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Paris in the rain
Saturday, January 10, 2015, I was to be in Paris for the day to meet poet and translator Marilyn Hacker. I had many questions about her experience with the ghazal and ghazal poets; she was generous enough to offer her day to me. On Monday 5th I booked my tickets to travel by the Thalys…
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In Amsterdam
Some English ghazal’s really know how to say it: In Amsterdam.
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All Mine, Never Yours by Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
All Mine, Never Yours. “The trouble startedwhen I gave them a voiceand they started to speak.Mytitsmyassmycunt.” – Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
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Is my uneasiness nurtured or organic?
The past few weeks I have been toying with the idea of getting an e-reader. Many of the books I need for my research and some of the books I want to read are located in and sold from places where shipping and handling charges are way over the price of the books themselves. I…
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Going away – a visit to NIAS
Our team at work went for an offsite to NIAS in Wassenaar. I wrote a small feature on the outing. I am sharing a snippet (the one which Purab made me read out again): Autumn is an extraordinary season. The trees laden with orange, brown and red, shed their leaves. Ripe with the experiences of the…
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When I went to watch “The Hundred Foot Journey”
Has the study of literature made me lose the ability to enjoy an ordinary film? Has it? Has it? I went to watch “The Hundred Foot Journey”. The film promised the agreeable mingling of food and diaspora. Purab laughed, “Are you watching the diaspakoda?” I wanted the movie to move me. It had Om…
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In which I speak about “Call Me Ishmael Tonight”
SSASA 12 – “What is one piece of American Literature that shaped you?”
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Around – Ghazal
The rhythmic clinking of her bangles, rotis piling around Nagarjun’s pink bangles, wheels spinning around The smell of evening flowers lingers in the air You are saying something but no one is listening around Drink, after drink, roving eyes, hands, mouths All the misters in a desi party leering around A sweet little lie on the…
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Unpacking Salzburg Global Seminar
My trip to Salzburg to participate in the Salzburg Global Seminar’s twelfth session “Defining America: New Writing, New Voices, New Directions” at the beautiful Schloss Leopoldskron comprised of many profound moments of learning. At our Graduation Dinner in St. Stephen’s College, way back in 1999, my happy batch-mate Siddarth Correya had said that his learning in college had…
