A story about a pickpocket

Written after a visit to Stonehenge, Salisbury, on 20/6/2022.

Composed on the occasion of the opening ceremony of Padma Bridge.

A pity, it began as a reflective study. A bird’s eye view of Kafka’s conundrum  Is a fallen leaf lost, or free? I slid a window wide open Found a dead moth crumpled on the sill.

Drowned paddy fields look beautiful throughout the day. In the morning, when there is a rough wind, the flooded rice plants dance in the reflection of drenched sunlight.

Fame, at least in the wake of industrial revolution and immediately after, had as much to do with “production” and “distribution” as with “talent.

Ekti Potaka Pele is a well-known poem by Helal Hafiz. It has been newly translated by Vincent Dip Gomes.

Have you ever tried to call your own cell number? Here's somebody who did and had a strange other worldly experience.

Azhar was a forty-year-old bachelor and an expert locksmith. He also owned a hardware store. He was generally considered to be a good citizen even though fifteen years ago, he went to prison for stealing jewels. But since then, he has been very careful about not getting caught. The stolen money helped him travel around and enjoy the small luxuries of life.

As someone who writes novels, writes about them, and generally works in the medium of prose, I’ve always had an unspeakable envy and admiration for literary forms that take on the moving body of performance.

“The Khans are pretty generous. This year, they have distributed over 1000 pieces of clothes, all new.”

Peach seas murmur with the colours of the setting sun. There are no peach trees here — only

She was about to throw me along with her old clothes. Only at the last minute, she grabbed me by my nape, and pushed me inside the washing machine.

The wide alleys and cobbled streets in the sultry air of the Mumbai city did not present a scenic panorama with foliage and greenery.

Come June 25

“Akalir Station er Jibon” (“Akali’s life at the Station”) depicts the struggling life of a working- class woman called Akali, who earns her livelihood by prostitution at Kamalapur Rail Station.

Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) has been customarily characterized as a rebel poet, particularly, if not exclusively, because of his 1922 poem called “Bidrohi” (the Rebel)—a poem that fiercely stages his political, linguistic, even metrical rebellion all at once.

I had to come to this dense forest yesterday. I have no clue why we had to fall back. This is the beauty of military life-- the order comes and you have to do it. You can never ask, “Why do I have to do it?”

After I go

Back in 2013, my wife’s job took her to Kunming, the capital province of Yunnan in China. Google translator back then was in its infancy, and the amount of