Fiction & Poetry
FICTION / Ameena goes to America
A young white officer asks her in heavily accented Bangla, “What’s the purpose of your visit?”
CREATIVE NONFICTION / On a romantic night of self
It has been more than a few weeks since I arrived in London for my Master’s, and I still miss my friends, family, and acquaintances back home.
Poetry / Ruins & renaissance
The hurt remained beneath my skin like an unwritten revelation—never acknowledged, never tended to;
FICTION / The long dinner table
A daughter reflects on time and Bengali culture as she revels in the excitement of cooking her parents a meal.
BOOK REVIEW: POETRY / Abdus Selim’s poetry compilation of the ‘60s is a time machine
Abdus Selim’s translation and compilation is a time machine for all of us living in the new age, where poems have become much neutered.
SHOUTxDS Books presents 'Slam Poetry Nights' — Session 5
For its 5th session, SHOUTx DS Books’ Slam Poetry Nights performed at the Dhaka Lit Fest 2023.
FICTION / Matsyanayam - A story of ancient Bengal, and the queen who lived a hundred years
And in the streets of Shonarga, Luna went about on foot, her nupur clinking against her ankles, notifying all passers-by of the good queen’s proximity.
Syed Abul Fatah Sharfuddin Sharaf Al Hussaini: A forgotten poet
The first traceable progeny of the lineage, Syed Fida Hussain, had settled in Delhi during the reign of the fourth Mughal Emperor, Jahangir, with his son, Syed Golam Hussain and his grandsons, Syed Faizuddin Hussain and Syed Mozaffar Hussain; they eventually moved to Kolkata and finally settled down in Dhaka.
A Woman of Substance
She lies on the bed, a broken canvas. Fragments and splinters of an old frame, Faded colors of painted priceless picture, Greys and white, crooked dark veins, wrinkled paper skin. Frames abound on the wall’s fortress,
Anindita Ghose's 'The Illuminated': Can widowhood be freeing?
Long after I was done reading The Illuminated (HarperCollins India, 2021), by Anindita Ghose, I kept thinking about Girl in White Cotton (2020) by Avni Doshi. If one had to choose any recent novel that captured the crevices of a vacillating mother-daughter relationship accurately, it would be these two.
Shelley Parker-Chan’s 'She Who Became The Sun': A song of identity and fate
Identity is mercurial: it shifts and morphs into a new being at the change of a breeze. That change is glacial, and often happens on its own volition; but one can also grasp a new identity, hold it tight till it engulfs the old, and thereby change the trajectory of their life completely.
Lines from Fuller Road
This dawn is unvarying, lovely, peaceful, dewy, Morning sky has opened its store of breathing clouds,
Tarana Husain Khan's 'The Begum and the Dastan': Patriarchy is a labyrinth that defies time
I am convinced that while writing her book, The Begum and the Dastan (Westland Publications, 2021), Tarana Husain Khan’s aim was to leave her readers in a literary stupor, dizzy and yearning for more.
The Burnt Forest
Shengdey awoke suddenly on a bed with an old man sitting beside him. “Are you okay, my child?” He asked, idly stirring a boiling pot of tea.
Ahsan Habib’s On the First-floor Landing: a Duologue
Two flats facing each other He’s on the stairs, she’s at the door
