Categories
Contents

Borderless, December 2023

Art by Sohana Manzoor

Editorial

Celebrating the Child & Childhood… Click here to read.

Special Tributes

An excerpt from Rabindranath Tagore’sThe Child‘, a poem originally written in English by the poet. Click here to read.

Vignettes from an Extraordinary Life: A Historical Dramatisation by Aruna Chakravarti… Click here to read.

Conversations

A conversation with the author, Afsar Mohammed, and a brief introduction to his latest book, Remaking History: 1948 Police Action and the Muslims of Hyderabad. Click here to read.

A conversation with Meenakshi Malhotra over The Gendered Body: Negotiation, Resistance, Struggle, edited by Meenakshi Malhotra, Krishna Menon and Rachana Johri and a brief introduction to the book. Click here to read.

Translations

The Monk Who Played the Guitar, a story by S Ramakrishnan, has been translated from Tamil by T Santhanam. Click here to read.

The White-Coloured Book, a poem by Quazi Johirul Islam has translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Indecisiveness has been written and translated from Korean by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.

Tagore’s 1400 Saal (The Year 1993) has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.

Nazrul’s rejoinder to Tagore’s 1400 Saal has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.

Poetry

Click on the names to read the poems

Ron Pickett, Prithvijeet Sinha, George Freek, Sutputra Radheye, Caroline Am Bergris, Thoyyib Mohammad, Kumar Bhatt, Patricia Walsh, Hamza Azhar, John Grey, Papia Sengupta, Stuart McFarlane, Padmanabha Reddy, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Jee Leong Koh, Rhys Hughes

Poets, Poetry & Rhys Hughes

In His Unstable Shape, Rhys Hughes explores the narratives around a favourite nursery rhyme character with a pinch of pedantic(?) humour. Click here to read.

Musings/ Slices from Life

Trojan Island

Nitya Amalean writes of why she chooses to be an immigrant living out of Sri Lanka. Click here to read.

Wayward Wayanad

Mohul Bhowmick travels to the tea gardens and hills of Wayanad. Click here to read.

Musings of a Copywriter

In Visiting Cards & Me…, Devraj Singh Kalsi ponders on his perspective on the need and the future for name cards. Click here to read.

Notes from Japan

In Kyoto: Where the Cuckoo Calls, Suzanne Kamata introduces us to Kyoto. Click here to read.

Essays

Peeking at Beijing: The Epicentre of China

Keith Lyons travels to the heart of Beijing with a sense of humour and a camera. Click here to read.

To Be or Not to Be or the Benefits of Borders

Wendy Jones Nakanishi argues in favour of walls with wit and facts. Click here to read.

Where Eagles Soar

Ravi Shankar gives a photographic treat and a narrative about Langkawi. Click here to read.

Stories

Heather Richards’ Remarkable Journey

Paul Mirabile journeys into a womb of mystery set in Thailand. Click here to read.

The Untold Story

Neeman Sobhan gives us the story of a refugee from the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Click here to read.

Wrath of the Goddess?

Farouk Gulsara narrates a story set in 1960s Malaya. Click here to read.

No Man’s Land

Sohana Manzoor gives us surrealistic story reflecting on after-life. Click here to read.

Book Excerpts

An excerpt from Dr Ratna Magotra’s Whispers of the Heart – Not Just A Surgeon: An Autobiography. Click here to read.

An excerpt from Manjima Misra’s The Ocean is Her Title. Click here to read.

Book Reviews

Somdatta Mandal reviews Indian Christmas: Essays, Memoirs, Hymns, an anthology edited by Jerry Pinto and Madhulika Liddle. Click here to read.

Christopher Marks reviews Veronica Eley’s The Blue Dragonfly: healing through poetry. Click here to read.

Basudhara Roy reviews Kuhu Joshi’s My Body Didn’t Come Before Me. Click here to read.

Bhaskar Parichha reviews Permacrisis: A Plan to Fix a Fractured World by Gordon Brown, Mohamed El-Erian, Michael Spence, Reid Lidow 

.

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

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

Categories
Poetry

Solace in a Café

By Padmanabha Reddy

I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.*
 
So, you again want to walk
In these streets of powdered chalk,
Where nothing more than old trees
With ripened fruits lie in the winter freeze?
 
Do I know... Do I know
What lies here below the snow?
 
There is still time for the yellow walls,
The office shawls, and the colourful balls,
To close for the day and open tomorrow
When the lights come back from sorrow.
 
There are people on these tables
Beside the stables and mighty fables
Watching us through the crooked panes;
Let us walk away before they come again.
 
Do I know... Do I know
What lies here below the snow?
 
The legs, the hands, the mouth
The nose, the crimson rose,
The sound of lightning bows,
Everything's a dream, I suppose.
Perhaps I'd been better at home
Taking to my hair with that wooden comb.
 
I am done now... Sitting at the balcony
Watching the stars and people in myriad bars.
I'm not Diomedes or Odysseus,
Or Apollo stopping the charge of bows.
I'm Dolan, sitting on this table,
Amidst the foul winds, and living in a fable.
 
Do I know... Do I know
What lies here below the snow?
 
Perhaps I am better with this spoon
Whirling, Twirling, and Swirling the coffee
Till the last cube of life leaves me.
 
Do you still want to walk
In these streets of powdered chalk,
Where nothing more than old trees
With ripened fruits lie in the winter freeze?
 
Let us go then walking, talking
About Dolan, and not Odysseus,
About Hector, and not Achilles,
About me, and not you,
Before he comes by and kills us.
 
* ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ by WB Yeats (1865 – 1939)

Padmanabha Reddy is a postgraduate student of English at Delhi University. He has a self-published novel, titled I Heard an Owl Scream. that has been felicitated by the Department of Language and Culture, Government of Telangana.

.

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