As we wait for the new year to unfold, we glance back at the year that just swept past us. Here, gathered together are glimpses of the writings we found on our pages in 2024 that herald a world of compassion and kindness…writings filled with hope and, dare I say, even goodwill…and sometimes filled with the tears of poetic souls who hope for a world in peace and harmony. Disasters caused by humans starting with the January 2024 in Japan, nature and climate change, essays that invite you to recall the past with a hope to learn from it, non-fiction that is just fun or a tribute to ideas, both past and present — it’s all there. Innovative genres started by writers to meet the needs of the times — be it solar punk or weird western — give a sense of movement towards the new. What we do see in these writings is resilience which healed us out of multiple issues and will continue to help us move towards a better future.
A hundred years ago, we did not have the technology to share our views and writings, to connect and make friends with the like-minded across continents. I wonder what surprises hundred years later will hold for us…Maybe, war will have been outlawed by then, as have been malpractices and violences against individuals in the current world. The laws that rule a single man will hopefully apply to larger groups too…
Poetry
Whose life? by Aman Alam. Click here to read.
Winter Consumes by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal. Click here to read.
Hot Dry Summers by Lizzie Packer. Click here to read.
House of Birds (for Pablo Neruda) by Ryan Quinn Flanagan. Click here to read.
Poems for Dylan Thomas by Michael Burch. Click here to read.
Dylan Thomas in Ardmillan Terrace? by Stuart McFarlane. Click here to read.
Bermuda Love Triangle & the Frothiest Coffee by Rhys Hughes. Click here to read.
Satirical Poems by Maithreyi Karnoor. Click here to read.
Three Poems by Rakhi Dalal. 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.
Ye Shao-weng’s poetry ( 1100-1150) has been translated from Mandarin by Rex Tan. Click here to read.
Amalkanti by Nirendranath Chakraborty has been translated from Bengali by Debali Mookerjea-Leonard. Click here to read.
The Mirror by Mubarak Qazi 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.
Pochishe Boisakh (25th of Baisakh) by Tagore (1922), has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Nazrul’s Ghumaite Dao Shranto Robi Re (Let Robi Sleep in Peace) has been translated from Bengali by Professor Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
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.
Tagore’s Shotabdir Surjo Aji ( The Century’s Sun today) has been translated from Bengali by Mitali Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Non-fiction
A narrative by Rabindranath Tagore that gives a glimpse of his first experience of snowfall in Brighton and published in the Tagore family journal, Balak (Children), has been translated from Bengali by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.
Rhys Hughes describes a misadventure that the Welsh poet had while hiking as a tribute to him on Dylan Thomas Day. Click here to read.
Travels of Debendranath Tagore
These are from the memoirs of Tagore’s father translated from Bengali by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.
Rhys Hughes recounts myths around the pizza in prose, fiction and poetry, Click here to read
Devraj Singh Kalsi gives a tongue-in-cheek account of a writer’s dilemma. Click here to read.
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.
The Magic Dragon: Cycling for Peace
Keith Lyons writes of a man who cycled for peace in a conflict ridden world. Click here to read.
Uday Deshwal muses on writing a cover letter for employment. Click here to read.
A Manmade Disaster or Climate Change?
Salma A Shafi writes of floods in Bangladesh from ground level. Click here to read.
Luke Rimmo Minkeng Lego writes of mists and cloudy remembrances in Shillong. Click here to read.
Suzanne Kamata discusses the peace initiatives following the terrors of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide while traveling within the country with her university colleague and students. Click here to read.
Snigdha Agrawal has a bovine encounter in a restaurant. Click here to read.
From Srinagar to Ladakh: A Cyclist’s Diary
Farouk Gulsara travels from Malaysia for a cycling adventure in Kashmir. Click here to read.
A Saga of Self-empowerment in Adversity
Bhaskar Parichha writes of Noor Jahan Bose’s Daughter of The Agunmukha: A Bangla Life, translated from Bengali by Rebecca Whittington. Click here to read.
Meenakshi Malhotra writes of Anjum Katyal’s Safdar Hashmi: Towards Theatre for a Democracy. Click hereto read.
Kiriti Sengupta talks of his encounter with Jatin Das, a legendary artist. Click here to read.
The Comet’s Trail: Remembering Kazi Nazrul Islam
Radha Chakravarty pays tribute to the rebel poet of Bengal. Click here to read.
The Myriad Hues of Tagore by Aruna Chakravarti
Aruna Chakravarti writes on times and the various facets of Tagore. Click here to read.
The Year of Living Dangerously
Professor Fakrul Alam takes us back to the birth of Bangladesh. 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.
Suzanne Kamata talks of the twin disasters in Japan. Click here to read.
Fiction
Shapuray by Nazrul, has been translated from Bengali by Sohana Manzoor. Click here to read.
Naramsetti Umamaheswararao creates a fable around a banyan tree and it’s fruit. Click here to read.
Neeman Sobhan gives a story exploring the impact of the politics of national language on common people. Click here to read.
Paul Mirabile wanders into the realm of the supernatural dating back to the Potato Famine of Ireland in the 1800s. Click here to read.
Farhanaz Rabbani traces the awakening of self worth. Click here to read.
Mohul Bhowmick talks of the passage of an era. Click here to read.
Rebecca Klassen shares a sensitive story about a child and an oak tree. Click here to read.
Galat Aurat or The Wrong Woman
Veena Verma’s story has been translated from Punjabi by C Christine Fair. Click here to read.
A story by Sharaf Shad, has been translated from Balochi by Fazal Baloch. Click here to read.
Conversations
Ratnottama Sengupta talks to Ruchira Gupta, activist for global fight against human trafficking, about her work and introduces her novel, I Kick and I Fly. Click here to read.
A conversation with eminent Singaporean poet and academic, Kirpal Singh, about how his family migrated to Malaya and subsequently Singapore more than 120 years ago. Click here to read.
A brief overview of Rajat Chaudhuri’s Spellcasters and a discussion with the author on his book. Click here to read.
A review of and discussion with Rhys Hughes about his ‘Weird Western’, The Sunset Suite. Click here to read.
Borderless 