Of disquiet and silence on December 21, 2019How much poetry can a poem bear? It depends. It depends on the talent of the poet and the taste of his or her listener/reader. Generally, you expect a certain degree of poeticism from a piece of poetry which does not necessarily come with cloying lyricism. At first glance, poet and editor Manu Dash’s poems […]
Banning Triple Talaq in India – some socio-cultural implications on August 2, 2019The “Triple Talaq” bill that criminalizes the instant Talaq, passed by the Indian Parliament, has gripped the country in a wide and wild polarization. The bill – popularly known as the Triple Talaq bill – criminalizes “instant divorce,” the practice whereby a Muslim husband can divorce his wife simply by saying “talaq” three times. The […]
Resisting the ridiculous on May 20, 2019Urdu literature, especially Urdu poetry, is largely known by or identified with ghazal – primarily a lyrical form that originated in Arabic literature and having traversed an extended route in Persian, landed in Urdu. Apart from having a specific formal structure, ghazal possesses an essential aesthetic core, i.e. taghazzul that encompasses its diction as well […]
Writing in the time of borderline politics on April 30, 2019Not only did the social media accord us a high voltage of connectivity but we witness also another intriguing offshoot of this development – a certain degree of agency in proliferating, manipulating and controlling our reception as writers – an offshoot that cuts across nation-state borders. The bliss and benefit of this cross-border literary, though […]
Literary diplomacy on April 22, 2018A writer — or to be more precise — a poet with a somewhat provincial outlook, once got a chance to be included in a writers’ delegation that was sent to a neighbouring country. A journey that he still recalls with a nostalgic pride. He considers that event as one of his life achievements: his […]