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Contents

Borderless, December 2024

Art by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

‘Footfalls Echo in the Memory’… Click here to read.

Translations

Jibananada Das’s Andhar Dekhecche, Tobu Ache (I have seen the dark and yet there is another) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Manish Ghatak’s Aagun taader Praan (Fire is their Life) has been translated from Bengali by Indrayudh Sinha. Click here to read.

Manzur Bismil’s poem, Stories, has been translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.

Homecoming, a poem by Ihlwha Choi on his return from Santiniketan, has been translated from Korean by the poet himself. Click here to read.

Tagore’s Shotabdir Surjo Aji ( The Century’s Sun today) has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

Michael R Burch, Farah Sheikh, George Freek, Rajiv Borra, Kelsey Walker, Lokenath Roy, Thompson Emate, Joy Anne O’Donnell, Jayant Kashyap, John Grey, Aman Alam, Stuart McFarlane, Ayesha Binte Islam, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Saranyan BV, Rhys Hughes

Musings/ Slices from Life

Autumn in Hyderabad

Mohul Bhowmick muses on Hyderabad. Click here to read.

Straight Back Across the Strait

Meredith Stephens gives a vignette of life in South Australia with a sailing adventure built in. Click here to read.

My Patchwork Year

Keith Lyons muses on what 2024 meant for him. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In Byline Fever, Devraj Singh Kalsi travels down the path of nostalgia. Click here to read.

Essays

Still to Moving Images

Ratnottama Sengupta explores artists who have turned to use the medium of films… artists like the legendary MF Husain. Click here to read.

How Dynamic was Ancient India?

Farouk Gulsara explores William Dalrymple’s latest book, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World. Click here to read.

A Short, Winding, and Legendary Dhaka Road

Professor Fakrul Alam takes us on a historical journey of one of the most iconic roads of Dhaka, Fuller Road. Click here to read.

Stories

Significance

Naramsetti  Umamaheswararao creates a fable around a banyan tree and it’s fruit. Click here to read.

The Dance of Life

Snigdha Agrawal explores ageism. Click here to read.

The Unsuspecting Suspect

Paul Mirabile wraps his telling like a psychological thriller. Click here to read.

Conversations

Ratnottama Sengupta converses with Divya Dutta, an award-winning actress, who has authored two books recently, Stars in my Sky and Me and Ma. Click here to read.

Lara Geyla converses about her memoir, Camels of Kyzylkum, and her journey as an immigrant. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

An excerpt from Thomas Bell’s Human Nature: A Walking History of the Himalayan Landscape. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Savi Naipaul Akal’s The Naipauls of Nepaul Street, a retelling of VS Naipaul’s heritage in Trinidad by his sister. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Somdatta Mandal reviews Kusum Khemani’s Lavanyadevi, translated from Hindi by Banibrata Mahanta. Click here to read.

Aditi Yadav reviews Nanako Hanada’s The Bookshop Woman, translated from Japanese by Cat Anderson. Click here to read.

Jagari Mukherjee reviews Kiriti Sengupta’s poetry collection, Oneness. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Noor Jahan Bose’s Daughter of The Agunmukha: A Bangla Life, translated from Bengali by Rebecca Whittington. Click here to read.

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

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

To be able to Fall in Love Again and Again …

By Jayant Kashyap

Photo by Namit R. Krishna.
TO BE ABLE TO FALL IN LOVE AGAIN AND AGAIN --

Even from a distance, you still look the same.

It’s been years now.

I’ve remembered you with your fallen walls, shelled
mirrors, bloodless faces, children
with stones and guns;

—with things we did to you for nothing.

I’ve loved you with your broken, faithless hearts, with
your dreams of the sun, and with my dreams
of snow.

I’ve seen you in fear.

I’ve seen you strong.

I’ve seen you
wrong, and rebellious—

and I’ve loved you.

When you sit in a Shikara* upon the Dal, all by yourself, all
at once, in a silence known only to you—
and embraced only by you,

I’ve loved you then.


*Shikaras are light boats and can be found on Dal Lake in Kashmir.

Jayant Kashyap is an Indian poet. His third pamphlet, Notes on Burials, won the New Poets Prize in 2024 (smith|doorstop, 2025). He’s also published a zine, Water (Skear Zines, 2021).

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

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

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International