A PAINTER’S DESPAIR
A painter fancies Nature and spends days to paint the dawn
In its rising and its shadows before it disappears
Into the surge of village life.
Nature watches life on the move, as does the day
It peeps at the painter's work posed on a large wooden easel,
While the painter keeps pouring his heart,
Brushes and paints in hand, to create a vibrant palette.
The painter gazes at his artwork. In his eyes, the dawn he beholds
Is not the same as on his canvas.
Nature, gracious and humble, bows to the artist's dawn.
Paints fuse to give the dawn a glow, the like of which Nature
Could never have composed.
In despair is the artist – he has failed to ornament Dawn’s
Natural smile for the day. Two perspectives of the same
Dawn, so distant, yet united in one.
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
In ‘When will we ever learn? Oh, will we ever learn?’, Ratnottama Sengupta,comments on the current situation in Ukraine while dwelling on her memorable meeting with folk legend Pete Seeger, a pacifist, who wrote ‘Where have all the Flowers gone’, based on a folk song from Ukraine. Click here to read.
In Can Peace come Dropping by…,Candice Louisa Daquin explores war and peace pausing over the attack on Ukraine. Click hereto read.
Munir Momin’s You & I translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Clickhere to read.
Down the stairs by Nabendu Ghosh, a gripping story exploring the greyer areas of ethical dilemmas, has been translated by Sarmishta Mukhopadhyay with editorial input from Ratnottama Sengupta. Click here to read.
Autumn is Long, a poem written in Korean and translated to English by Ihlwha Choi. Click here to read.
Tagore’s Anondodhara Bohichche Bhubone (The Universe reverberates with celestial ecstasy)…translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Pandies’ Corner
These narratives are written by youngsters from the Nithari village who transcended childhood trauma and deprivation. A letter to Godby Tanveer Hussain uses the epistolary technique to asks questions that would be relevant for all humankind. It has been translated from Hindustani by Vritika Thareja. Click here to read.
Erwin Coombs takes us through his life in Egypt and has a relook at Nazi occupied Europe with a dollop of humour to come to an amazing conclusion. Click here to read.
At Home Across Continents : In Conversation with Neeman Sobhan, a Bangladeshi-born writer who writes of her experiences as an expat in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Italy and America. Click here to read.
Meenakshi Malhotra ponders at the exclusivity that reinforces divisions, margins and borders that continue to plague humankind, against the backdrop of the Women’s Month, March. Click here to read.
IF MY LIFE WERE ONLY A DREAM
How much would I feel unburdened
If my life were only a napping dream?
I would simply be a handful of water
That springs from the melting glaciers
And flows down to embrace the ocean.
But life as real as the sun and the moon
Is more like a candle flame
That a man carries within him
Always. Storms and typhoons rage.
If the flame blows away, life goes away.
The plot of life is as simple as it is tender.
Smiling joy and deepest despair are so visible
When we view life as a sheet of glass;
Yet, life is also as brittle.
It could fall and shatter.
The Creator has made man a part of His dream,
And the dream on His part to accompany him.
Dreams are neither on sale, nor on barter.
They must be built, nurtured, and lived.
Dreams are of infinite shades, vivid and coloured,
And can silently fall asleep but never die.
Is dream an illusion, delusion, or reality?
It is all that and more, tethered in its veiled silence.
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
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Keith Lyons introduces us to Kenny Peavy, an author, adventurer, educator and wilderness first-aider who has travelled far and wide and wishes everyone could connect with the natural world right outside their door. Click here to read.
In Rhys Hughes Unbounded, Hughes, an author and adventurer, tells us about his inclination for comedies. Click here to read
Translations
Professor Fakrul Alam translates If Life were Eternal by Jibananada Das from Bengali. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta translates Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt’sBijoya Doushami. Click here to read.
Give Me A Rag, Please:A short story by Nabendu Ghosh, translated by Ratnottama Sengupta, set in the 1943 Bengal Famine, which reflects on man’s basic needs. Click here to read.
On This Auspicious Day is a translation of a Tagore’s song, Aaji Shubhodine Pitaar Bhabone, from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Munaj Gul writes of how volunteers are engaged in wooing children from poverty stricken backgrounds to school in Turbat, Balochistan. Click here to read.
Camellia Biswas, a visitor to Sunderbans during the cyclone Alia, turns environmentalist and writes about the potable water issue faced by locals. Click here to read.
In Fakir Mohan: A Tribute, Bhaskar Parichha introduces us to Fakir Mohan Senapati, the writer he considers the greatest in Odia literature. Click here to read.
Sohana Manzoor tells a story around the awakening of a young woman. Click here to read.
Among Our People: Devraj Singh Kalsi gives a fictitious account of a common man’s quest for security in a country that is one of the world’s largest democracy. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Shazi Zaman’sAkbar: A Novel of Historydetailing his interactions with Surdas and Braj. Click here to read.
LAST PEACE
You are the glimmer that resides in me.
I am spellbound by your aura.
I take my every breath at your bedside,
Waiting for your inner warmth
To light the breath of life in you.
And I have sat back listening
To your dreamy whispering voice
Flow like a stream of serenity,
Sharing with me your zest for life,
Yet ready to draw curtains over it.
You look at me with imploring eyes
As if seeking my permission
To leave me to explore the other side.
These calls have slowly become louder.
The oxygen is often in short supply.
The flame flickers while you lie there.
The last few months have passed like this.
They have taken a heavy toll on me,
As we look at each other helplessly,
Embracing the love that flowed
Between our tear-filled eyes,
We wait for the dreaded separation.
The one that beckons us in its arms
Is the one that torments me no end.
One day, you chose silence over agony...
I know that our love will linger long
In hope of our next meeting.
You have left me on your journey to heal.
And with me fixated on you, I will sleep deep
To awaken in your arms, never to leave again.
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
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In Conversation with Akbar Barakzai, a Balochi poet in exile who rejected an award from Pakistan Academy of Letters for his principles. Click here to read.
In Conversation with Somdatta Mandal, a translator, scholar and writer who has much to say on the state of Santiniketan, Tagore, women’s writing on travel and more. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta recalls her experiences of the Egyptian unrest while covering the 35th Cairo International Film Festival in 2012. Click here to read.
My Father’s Last Smile
The rain has returned to the city.
Puddles are forming on the road
And children are running in joy.
Kidding along, I play with them
Until I suffer from a coughing fit.
Unsteady, my heart starts flipping
As I sit there amid woeful eyes,
And in the blur could hear sounds afar
Of birds singing and me darting
With my father feigning to catch me.
I could see his blurred outlines
Coughing and sitting holding his heart.
I was laughing and he smiled at me.
He never talked about his failing health,
As more and more often he got nailed
To his bed, but his smile was intact.
The street was getting busy,
Yet, living with this everlasting memory,
I walked back to my home infused
With the last smile of my father’s love
Anchored to the silence of my heart.
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
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Longing
As flowers are to a plant,
So is longing to my life.
While a flower offers fragrance,
Melancholic is the poetry I offer.
While a bouquet offers exuberance,
My poetry has only tears to offer.
The spring brings a ray of hope
And the buds spring out in plants.
The spring pricks me like thorns,
So scarred at present is my heart
By the burden of longings
That nest in its core.
Flowers sway in the breeze,
Singing joyous songs of bliss,
With each petal joining the choir.
My longings play the violin
And its eloquence stirs in me
The quivering lips of my love.
The clouds have covered the sky.
The sunflowers long for the sun
With their joy mellowed down a shade.
Dense clouds of loneliness have
Long since wandered over my life
As I long to kiss those lucid eyes.
I have seen flowers wither,
Longing for rain to fall,
But who knows how much I long
For the time to rewind to my youth,
To see me surrender to her embrace
As I pin a flower on her braids?
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
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A Grand Bouquet
Years have rained from the sky
Like flower petals falling leisurely
On the face of a life in a trance.
Each year one flower more
I have added to my bouquet,
Kept in a fancy glass vase
On the altar of my mystic past.
The bouquet has a sacred look
With sleek flowers of all sizes,
Of myriad colours and hues.
I look back at the titanic altar
And perceive a feeling of joy
And nostalgia for the years
That I collected these flowers.
Alas, this imposing bouquet
And the aroma it imparts
Are my only pieces of fortune.
The years have faded away
And so have many flowers.
Only a few robust ones are left
That perfume my heart.
The years will all melt away
And the vase will soon be full.
On display will be vivid colours
And a delicate fragrance to recap
The undying spirit of my life.
A candle will then be lit
In grief and in tribute
To the grandiose bouquet
That had adorned this vase.
Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.
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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
