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Borderless, December 2020

Festive Greetings!

Interviews

In Conversation with Aruna Chakravarti

Sahitya Akademi Award winning translator and writer, Dr Aruna Chakravarti reflects on her journey as a writer. Click here to read.

‘He made History stand still on his Pages’

An interview about an eminent screenwriter and author who has had yet another anthology of translated stories, Mistress of Melodies, just been published, Nabendu Ghosh. His daughter, senior journalist Ratnottama Sengupta unfolds stories about her father. Click here to read.

Stories

The Literary Fictionist

Monalisa No Longer Smiles Here by Sunil Sharma is a poignant story of child labour in India. Click here to read.

I Grew into a Flute

Balochi Folktale involving magic retold by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

Ghumi Stories: The Tower of Babble

Nabanita Sengupta delves into relocation and its impacts. Click here to read.

The Initiation

Gauri Mishra explores the unusual desires of a young girl. Click here to read.

Flash Fiction: Happily Ever After

Sohana Manzoor explores the myth of happily ever after with three short & gripping narratives set in modern urban Bangladesh. Click here to read.

Musings

Musings of a Copywriter

In Pray to Win, Devraj Singh Kalsi gives an entertaining account of Tumpji pujas across India during the US elections. Click here to read

Time and Us

Anasuya Bhar takes us through 2020 — what kind of a year has it been? Click here to read.

Happy Hanukkah!

Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca tells us about the ancient Jewish festival of Hanukkah with its origins in the early BCEs and the Seleucid Empire. Click here to read.

There’s an Eternal Summer in a Grateful Heart

Sangeetha Amarnath Kamath brings a Singaporean School to our doorstep with a sentimental recount of her experience at relief teaching. Click here to read.

Essays

US Polls: What should We Celebrate?

Candice Louisa Daquin, a senior editor by profession, reflects on the US Poll results. Click here to read.

Hold the roast turkey please Santa !

Celebrating the festive season off-season with Keith Lyons from New Zealand, where summer solstice and Christmas fall around the same time. Click here to read.

The Lost Art of Doing Nothing or the Pursuit of Wasting Time

Anwesha Paul explores the pace of our lives and the concept of FOMO in context of today’s race towards ‘doing’. Click here to read.

Cinema Viewing: Zooming In & Zooming Out

Gita Viswanath and Nikhila H explore the how the world of moviegoers has changed with time and with COVID19. Click here to read

Cyber Nationalism: Can that be a reality?

Pratyusha Pramanik explores the impact of social media. Click here to read.

Role of Editors in News Media

Bhaskar Parichha explores how news is chosen selectively to sway public opinion. Click here to read.

Remembering Rokeya: Patriarchy, Politics, and Praxis

In this tribute, Azfar Hussain takes us on a journey into the world of Madam Rokeya who wrote more than a century ago in English, Urdu and Bengali. Her books talk of women, climate and issues related to patriarchy. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read

Michael R Burch, Anita Nahal, Sekhar Banerjee, Megha Sood, Jessie Michael, Y. Deepika, Ashok Suri, Anjali V Raj, Netra Hirani, Md Musharraf, Soma Debray, Jenny Middleton, Ihlwha Choi, Sangeeta Sharma, Sonya J Nair, Tom Merrill, Shakti Pada Mukhopadhyay

Humour

Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Sekhar Banerjee, Rhys Hughes

Translations

The Library by Tagore

A part of Bichitro Probondho (Strange Essays) by Rabindranath Tagoretranslated by Chaitali Sengupta from Netherlands. Click here to read

Lesya Bakun translates three of her own poems from Ukranian and Russian to English. Click here to read.

A Nepali poem for a nuclear war victim by Manjul Miteri, who is currently helping sculpt a Buddha in Japan, has been translated to English by Hem Bishwakarma. Click here to read

Poetry from Nepal by Nabin Pyassi, translated by Haris C Adhikari. Click here to read.

Poems from Armenia by Eduard Harents translated from Armenian by Harout Vartanian. Click here to read

Book Excerpt

No strings Attached: Writings on Odisha by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.

Reviews

The Brass Notebook: A Memoir is a recently penned autobiography by eminent economist Devaki Jain, written based on a suggestion made by Doris Lessings in 1958, with a forward by Amartya Sen and reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.

Nitoo Das’s Crowbite  has been reviewed bBasudhara Roy. Click here to read.

On the first anniversary of a movement that seems to be a reaffirmation of democratic processes in a nation torn with angst, Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Shaheen Bagh and the Idea of India. Click here to read.

Rakhi Dalal reviews Mistress of Melodies by Nabendu Ghosh, translated stories edited by Ratnottama Sengupta, which not only bring to life history as cited in his Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Lifetime Achievement award but also highlights his ‘love for humanity’. Click here to read.

Sara’s Selections

December, 2020

A vivacious oeuvre presented by writers from Bookosmia. Click here to read.

Editorial

Festive Roundup

Mitali Chakravarty gives up a rounding up of 2020 on Borderless and a quick view of some of the content. Click here to read.

Categories
Contents

Borderless, November 2020

Translations

The Witch, a short story by renowned Bengali writer Tarasankar Bandopadhyay (1898 to 1971), translated by Aruna Chakravarti. Click here to read.

Doubt, A poem by award winning and popular poet Avaya Shrestha, translated from Nepali by Haris C Adhikari. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems:

John Grey, Nayonika, Scott Thomas Outlar, Pranjulaa Singh, Milan Mondal, Hema Ravi, Dr Piku Chowdhury, Kaikasi V .S., Kashiana Singh, Saranyan BV, Rhys Hughes, Robin Wyatt Dunn, Anita Nahal, Fizza Saeed, Gauri Mishra, Navneet K Maun, Adrian David, Gopal Lahiri, Smitha Vishwanath, Aminath Neena.

Humour

Rhy Hughes, Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Penny Wilkes

Musings

Musings of a Copywriter

Encounters with my Tenants by Devraj Singh Kalsi is a humorous take, almost a la Bollywood style, on what landlords face from aggressive tenants. Click here to read.

Of Cats, Classes, Work and Rest

Nishi Pulugurtha takes a look at lecturing classes in the past and the present with some gumballing kittens for distraction. Click here to read.

The Essential Pujo

Dr Anasuya Bhar takes us on a nostalgic journey of what was the spirit of the Durga puja — a community event. Click here to read.

Me and James Joyce in Trieste

Mike Smith makes a trip to Trieste to photograph himself with a favourite author… And then? Click here to read.

Blade of Grass: A Lesson Learnt

“Is this pandemic a pre-planned act of Nature? Is this outbreak to make us comprehend that human organism is not the most all-powerful species on Earth?” Click here to read DR D V Raghuvamsi’s musings.

Essays

Durga: Iconography, Discourse and Counter-Discourse

Arindam Roy discusses the evolution of the goddess at the intersection of history, politics and religion. Click here to read.

How a Dark Goddess Lights up a Fallen World

Dr Meenakshi Malhotra delves into the relevance, history and iconography of Kali as we draw nearer the date of Diwali and Kali Puja. Click here to read

Cancel Culture and Indian Intelligensia
Pratyusha Pramanik
, a researcher in Humanistic Studies, explores the impact of a desire to cancel out people from social media. Click here to read.

Stories

The Literary Fictionist

In the Shadow of the Nataraja: A Kinship takes the readers on a journey through Ellora, Rio de Janerio, Rome, Jerusalem and even Manchester United till Sunil Sharma  finds answers of a different kind. Click here to read.

The Silhouette

A gripping short story by Sohana Manzoor from Bangladesh. Click here to read.

Disconnected

Chaitali Sengupta explores the clash of cultures in a poignant telling. Click here to read

The Cartographer

Praniti Gulyani unravels the story of a birth during a riot. Click here to read.

Ghumi Stories: At Par in the Pandemic

Nabanita Sengupta explores the impact of COVID19 in the small town of Ghumi. Click here to read

Book Excerpt

The Birth of The Chronicler of the Hooghly by Shakti Ghosal takes us back to the start of a colonial Durga Puja. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Lastbench, anthologised protest poetry from America reviewed by Candice Louisa Daquin. Click here to read.

Prescription of Civilization by Wansoo Kim, poetry from Korea reviewed by Dustin Pickering. Click here to read.

A Plate of White Marble by Bani Basu, translated from Bengali to English by Nandini Guha, reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.

Interviews

Sunil Sharma, writer, academic, critic and editor of the online journal SETU, takes us on an exploration of his well known e magazine. Click here to read.

Aysha Baqir, a writer who has successfully empowered many underprivileged women in Pakistan, on her journey as a development personnel and novelist. Click here to read.

Sara’s Selections:

Our young people’s section hosted by Bookosmia. Click here to read.

Editorial

Hope in the Future. Click here to read…

Categories
Contents

Borderless October, 2020

Interviews

Teresa Rehman, an award-winning journalist, speaks of her journalistic journey. Click here to read.

Santosh Bakaya, an academic and writer who has written a book on Gandhi in verse, speaks of Gandhi and Gandhian beliefs. Click here to read.

Stories

The Literary Fictionist

Sunil Sharma travels through pages of a classic with ease and aplomb demystifying literary lore to unravel the identity of a man that never was in his story, In Search of Lewis Carroll. Click here to read.

Ghumi Stories: Table Tale

Nabanita Sengupta gives us a glimpse of life in a sleepy little town, long before social-distancing set in. Click here to read

When Bapu met MLK Jr…

Santosh Bakaya takes us on a journey among clouds and chirruping birds. Click here to read.

The God’s Choice Awards 2065

A spoof by Dustin Pickering. What happens when the President of America is woken out of cryogenic slumber in the year 2065? Click here to read.

Taxi Rides

What could a taxi and a fifty year old woman have in common? Click here to find out by reading Avijit Roy‘s story.

The Girl on the Train

A touching flash fiction by Mehak Nain. Click here to read.

Mysteries of the Night

A spooky flash fiction by Vandita Dharni… perfect for Halloween nights! Click here to read.

Musings

The Musings of a Copywriter

A Story of Attachments 

Devraj Singh Kalsi in his typical part humorous and poignant style travels down his memory lane. Click here to read

Bapu Walked Here

A thoughtful walk down the memory lane with the shades of Bapu influencing the author, Lina Krishnan. Click here to read.

Travels with Gandhi

Dr. Nishi Pulugurtha meanders through the passages of Aga Khan Palace in Pune, where Gandhi had been imprisoned, and wonders… Click here to read.

Essays

Gandhi — an enduring vision — and those spectacles

 Keith Lyons applauds the Mahatma from New Zealand. Click here to read.

Without Protest : On the meaning of Searching for Truth

Dustin Pickering applies Satyagraha to US protests after reading My Experiments with Truth. Click here to read.

‘If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable’

Rakhi Dalal says it all through this quotation of Martin Luther King Jr. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names of the poets to read

Dr Piku Chowdhury, Milan Mondal, Navneet K Maun, Dr Laksmisree Banerjee, Soumik De, Wansoo Kim, Shyamolima Saikia, Nabina Das, Ihlwha Choi, Eui Joong Kim, Nirmal Kumar Thapa, Aminath Neena, Ashok Suri, Gopal Lahiri

Vatsala Radhakeesoon

Book Excerpt

Rhys Hughes introduces us to the delights of doodling poetry in his new book with a name that I would not dare to pronounce, Corybantic Fulgours. Click here to see his creations.

Reviews

India Dissents: Edited by Ashok Vajpeyi, reviewed by Debraj Mookerjee who finds, ‘To read India Dissents is in a way therefore an attempt to try and rediscover India’s soul.’ Click here to read.

Gandhi & Aesthetics : Edited by Tridip Suhrud, the nine essays are a fitting tribute to the inventive beauty of Gandhiji and its wide-ranging applicability in present-day society… says reviewer Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.

Review of Santosh Bakaya’s Ballad of Bapu by Moinak Dutta. Click here to read.

Nivedita Sen‘s review of Sukumar Ray‘s Habber Jabber Law translated by Arunava Sinha. How non-nonsensical are the nonsense verses of Sukumar Ray and has it been lost in translation? Click here to read.

Translations

Abhagi’s Heaven, a poignant story by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay translated by Sahitya Akademi winner Aruna Chakravarti. Click here to read.

An Eternal Void, a Balochi story by Munir Ahmed Badini translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

From the conflict ridden state of Kashmir, Rayees Ahmed writes of hope and restoration of peace. He translates his own poem, Ab tak Toofan or The Storm that Rages, from Urdu to English. Click here to read.

An Entreaty written by Hem Bishwakarma, translated from Nepali by the poet himself. Click here to read

Ms Sara’s Selections

Our young people’s section hosted by Bookosmia. Click here to read.

Editorial

The Heart of Non-violence by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read

Categories
Contents

Borderless September, 2020

Interview

Agron Shele, founder of Atunis, discusses his blog and anthology. Click here to read.

Stories

The Literary Fictionist :

Sunil Sharma, our columnist for fiction, takes us on a strange journey through the backstreets of Mumbai in A Stranger in the City. Click here to read.

Ghumi Stories: A Night too Long

Ghumi is an imaginary township located in the Chhota Nagpur plateau of Bihar in India created by writer Nabanita Sengupta. This story journeys back to 1984, to the anti-Sikh riots that broke out after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Click here to read

How Blue is your Sapphire

Relive the terror of the 2008 Taj Mumbai attacks in this gripping nostalgic retelling by Bhavana Kunkalikar. Click here to read.

This Land of Ours

Shevlin Sebastian captures man’s relentless struggle against unsympathetic forces of nature. Click here to read.

Flash Fiction: The Carpet

What can be under a carpet? Niles M Reddick takes us on a journey of discovery in his amazing flash fiction. Click here to read.

Flash Fiction: Nameless

Bhumika R. explores a strange phenomenon in New Delhi. Click here to read.

Musings/Slice of Life

Musings of a Copywriter:

An Encounter With Snakes: Our non-fiction columnist, Devraj Singh Kalsi, amuses with his hilarious take on snakes and snake charmers in his home in a pre-COVID world. Click here to read.

Paper Trails

A nostalgic journey back into the past by Julian Matthews, set in Malaysia. Click here to read.

Lounging through Lucknow Lores

Nidhi Mishra takes us on a nostalgic journey through the syncretic elements of Lucknawi culture. Click here to read.

Vignettes of life: Unhurried at Haripur

Debraj Mookerjee journeys into the heart of rural Bengal. Click here to read.

The Corridors of the Mind

Anasuya Bhar journeys to her childhood recalling her experience of having an artists for a father. Click here to read.

Racism is not only an American Problem

Young Shivam Periwal shows how it seeps in large parts of the world outside. Click here to read.

Essays

What Use is It? Reading James Joyce in the 21st Century

Dustin Pickering argues that Joyce is what we need during this pandemic. Click here to read.

Republic of Rananim

An exploration of Utopian dreams by Sekhar Banerjee. Click here to read.

Cozies and Me: Adventures during the Pandemic

Soma Das takes us on a journey through a genre of books called cozies.

Poetry

Click on the names to read.

Geetha Ravichandran, adi (Adithya Patil), Sakshi Srivastava, Srijith Raha, Chaitali Sengupta, Amita Ray, Matthew James Friday, Navneet K Maun, Adrian David, A.Jessie Michael, Melissa A. Chappell, Roopam Mishra, Anjali V.Raj, Wansoo Kim, King Komrabai Dumbuya, Nishi Pulugurtha

Penny Wilkes, Saranayan BV, Sambhu R.

Limericks by Vandana Dharni

Book Excerpt

Notes of Silent Times by Mahesh Paudyal. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Love is not a word: The Culture and Politics of Desire, essays edited by Debotri Dhar. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris by Christopher Snedden. Click here to read.

Rakhi Dalal reviews Aysha Baqir’s Beyond the Fields. Click here to read.

Translations

Tagore’s Krishnokoli by translated by Rupa Chakravarti from Bengali to English. Click here to read

Sanket Mhatre‘s poems translated by Rochelle Potkar from Marathi to English. Click here to read.

Bina Theeng Tamang‘s poetry translated by Hem Bishwakaram from Nepali to English. Click here to read.

Aparajita Ghosh‘s story translated by Ratnottama Sengupta from Bengali to English. Click here to read.

Sara’s Selections

Click here to read writing of youngsters picked by Ms Sara.

Editorial

Dreams that Flow… Click here to read

Categories
Contents

Borderless, August 2020

Click on the names to read the articles

Special on Hiroshima Nuclear Blast’s 75 th Anniversary

Interview

With nuclear war survivor’s daughter, author Kathleen Burkinshaw

Book Review

Kathleen Burkinshaw’s The Last Cherry Blossom by Archana Mohan

Independence Day Specials 

Story

Tan Kaiyi  

Musings

Aysha Baqir

Nishi Pulugurtha

Poetry

Paresh Tiwari, Dr Lakshmisree Banerjee, Mossarap Khan, Ahmad Rayees, Gopal Lahiri

Humour

Limmericks

Click here to read

Poetry

Vatsala Radhakeesoon, Santosh Bakaya, Palak Tyagi, Rhys Hughes, Aditya Shankar, Sudeshna Mukherjee, Sunil Sharma, Dustin Pickering, Dr Piku Chowdhury, Dr Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, Saranyan BV

Stories

Gita Viswanath

Sudeshna Mukherjee

Sohana Manzoor

Slice of Life/ Musings

Devraj Singh Kalsi

Santosh Bakaya

Sohana Manzoor

More…

Poetry

Navneet K Mann, Gracy Samjetsabam, Dr Ajanta Paul, Goto Emmanuel, Prithvijeet Sinha, Shyamsree Maji, Pervin Saket, Andrée Roby, Anuradha Prasad, Kavita Ezekeil Mendonca, Melissa Chappell

Translation

Three poems translated by RaSh

Excerpt

John Beacham’s poems from his book, On the Pandemic, To the Rising.

Stories

KN Ganguli

Sunil Sharma

Vipin Nair

Jessie Michael

Supriya Rakesh

Book reviews 

Avik Chanda’s Dara Shukoh: The Man who would be King reviewed by Dr Meenakshi Malhotra

Dom Moraes’ Never At Home reviewed by Rakhi Dalal

Resonance: English Poetry from Odisha reviewed by Gopal Lahiri

Essays 

Avik Chanda 

Dustin Pickering

Bhaskar Parichha

Sara’s Selections

August 2020 — Click here to read

Editorial

Changes & Laughter by Mitali Chakravarty

Categories
Contents

Borderless, July 14th 2020

Click on the names to access the publication

Poetry

Mallika Bhaumik, KSheshu Babu, Sunil Sharma, Moinak Dutta, Ravi, Kiriti Sengupta, Dustin Pickering, Devangshu Dutta, Sekhar Banerjee, Jose Varghese, Sutputra Radheye, Tamoha Siddiqui, Viplob Pratik, Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, Lidia Chiarelli, Huguette Bertrand, John Grey, Pravat Kumar Padhy, Linda Imbler, Sanjhee Gianchandani, Sreedevi Anumula, Anasuya Bhar, Christopher Manners, Santosh Bakaya, J George, Aneek Chatterjee, Melissa A Chappell, A Jessie Michael, Zeenat Khan

Stories

Praniti Gulyani

Revathi Ganeshsundaram

Rakhi Pande

SanLinTun

Amita Ray

Nabanita Sengupta

Sunil Sharma

Sarwar Morshed

Book reviews

Naina Dey’s One Dozen Stories by Gopal Lahiri

Madhavi Menon’s A History of Desire in India by Bhaskar Parichha

Sameer Arshad Khatlani’s The Other Side of the Divide by Debraj Mookerjee

Dom Moraes’ My Son’s Father by Rakhi Dalal

Musings

Aysha Baqir

Ratnottama Sengupta

Devraj Singh Kalsi

Nishi Pulugurtha

Dr Ranapreet Gill 

Interviews 

Nidhi Mishra and Archana Mohan from Bookosmia

Binu Mathews, editor of Countercurrents.org

Uma Trilok , Poet & Author of Amrita Imroz, A Love story in conversation with Nalini Priyadarshni

Essays

Sohana Mazoor

Meenakshi Malhotra

Dustin Pickering

Ria Banerjee

Ratnottama Sengupta, 

Translations

Dr Haneef Shareef’s Thus Spake the Vagabond translated by Fazal Baloch

Chandra Gurrung’s My Father’s Face translated by Mahesh Paudyal

Sara’s Selections

July 2020 Click here to read

Editorial

A Paean for Equity by Mitali Chakravarty