of the Himalayas – Nepal)


Majhe Nadee (The River in Between) was originally written in English. This story
is a dramatic telling of events revolving around the life of a young woman
named Mira in 1960’s suburban Calcutta. It begins with a bride-viewing ceremony
for her best friend, where she meets a man named Kirit. Kirit, who belongs to a
higher caste, is expected to marry a woman of similar standing and fortune. But
he falls in love with Mira. They marry despite the vociferous objections of his
mother. Mira moves into her husband’s house, where she is despised by her
mother-in-law but finds an ally in Sangita, the wife of Kirit’s older
brother. After seven months of marriage, Kirit dies in an accident. As
Kirit belonged to the Brahmin caste, Mira’s childless widowhood marks the beginning
of her life as a ghost; considered bad luck, family members shun even her
shadow . . .
xviii.
The Reader’s Critique
Readers’ Critique is a literary review blog for every accomplished and aspiring author and for everyone who is an enthusiast and enjoys reading.
It offers an excellent platform and an opportunity to all to delve into the world of literature and that of literary review and criticism.
It invites all those with an acumen for critical reviewing and with a wit that may be snarling, those who can offer intriguing and thought-provoking articles for exciting and arousing every readers’ interest and mind, thus starting a new thought process.
Readers’ Critique also invites everyone from accomplished and aspiring authors to editors, publishers to printers and reading enthusiasts to be our members to avail literary and monetary benefits.
Find us here: http://www.readerscritique.com/
xix.
Women’s History month events
Poetic Justice: A Poetry Get-together
In celebration of Women’s History Month, Dosti House at the U.S. Consulate Mumbai and WE (Women Empowered India) brought “Poetic Justice”, a poetry get-together with sessions moderated by poets Arundhati Subramaniam, Sudeep Sen, Bina Sarkar Ellias and led by Shuchi Mehta.
xx.
Pune International Centre is a place where, in an intellectually stimulating and peaceful environment, enlightened discussions and debates can be held about the future of this great city, of this great nation – and indeed the world.
“Bhakti: Many Voices, Many Ways”, brought together several of India’s most renowned and awarded poets/translators who presented their own English translations (as well as translations done by others) of India’s well known bhakti poets. They also discussed the strength and significance of bhakti poetry in its many forms in India. The event took place on Sunday, 2 April 2017 in Pune in between.
contributors
Consultant as well as a writer in English and translator. Allied Publishers, Mumbai
brought out his book of poems, Brooding in a Wound in 2001. His English translations
of O.N.V. Kurup’s Malayalam poems are included in Gestures: An Anthology of South
Asian Poetry edited by K. Satchidanandan, 1996 and This Ancient Lyre (Selected
Poems by ONV Kurup) edited by A. J. Thomas, 2005, both published by Sahitya Akademi,
New Delhi. He has also published critical studies and cultural features, some of
which have been anthologized. He was the publisher and an
associate editor of Poiesis, a journal of the Poetry Circle, Mumbai. A Ph.D. in English, he taught
at A. Vartak College, Vasai Road near Mumbai, at the University of Mumbai, and at
Loyola College (Autonomous), Chennai. An Exam Consultant with IDP-IELTS
Australia, he was also a guest faculty at the Department of Humanities & Social
Sciences, IIT Madras. Currently he is working on
Uneven Haikus, an English translation of the late Malayalam poet Kunhunni’s
collection of poems. The draft of his critical study, The Secular Aesthetics: An Indian
Model is also ready for peer review. He lives in Chennai with his
wife, Dr Usha Antony, daughter, Nithila, and her grandpa, Mr B. Antony. [email protected]
Poonam Mulchandani is an architect based out of Auroville. This is how she describes herself: I’m just a curious mind trying to absorb and process the sense of this wonderful world we live in. Writing transports me through this adventure openly. Come journey with me.
Elizabeth Cherian studied Visual Communication at the NID, Ahmedabad, and has worked with various corporates and NGOs over the last 30 years. Currently based in Goa, she also practices reflexology.
Bishnupada Ray is an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Bengal. His poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies. He won a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2009. His latest book of poetry Fox Land and Selected Poems was published in 2016 by the Brown Critique.
An awardee of the prestigious GREAT scholarship, Sneha Subramanian Kanta reads for her second postgraduate degree in England. She is the recipient of the Alfaaz (Kalaage) prize for her poem ‘At Dusk With the Gods’ and the co-founder of Parentheses Journal, a literary initiative that operates across hybrid spheres. Her work is forthcoming in Rise Up Review, Bindweed Magazine, Wild Women’s Medicine Circle and elsewhere.
custom coursework writing service
[url=”https://brainycoursework.com”]buy coursework online[/url]
online coursework
custom coursework writing service
[url=”https://brainycoursework.com”]coursework writing service uk[/url]
coursework in english
kamagra shipping Both restrictive and liberal guidelines are practiced 1, 2, 3
com 20 E2 AD 90 20Viagra 20Super 20Active 20Avis 20 20Principio 20Activo 20Viagra principio activo viagra It is crucial that the church fully and openly co operates with the ongoing police investigation and passes on any and all relevant information it may have relating to any allegations of abuse at these schools cheap lasix
viagra effects on men Call osage county his similar reality