Tag: Fakrul Alam

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Contents

Borderless, October 2026

Art by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

Stories, Spooks, AIs and More…Click here to read.

Translations

Nazrul’s ‘Aamar Shyamla Boron Bangla Mar Roop’ (The Dusky Beauty of My Mother Bengal) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Who can Blow Out the Sun?, a Balochi poem by Ghulam Hussain Shohaz, has been translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

Chapter 3 of Isa Kamari’s novel, The Throne, has been translated by the author from Malay. We will be running the whole novel as serial through the year. Click here to read.

Half-a-beat Behind, a poem, has been written by and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.

Pothik (Traveller), a poem by Tagore, has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

John Swain, Ananya S Guha, George Freek, Laila Brahmbhatt, Joseph C. Ogbonna, Ajeeti S, Anne Whitehouse, Ahaduzzaman M. Ali, Jenny Middleton, Jahnavi Gogoi, John Britten, Goutam Roy, Stephen House, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes

In Curtains for You, Rhys Hughes takes on the persona of a lovelorn curtain. Click here to read.

Musings/Slices from Life

Headwinds to Port Hedland

Meredith Stephens shares more sailing adventures around Australia with photographs by Alan Noble. Click here to read.

Watch your Words!

Jun A. Alindogan reflects on linguistic forays among people. Click here to read.

The Changing Face of Deolali

Saeed Ibrahim takes a nostalgic relook at a small hill station. Click here to read.

Luck and Life

Kuldip Raj Chopra muses on luck and life from a long-term perspective. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In Bedsheet Bedlam, Devraj Singh Kalsi takes us shopping for bedding with a sprinkling of humour. Click here to read.

Notes from Japan

In Art among the Fallen Leaves, Suzanne Kamata takes us on a fiesta of outdoor art in Japan. Click here to read.

Essays

Who can be the Modern Hero in the Age of AI?

Ravi Varmman K Kanniapan explores what values are needed while creating rules to survive with AI. Click here to read.

A Cyclist’s Diary: Ride through Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Farouk Gulsara cycles through the untamed landscape of Central Asia and shares his narrative and photographs from his trip. Click here to read.

Women Writers in Kazi Nazrul Islam’s ‘Dhumketu’

Niaz Zaman writes of Bengali women writers in Nazrul’s magazine in the last century. Click here on the link to read.

Stories

The Algorithms

Brindley Hallam Dennis explores a world run by algorithms. Click here to read.

Two Small Town Girls that Dressed Up for Wednesday

Jonathon Ferrini sprinkles a bit of magic to find hope. Click here to read.

Oasis

Sayan Sarkar shares a story set in Santiniketan. Click here to read.

The Oil-press Ox and the Ceremonial Bull

Naramsetti Umamaheswararao gives a fable set in Southern India. Click here to read.

Conversation

Keith Lyons converses with Dr Hannah Stevens, author of On the Bodies of Strangers and In their Absence. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

An excerpt from The Raj in Ghostly Light, edited by B.C.Dutt. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Janaki Ballav Patnaik: An Unfinished Memoir, translated from Odia by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Somdatta Mandal reviews Geetanjali Shree’s Once Elephants Lived Here: Stories, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell. Click here to read.

Rakhi Dalal reviews Teresa Rehman’s Her Hajj Story: Travel Diaries of Women Pilgrims from Assam. Click here to read.

Farah Imam reviews Raina/Rituparna Khan’s Her Story: Beyond Dimension. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Reetika Khera’s Freebies or Rights: Rethinking India’s Social Policy. Click here to read.

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Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Duotrope listing:https://duotrope.com/magazine/borderless-39488

Follow us on FB; Instagram  @borderless_journal

Published from Singapore, ISSN: 2737-4688.

Categories
Editorial

Stories, Spooks, AIs and More…

Art by Salvador Dali (1904-1989). From Public Domain

Humans for a long time lived in a world that was centred around them. The planets, plants, animals existed to serve them. The resultant effect was not exactly what could be called ‘pleasant’. Climate change and extinctions are proof of that. One cannot of course be held responsible for the extinction of giant dinosaurs for they were long gone before us. Would we have existed in our current form if they had not become extinct?

Perhaps, part of evolution is extinction of the old and birth of the new. However, we are the only species to have used the planet to suit our own needs. We evolved technology. Technology birthed computers and eventually, artificial intelligence. Almost a century ago, Isaac Asimov spun out science fiction about robots terraforming worlds for men. In these novels, he had instituted the laws of robotics, so that they would not harm humans. His robots were humanoids with AI.

As humanity races towards a tech savvy existence with AI taking on roles which were essentially human tasks, perhaps, we have to ask ourselves some salient questions. Ravi Varmman K Kanniapan has voiced such valid concerns over the deployment of AI in his essay. He writes: “The question should not merely be whether artificial intelligence can make institutions faster, cheaper, or more productive. The deeper question is, for whom?”  While pondering over this issue, if we take a look at Farouk Gulsara’s experiences pedalling through Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan, one wonders if AI impacts the whole world or will it deepen divides between technocrats and people who live closer to nature! Sailing through the Australian seas, Meredith Stephens takes us on an adventure to Port Hedland. Her narrative is accompanied by beautiful photographs by Alan Noble.

While Suzanne Kamata introduces us to mores on the artistic ethos of Japan, Jun A Alindogan expresses concerns over linguistic forays. Saeed Ibrahim steps into nostalgia taking us to a tiny town called Deolali and Kuldip Raj Chopra muses philosophically gazing back and forth to reflect on life lessons. In a contrary vein, Devraj Singh Kalsi splashes comic frivolity as he describes his attempts at purchasing bedsheets!

Niaz Zaman has shared a learned essay on women writers in Nazrul’s magazine, Dhumketu (Comet), in the early twentieth century, while Professor Fakrul Alam has translated the lyrics of a song by the poet from Bengal. Fazal Baloch has brought to us a powerful Balochi poem by the late Ghulam Hussain Shohaz in English. Isa Kamari has shared the third chapter of his self-translated Malay novel, The Throne, weaving in life in the newly-minted Singapore of the mid-twentieth century. Ihlwha Choi has translated his own Korean poem on how he found poetry. Winding up the translations, is a poem by Tagore called Pothik (traveller). 

Poetry brings to us different aspects of existence. Goutam Roy reflects on children’s issues through an analogy with nature while Stephen House critiques how 585 trees would be cut in his area to give way to buildings. We have more variety in verses with John Swain, George Freek, Laila Brahmbhatt, Joseph C. Ogbonna, Ajeeti S, Anne Whitehouse, Ahaduzzaman M. Ali, Jenny Middleton, Jahnavi Gogoi, John Britten and Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal. Ryan Quinn Flanagan paints a vision of merry, swaying boats parked at sea with words. Ananya S Guha gives us a glimpse of the rain and misty ambience of Shillong. Rhys Hughes as usual wafts absurdity and humour by taking on the persona of a (male) curtain in love in rather a funny poem.

AI or rather algorithms are woven into a quirky fiction by Brindley Hallam Dennis. Sayan Sarkar shares a story reflecting the need for compassion while Jonathon B Ferrini sprinkles a bit of magic between a father and daughter in a poignant tale. Naramsetti Umamaheswararao weaves a fable with traditions of rural Southern India.

We have an interesting excerpt from a ‘The Brown Hand’, a spooky story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from The Raj in Ghostly Light, edited by B.C.Dutt. One has to realise while reading such stories that what is seen as a controversial attitude in today’s world could well have been an accepted norm a century or two ago. We have another excerpt from a more modern non-fiction — Bhaskar Parichha’s recent translation from Odia of Janaki Ballav Patnaik: An Unfinished Memoir. Describing the art of tattooing is yet another excerpt from a story by Hannah Stevens, a writer shortlisted for the W&A Working Class Writers’ Prize, which follows her conversation with Keith Lyons.

Short stories have wound their way into our reviews section too. Somdatta Mandal has discussed Geetanjali Shree’s Once Elephants Lived Here: Stories, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell. Mandal writes: “The book…presents a great challenge to the layman reader who cannot simply pick it up and start reading at leisure. One must read meticulously, ponder over the distortion of the usual short story genre, keep track of the convoluted or sometimes half-finished sentences and wonder where the narrator or the protagonist of the story is leading you – sometimes round and round and without reaching a denouement. All said and done, one must pick up this book to savour how post-modern storytelling can become an art in itself.” Rakhi Dalal has written about Teresa Rehman’s Her Hajj Story: Travel Diaries of Women Pilgrims from Assam while Farah Imam elaborates on Raina/Rituparna Khan’s Her Story: Beyond Dimension. Parichha has brought to us Reetika Khera’s Freebies or Rights: Rethinking India’s Social Policy. He writes: “Freebies or Rights presents a case for seeing social protection not as charity, but as part of the infrastructure of a democratic society. Its central message is both simple and consequential: dignity cannot be secured by economic growth alone. For millions of Indians, it also depends on whether the state can make basic rights real in everyday life.”

Though we reflect on diverse themes in this issue, the collective concern is for the welfare of our species, our planet and our very existence, occasionally drizzled with humour.  Do pause by our contents page to browse on our October issue.

We are hugely grateful to all the contributors, our team who step in to help create the content and put it before all our readers, especially Sohana Manzoor for her wonderful artwork. We remain thankful to all our readers without who our efforts would be in vain.

Have a wonderful October!

Happy reading.

Mitali Chakravarty

borderlessjournal.com

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE CONTENTS FOR THE OCTOBER 2026 ISSUE

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READ THE LATEST UPDATES ON THE BORDERLESS ANTHOLOGIES BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK

Categories
Nazrul Translations

Dusky Beauty by Nazrul

The lyrics of Nazrul’s ‘Aamar Shyamla Boron Bangla Mar Roop’ (The Dusky Beauty of My Motherland, Bengal) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam

Painting by Jamini Ray (1887-1972)
Come, come behold my evergreen Bangla motherland’s beauty.
Its loveliness is hued across green hills, gorges, forests and expanses.
The view of paddy fields and forest enhance my green mother’s beauty!
At dust-coloured bends of the road, a mendicant lute keeps playing.
Anxiously, a belle walks in the village on her own.
Across a deserted village field, she lays loam, straw and wet clay
And then spreads dewdrops with a brush made of mercy.
The lotuses on the dark pond water reflect her lotus-hued face.
Wildly, the girl keeps playing with tigers and bears in the forest. 
Dancing to storm beats she makes snakes dance like a bede woman.
In the river’s currents, her bracelet made of pebbles keep sounding.
With a dotted forehead, she stands in a balcony amidst evening stars  
While in the early morning she ambles to the stream side to fill her pitcher.

Click here to hear the song in Bengali by Manabendra Mukhopadyay (died in 1992)

Born in united Bengal, long before the Partition, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was known as the  Bidrohi Kobi, or “rebel poet”. Nazrul is now regarded as the national poet of Bangladesh though he continues a revered name in the Indian subcontinent. In addition to his prose and poetry, Nazrul wrote about 4000 songs. 

Fakrul Alam is an academic, translator and writer from Bangladesh. He has translated works of Jibonananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English and is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2012) for translation and SAARC Literary Award (2012).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Categories
Nazrul Translations

Monsoonal Fantasies by Kazi Nazrul Islam

Nazrul’s lyrics of Mor Ghumogore Elo Monohor (In my sleep, came the one who won my heart) have been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam.

From Public Domain 
Enchanting one, I was deep asleep when you came
I saluted you then, reverentially, again and again.
In Sravan’s monsoonal cloud, the great Dancer danced
Torrentially. From up above, you caressed my eyes softly
Possessed by the touch of the beauteous, charming one,
My whole body bloomed. For you, my Lord,
I filled my tray with flowers blooming in my garden.
But alas, and what a shame, you wouldn’t take any!
What you did was undo my bun and take from it a flower.
How could you leave for what I said in my dream?
Now that I’m fully awake, I weep and weep and keep calling you—
Oh dear, dear one!

Click here to listen to a rendition of the lyrics in Bengali by Feroza Begum (1930-2014)

Born in united Bengal, long before the Partition, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was known as the  Bidrohi Kobi, or “rebel poet”. Nazrul is now regarded as the national poet of Bangladesh though he continues a revered name in the Indian subcontinent. In addition to his prose and poetry, Nazrul wrote about 4000 songs. 

Fakrul Alam is an academic, translator and writer from Bangladesh. He has translated works of Jibonananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English and is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2012) for translation and SAARC Literary Award (2012).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Categories
Contents

Borderless, August 2026

Art by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

Bells, Corners, Changes and Life… Click here to read.

Translations

Robihara 2 (Sunless 2) by Nazrul has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Chapter 1 of Isa Kamari’s novel, The Throne, has been translated by the author from Malay. We will be running the whole novel as serial through the year. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Aslam Dostain‘s novel, Sótkál, has been translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

A Sudden Shower has been written and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.

Jhor or Storm, a poem by Tagore, has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Akil Contractor, George Freek, Pramod Rastogi, Khayelihle Benghu, John Grey, Mary Tina Shamli Pillay, John Britten, Bharti Mehra, David Francis, Laila Brahmbhatt, Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes

In Bell Poems, Rhys Hughes shares a series of poems inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Bell’. Click here to read.

Musings/Slices from Life

The Elusive Horizontal Falls

Meredith Stephens writes about her sailing adventures in Australia as Alan Noble shares his photographs. Click here to read.

Reading, Writing, and the Long, Dark Tunnel of Despair

Jeena R. Papaadi explores her own literary journey. Click here to read.

Another Waterworld?

Jun A. Alindogan writes of typhoons that are on the rise in Philippines. Click here to read.

Notes from Japan

In The Zine Scene, Suzanne Kamata participates at ‘The Zine Festival’ in Kobe. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In Riverside Reflections, Devraj Singh Kalsi gives a dark satire which almost reads like fiction. Click here to read.

Essays

When Life gives us Lemons, make Lemonade!

Farouk Gulsara looks at the impact of climate events and climate change. Click here to read.

On Both Sides of the Border: The Techno-Political Erasure of Bureaucracy, Memory, and Refugee Lives

Rengin Uçkan takes a look at the plight of refugees. Click here to read.

Neither Automaton nor Oracle: A Satirical Inquiry into Morality, Conditioning, Football, and the End of Human Civilisation

Ravi Varmman K Kanniappan muses on the modern civilisation and its outlooks. Click here to read.

Stories

Shadow Play

Yi-jung Chen shares a unique love story set in Taiwan. Click here to read.

Fairway

Brindley Hallam Dennis shares a short narrative about a dog. Click here to read.

The Space Between Notifications

Jay Samanta shares a modern day relationship. Click here to read.

My Brother’s Room

Devraj Singh Kalsi gives a story of two brothers. Click here to read.

A Walk Through Nature

Naramsetti Umamaheswararao shares a fable set in a village in Andhra Pradesh. Click here to read.

Interview

Keith Lyons interviews author, Jayanthi Sankar, who also shares an excerpt from one of her stories. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

An excerpt from Rhys Hughes’ The Biscuit Thief. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Ramananda Bharati’s The Forest of Snow, translated from Bengali by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Aruna Chakravarti has reviewed Ramananda Bharati’s The Forest of Snow, translated from Bengali by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.

Somdatta Mandal has reviewed Arupa Patangia Kalit’s The Moonlight Saga, translated from Assamese by Ranjita Biswas. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha has reviewed Rabindranath Tagore: The Myriad-Minded Man, co-authored by Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson. Click here to read.

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Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Duotrope listing: https://duotrope.com/magazine/borderless-39488

Follow us on FB; Instagram  @borderless_journal

Published from Singapore, ISSN: 2737-4688.

Categories
Nazrul Translations

Sunless 2 by Kazi Nazrul Islam

Kazi Nazrul Islam died in the same month as his friend and mentor Tagore, only it was a different date and year (August 29th, 1976). This poem. written after the death of Tagore, has been translated by Professor Fakrul Alam, who adds: “ The Bengali title of the poem, ‘Rabi-Hara‘, of course, puns on the fact that ‘rabi‘—the first part of Rabindranath Tagore’s name means the sun. To lose him, then, is to become ‘robi-hara‘ or ‘sunless’. The poem was written by Nazrul soon after Rabindranath’s death and read out by the poet himself on All India Radio, Calcutta (Kolkata).”

SUNLESS 2

The afternoon sun sags, collapsing on the roadway.
Sravan’s dark clouds swarm in,
Darkening the day,
And shrouding the sky,
Since you, Bengal’s heart,
India’s bard, and the world’s sun,
Have passed away!
Did you not hear at all the lament of mother earth?
Was that why you feigned illness and kept your eyes shut?
This day the pulse of Bengal has begun to throb with pain
O poet — seas, rivers, forests— all cry out for you in vain!
Vedantic knowledge was yours, forever on the tip of your tongue
Your writings had Saraswati’s blessings, full of learning and rhyme.
In your meditations, Shiva, God of everything auspicious, resided.
In your heart, Sri Krishna, the one who had even smitten Love, dallied!
Durga, consort of Shiva, and source of all joy, would converse with you.
How could they, deities so powerful, not feel the extent of our loss?
How could they snatch away what they had given so sympathetically?
After all, you were Bengal’s beacon of hope, lighting us up eternally!
We took pride in your glory; you made us feel earth was our only need.
You made us forget our afflictions—timidity, hunger, misery, and ruin!
You shone over our heads every day—like your namesake--the sun!
You made us proud; you made us feel we would never be undone!
You’ve bestowed much love on this land -- on India and Bengal,
How have we offended to have made you, thus, leave us all?
Tell me -- who else is there to bless those who dare to blaze?
Who else can protect the pride of the ones that are frail?
Behold, the whole of Bengal laments, unfurling its tresses.
See in this lunar fortnight the distressed moon hiding itself!
Screened by Shravan’s rain cloud, the sun weeps in the horizon
In house after house men and women cry out, “O poet, return!”
Alas, India’s fate blazes on a pyre, the body no longer visible.
This day, the vermilion marking Bengal’s beauties too is invisible!
Today Saraswati’s lyre and Bengal’s poetic soul know only silence
And funeral flames have scorched even the moon’s radiance!
Till now none knew how close you had become to everyone
All roads now hold millions of people -- all overcome with grief!

After you return to the rasa-filled realm from which you had come
To give us delight, won’t you miss us and lament your earthly home?
Your lyrical messages had made you this land’s dearest soul
But it was not merely its loveliness-- you had loved all of Bengal!
Assure us, O poet dearest to our heart, responding to our love
You will return once more to your people from up above.
Full of the rasas, you cried out soulfully for our suffering race
Why did you enamour us so? Now we’ll rue forever your loss!
I believe that if the sun is put out, the entire solar system will go.
Bengal’s sun set forever today; what we’ve lost only we will know!
No one besides Bengalis will feel the extent of their deprivation
Nowhere outside Bengal will be heard such loud lamentation!
The sun that shone over us has left, leaving us all benighted
In Bengal’s heart the one light blazing is your funeral pyre!
The rest of India envied Bengalis their good fortune and wondered
How had the sun deigned to descend on Bengal’s thatched huts?
Will Bengal get such a great, world-conquering superman again?
Can this poor land ever again dream of the kind of happiness
You gave us? And so, Kobi guru, our beloved muse-teacher,
We grieve, finding no consolation, no solace whatsoever!
We had thought of you as God’s blessing given to us eternally.
Let not death’s torpor make us forget forever heaven’s bounty.
As you depart from us, let us plant on your feet farewell kisses.
No matter where you are keep these ill-fated people in your wishes.

*shravan-Monsoon
*rasa- flavour

The poem seemingly has some common lines with the first one. But has it’s differences too. The first one can be read by clicking here.

Nazrul in his youth
Nazrul towards his end

Born in united Bengal, long before the Partition, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was known as the  Bidrohi Kobi, or “rebel poet”. Nazrul is now regarded as the national poet of Bangladesh though he continues a revered name in the Indian subcontinent. In addition to his prose and poetry, Nazrul wrote about 4000 songs. 

Fakrul Alam is an academic, translator and writer from Bangladesh. He has translated works of Jibonananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English and is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2012) for translation and SAARC Literary Award (2012).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Categories
Contents

Borderless, July 2026

Art by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

Oh! For an Ark?… Click here to read.

Translations

Ghumiye Geche Shranto Hoea ( Spent, He’s Fallen Asleep) by Nazrul has translated the lyrics from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Isa Kamari has translated his own Malay poems. Click here to read.

Short poems by Mohammad Hussain Anqa have been translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

Blazing Summer Sun has been composed and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.

Barashar Dine (On a Rainy Day) by Tagore has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, Jyotish Chalil Gopinathan, Norman J. Olson, Shamim Akhtar, SR Inciardi, Deepa Srivastava, Ron Pickett, Tanisha Tanwar, Jane Downing, Snehaprava Das, John Swain, Snigdha Agrawal, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Maithreyi Karnoor, Rhys Hughes

Musings/ Slices from Life

Downpour

Ian C Smith muses during a downpour. Click here to read.

A Peek into the Future?

Farouk Gulsara muses on uncertainties. Click here to read.

Is that a Rock or a Croc?

Meredith Stephens narrates their sailing adventures in the Western Australia with photographs by Alan Noble. Click here to read.

Bringing Hope to the War-Torn

Gowher Bhat introduces us to an aid worker who helps war victims in Ukraine and Syria. Click here to read.

What the Stars Kept Secret

Subramaniam Cheemalapati muses on the star studded sky through his anecdotal experiences. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In The Sherwani and Me, Devraj Singh Kalsi muses on his wedding attire of yore. Click here to read.

Notes from Japan

In Remotely Controlled, Suzanne Kamata ponders on a modern mania. Click here to read.

Essays

Tagore’s Dance-Dramas in Translation

Somdatta Mandal explores six dance-dramas by Tagore translated from Bengali and Brajbuli by Indrani Haldar. Click here to read.

A Prince who Opted for Poetry over a Crown

Charudutta Panigrahi introduces us to to the eighteenth century literary giant, Upendra Bhanja, who gave up his crown for the love of words. Click here to read.

The Idea of Civilisation: Trust and Power?

Ravi Varmman K Kanniappan highlights the contemporariness of Sangam Literature with discussion about a narrative based on trust and power politics. Click here to read.

Stories

The Son who Came Home Last

Jonathon Ferrini narrates a story across generations and the sweep of continents. Click here to read.

The Ghost from the Past

Darshana Dutta shares a short fiction set in a fast-paced social media centric world. Click here to read.

Her Hyderabad

Mohul Bhowmick looks at the city from the perspective of a disillusioned woman. Click here to read.

Full Circle

Sayan Sarkar shares a heartwarming story set in Kolkata. Click here to read.

The Search for a Useless Thing

Naramsetti Umamaheswararao gives a fable set in Southern India. Click here to read.

Interviews

Keith Lyons in conversation with Helen Townsend, environmental entrepreneur and plant enthusiast. Click here to read.

Suzanne Kamata interviews Lily West, author of West goes East and a traveller who has visited every country on Earth. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

An excerpt from Kanupriya Dhingra’s The Sunday Book Bazaar: Daryaganj and the Making of a Reading Public in Delhi. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Bhaskar Parichha’s Icons of Odisha – Lives that Shaped a State. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Somdatta Mandal reviews Siddharth Kak’s A Fire over Mount Everest. Click here to read.

Satya Narayan Mishra reviews Bhaskar Parichha’s Icons of Odisha – Lives that Shaped a State. Click here to read.

Andreas Geisbert reviews Angel Ramon’s Requiem of a Lost Nation. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Rajat Chaudhuri’s The Climate Crossroads: Literature’s Encounter with a Planet on Fire. Click here to read.

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Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to read the latest review of Wild Winds in The Hindu

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Published from Singapore, ISSN: 2737-4688.

Duotrope listing: https://duotrope.com/magazine/borderless-39488

Categories
Poetry

Nazrul’s Lyrics Mourning Tagore

Ghumiye Geche Shranto Hoea( Spent, He’s Fallen Asleep) was written and composed by Nazrul on the death of his friend, Rabindranath Tagore. Professor Fakrul Alam has translated the lyrics from Bengali.

Tagore… his last days… From Public Domain 
Spent, my song’s bulbuli bird has gone off to sleep
While all of dusk’s fallen flowers look on wretchedly.
Singing at dawn, the bird would make flowers bloom
What prohibitory arrow could have silenced it so now?  
Hair disheveled, a night queen weeps in the forest’s lap.
From tomorrow, alas, flowers will no longer bloom 
Amidst these creeping plants. Whose sad breathing
Can be heard in leaf after leaf? Leaving its empty nest
My song bird too has flown away! No more do words 
 Pile up in my throat as before. No more will anyone
Be lured by the false light here—not even mistakenly!

Click here to listen to the song sung by the famed Feroza Begum.

Born in united Bengal, long before the Partition, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was known as the  Bidrohi Kobi, or “rebel poet”. Nazrul is now regarded as the national poet of Bangladesh though he continues a revered name in the Indian subcontinent. In addition to his prose and poetry, Nazrul wrote about 4000 songs. 

Fakrul Alam is an academic, translator and writer from Bangladesh. He has translated works of Jibonananda Das and Rabindranath Tagore into English and is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2012) for translation and SAARC Literary Award (2012).

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Categories
Contents

Borderless, June 2026

Art by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

Changes, Ruskin, Snakes and Frogs… Click here to read.

Translations

Nazrul’s lyrics of Mor Ghumogore Elo Monohor (In my Sleep, Came the Enchanting One) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Four of his own Malay poems have been translated by Isa Kamari. Click here to read.

The Heartless, a Balochi story by  Abdul Qayum Sarbazi, has been translated by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

Dragonfly 2 has been composed and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.

Tagore’s poem, Amra Choli Somukhpane (We Look Forward and March), has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Pandies Corner

Songs of Freedom: Pink Dreams is an autobiographical narrative by Priyanka, written and compiled by Deeksha Vats. These stories highlight the ongoing struggle against debilitating rigid boundaries drawn by societal norms, with the support from organisations like Shaktishalini and Pandies. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

Erik Kennedy, Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, Anne Whitehouse, Snehaprava Das, George Freek, Pramod Rastogi, SR Inciardi, Aardhra Chandran, John Grey, Heera Unnithan, Jim Bellamy, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Rhys Hughes

Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes

In A Few More Rhysop Fables, Rhys Hughes shares more absurdist fables. Click here to read.

Musings/Slices from Life

The Stars that Watch Us…

Sai Abhinay Penna muses during his morning jog. Click here to read.

Vignettes from the Past

Gowher Bhat mulls over his conversation with a debut author who published his first book at ninety-three. Click here to read.

Salvaging the Furling Line in the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

Meredith Stephens takes us on a sailing adventure with photographs by Alan Noble. Click here to read.

Looking for that Goodness…

Farouk Gulsara explores why ‘evil’ exists with the help of experiments in science. Click here to read.

The Gift of Grace

Jun A. Alindogan talks of blessings and narrow escapes, including from the Typhoon Ondoy. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In On Consulting a Physician, Devraj Singh Kalsi writes of doctors and patients with a touch of humour. Click here to read.

Notes from Japan

In It’s in the Bag, Suzanne Kamata explores Japanese etiquettes. Click here to read.

Essays

Homecoming

Larry S Su, who migrated from a mud cave in Shaanxi province to America, shares his story of the changes he sees during three visits to his home and muses on the gaps he has observed between these two places. Click here to read.

One Soul, Two Seas

Charudutta Panigrahi explores similarities across two geographically separated regions. Click here to read.

A Cyclist’s Diary: Criss-crossing Titiwangsa

Farouk Gulsara explores local colours as he cycles in the highlands of Malaysia. Click here to read.

Stories

The Sea of Loneliness

Keiran Martin journeys to the depths of the ocean. Click here to read.

The Silent Valley

Jeena R Papaadi builds a mystery around an experience. Click here to read.

The Art of Letting Go

Plamen Vasilev shares a human interes story set in Europe. Click here to read.

The City that Refused to be Found

Rabiya Rehman sets her fiction in Lahore. Click here to read.

The Village that Chose Trees

Naramsetti Umamaheswararao imagines a utopian, environment friendly village. Click here to read.

Interview

Keith Lyons converses with Erik Kennedy, a migrant poet who lives in New Zealand. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

Excerpts from Ruskin Bond’s Scenes from the Magic Mountain: Five Seasons in the Mussoorie Hills and Beyond. Click here to read.

Excerpt from Anmol Diddan’s Burnout Highway. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Somdatta Mandal has reviewed Ruskin Bond’s Scenes from the Magic Mountain: Five Seasons in the Mussoorie Hills and Beyond. Click here to read.

Rakhi Dalal has reviewed Shyam Manohar’s The Cold War of Sadanand Borse, translated from Marathi by Jerry Pinto. Click here to read.

Meenakshi Malhotra has reviewed Giti Chandra’s debut poetry collection, Setting Traps for Light. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Stephen Alter’s The Fragrance of Rain: A Brief History of the Monsoon. Click here to read.

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Click here to access Wild Winds: The Borderless Anthology of Poems

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Published from Singapore, ISSN: 2737-4688.

Duotrope listing: https://duotrope.com/magazine/borderless-39488

Categories
Editorial

Changes, Ruskin, Snakes and Frogs…

Summer, Dune in Zeeland by Piet Mondrain (1872 – 1944)
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.

‘Burnt Norton’, Four Quartets (1941) by TS Eliot

If we look back in time, we have a better life than that of our ancestors. Though conflicts rage and climate change is a reality that we all dread, it can safely be said, we have progressed beyond the imagination of those who lived a hundred years ago. The fact that some books from the past still reverberate with echoes of what the present holds says much for the outliers or authors who could think out of the box. Despite this complex intermingling of ideas and times, perhaps the world will change more now than before. We do not know anything for sure though experts are always predicting a future that for most of us remains unknown. What we can present is our own estimate of what can be and a definite assertion of what is. Truth as such is a matter of perception. That complicates it further. However, one of the changes that is definitely here to stay is climate change and our changing environment. Given that this is the month that homes World Environment Day, we have a smattering of writings that revolve around nature and also the human spirit that defies age.

We have featured a writer who revels in nature and is an ageless voice that bridges multiple cultures, Ruskin Bond. As he turned ninety-two last month, he published multiple new books. We have an excerpt from one of them, Scenes from the Magic Mountain: Five Seasons in the Mussoorie Hills and Beyond, a brilliant collection of snapshots of his interactions with nature over time — be it frogs, snakes or just trees. Some of the vignettes are humorous and some, as all classics are, thought provoking. Bond puts into words how he chose to work in Landour (a small town in Himalayas) and continued to write from there for sixty years. He talks of the spell the mountains cast on him, “I like to think that I have become a part of this Magic Mountain; that by living here for so long, I can claim a relationship with the trees, wild flowers, even the rocks that are an integral part of this landscape.”  The other book excerpt is a contrast to Bond’s, a non-fiction called Burnout Highway by Anmol Diddan. It explores the collective suffering of stress at work where achievements distance humans from nature and a fulfilling life and urges readers to be open to changes.

Somdatta Mandal discusses Bond’s Scenes from the Magic Mountain: Five Seasons in the Mussoorie Hills and Beyond and concludes: “It [the book] is a collector’s delight and also one to be gifted and recommended for anyone who loves to read about Ruskin Bond’s deep and lifelong love for the Himalayas. Bond’s poetic prose can hardly be imitated…”

In keeping with the theme of environment, Bhaskar Parichha has reviewed Stephen Alter’s The Fragrance of Rain: A Brief History of the Monsoon. He tells us: “The Fragrance of Rain is much more than a history of weather. It is a meditation on nature, culture, memory, and belonging… Like the season it celebrates, the book is refreshing, nourishing, and lingering in its impact…” While Rakhi Dalal expresses her delight with Shyam Manohar’s The Cold War of Sadanand Borse, a novella translated from Marathi by Jerry Pinto, Meenakshi Malhotra revels in Giti Chandra’s debut book of poems, Setting Traps for Light.

The June poetry section also homes a poem on monsoon by Aardhra Chandran. Anne Whitehouse takes us to Egypt with her vivid words. Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri has shared a series of poems in memory of his late father. We have more from Snehaprava Das, George Freek, Pramod Rastogi, SR Inciardi, John Grey, Heera Unnithan and Jim Bellamy. Ryan Quinn Flanagan’s lines do bring a smile to the lips while Rhys Hughes writes of census of centaurs! Erik Kennedy, a migrant poet from New Zealand, shares his poetry and also his views in a candid interview with Keith Lyons.

In translations, Professor Fakrul Alam has captured the flavours of Nazrul’s Bengali lyrics, which also echo of the rainy season or monsoons. Isa Kamari brings to us more of his Malay poems in English and Ihlwha Choi shares a rendering of his Korean poem, ‘Dragonfly 2’, into English. One of Tagore’s poems from Balaka (Flight of the Cranes, 1916) has found its way into this issue after being translated. We also have a touching Balochi story around social gaps from the late Abdul Qayum Sarbazi, brought to us in English by Fazal Baloch.

Hughes has continued sharing his short fables, which are absurd but also, comical! A sensitive story about the natural world mingled with Maori concepts by Keiran Martin seems so much in sync with the oceans while Jeena R Papaadi has woven a strange narrative located in a land that only one man could visit. Plamen Vasilev shares a human-interest story set in Europe and Rabiya Rehman takes us to Lahore in quest of a missing destination! Naramsetti Umamaheswararao’s narrative takes us back to a village that opted for trees, thus enriching the environmental lore in this issue.

We have a real life heart rending story from a young girl in our Pandies Corner, written and related by Deeksha Vats, based on the story told by a victim of familial violations and violence.

Our non-fiction section homes Larry Su’s essay on how his life took him from a rural mud cave in Shaanxi province to the glamour of Chicago. Reflecting on the changes he has experienced on his rare visits to his original homeland, Su muses on the cultural and socio-economic gaps he has observed between the two places. Charudutta Panigrahi – as if in direct opposition — shares similarities between two diverse geographies.

Suzanne Kamata explores a custom which may not be that eco-friendly in her column from Japan. Jun A. Alindogan brings home the impact of climate disasters while dwelling on blessings with his narrative about a narrow escape from the Typhoon Ondoy (2009). While Meredith Stephen writes of sailing to Timor Sea with photographs by Alan Noble, Farouk Gulsara takes us on a cycling adventure around the mountains of Titiwangsa. In another musing, he also explores the idea of good and evil in a sardonic tone while Sai Abhinay Penna dwells on the grandeur and vastness of the universe over his morning jog. Gowher Bhat writes of a man for whom age seems to be just a number as he publishes his debut book at 93! One wonders at the frequency of such occurrences — we have writings about two authors above ninety in the June issue. In contrast, Devraj Singh Kalsi brings in mortal fears while writing of visiting doctors with a soupçon of humour – some of it directed at himself. 

Perhaps, laughter is really the best medicine to keep well! Ruskin Bond makes us laugh and writes of nature in a way that touches hearts and makes us forget the contrasting glitzy world, where we suffer stress and burnout. Our environment makes a difference, doesn’t it?

With that we wrap up our June issue. Huge thanks to our fabulous team, especially Sohana Manzoor for her wonderful artwork. To all our contributors, heartfelt thanks — we are because you are. And gratitude to our readers who make it worth our while to write and publish here.

We will next meet you during the monsoon months of South Asia though, near the equator, it rains almost every day and, in the Southern Hemisphere, it will be peak winter!

Happy reading!

Mitali Chakravarty

borderlessjournal.com

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