We stand at the crossroads today at a critical point of time in human history, as scientists tell us that the pandemic which is having a devastating effect on human populations across the world, is the result of thoughtless planetary degradation which has accelerated climate change.
Children have been introduced to the virtual classroom and playgrounds are off limits. The joy of student community activities, of classroom debates at universities have been taken away from university life and replaced by blended learning. We have read in history about fearful times when the plague struck, and the effects of Spanish Flu as it swept across countries – an experience which remains close to our living memory.
And more recently we have encountered the dangers imposed by SARS, Ebola and MERS, but these now seem either in the recent past or limited to some regions and hence not as terrifying as SARS COV 2 with its global reach and disastrous effect. As lockdowns continue in different countries at different stages and international borders close to countries reeling under a second wave of a new variant, we concede that these are unprecedented times.
Issue 5 – Summer 2021
Title Page, Editorial Board, Advisory Board
Contents
Foreword
Bashabi Fraser and Saptarshi Mallick – The Unity of All Things 1 – 4
Section I: Prose 5 – 63
Beth Junor – Notes from a Gallery 6
Tom Hubbard – Happy Clappy City 10
Debapriti Sengupta – Pulak‘s Mother 14
Meaghan Delahunt – fragments 16
Amrita Dasgupta – The Scars of History 25
Jane Ep – Reflections 30
Laura Lukasova – Sweet child 33
Swarnava Chaudhuri – Looking Back: Life trapped in a Pandemic 35
Olga Wojtas – Journey 38
Jim Aitken – Walking with Eileen 40
Anjana (Jhuma) Sen – Wind Beneath My Wings 45
Rita Rigg – Physicians personal journey through (the story of..) COVID 50
Parantap Chakraborty – Halakarṣana: Rabindranath Tagore 56
Section II: Poetry 64 – 199
Chrys Salt – Mountain Voices, Lockdown Celandine 65
Alan Spence – Kali 69
Sanjukta Dasgupta – Ah! Peace, Coffin Factory, What a Skewed World! 70
Tabish Khair – O, Bard of my Land 76
Tapati Gupta – Making Bridges 78
Wayne Price – Lids, Moles, October Again, Llanwynno 80
Shabbir Banoobhai – today i hugged you in a dream, When it‘s Done, when you come to visit us, Shipwreck 84
Jenny Mitchell – Safe to Hug, Soothing Song, Late Flowering Dad 89
David Wheatley – Dispraxia Ode, Ellis O‘Connor, West No. 3 92
Joyce Caplan – Wild Swimmers at Wardie, After the Snow 94
Donald Adamson – Fresh Air 96
Elspeth Brown – All Manner of Things 98
Susmita Paul – Weight of black holes, Truth, Translation 100
Derrick McClure – Tae M., Efter Adam Mickiewicz 104
Valerie Gillies – The Bellspool, River Tweed 108
Ross Donlon – Hope 109
Ranita Hirji – Waiting on Rain, Cobbler: Lockdown 110
Anupa Lewis – The Conservatory, Winged Fluorescence 112
Mario Relich – Shades of Pink 114
Subodh Sarkar – For You, Sara Gilbert 117
Basudhara Roy – Keeping In, The Premise of a Promise 119
Stewart Sanderson – Adder, Eagle, Juniper, Seraphim 123
Priyanka Joshi – Like Water 127
Richard C. Bower – Sunshine Smiles Upon My Face 129
Santosh K Dary – A Better Life, Weaving Dreams 130
Chris Agee – The Rainbow Poem, The Cypress Poem, The Dove Poem 135
Elizabeth Uter – Maybe Dreams 138
Simon Fletcher – Gall Wasp Takes a Bow at ‗The Globe‘, Daisy Riot, Common Spotted, Refuge 140
Ali Whitelock – the town itself, let us admit, is ugly; in the event of a lack of oxygen 146
Christopher Jupp – Holyrood Haiku 150
Shanta Acharya – All You Can Do, Aspects of Westonbirt Arboretum, Something To Do With Love 151
Brian D‘Arcy – It‘s Ecology – stupid, No Ice – Scream, Inheritance 156
Debasish Lahiri – Nocturne before Rain, Ripples 159
Charlie Gracie – Since March 2020 164
Anjana (Jhuma) Sen – Season of Disquiet 166
Sue Whitmore – The Book of Virus 168
Riddhiman Roy – Homecoming, Separation, The Storm 170
Em Strang – Snow, Us 177
Donal McLaughlin – from: a steady trickle 179
S. J. Litherland – Breath of the Virus, In Abandoned Grounds, Isolation, Nostalgia 182
Alan Riach – Since Then: 1 Spring, Since Then: 2 Summer, Since Then: 3 Autumn, So long,
SciFi Truth Poems 188
Debjani Chatterjee – Lost and Found, Brooding 195
Section III: Drama 200 – 211
Piyush Roy – Amrtah: The Creation Chapter 201
Section IV: Art 212 – 229
Anupa Lewis – Ila‘s Worlds, Into the Blues, Mixed Media Spring Haze, Abstract Winter Blossoms 213
Shahil Datta – Continuity, Where the head is held high, Revival 218
Praseed Nair – Books of Life, Colours of Nature, Leaf Lives, Lush Green 221
Sue Whitmore – Isolation, Sardonyx Man, The Block 226
Section V: Book Reviews 230 – 245
Declarations on Freedom for Writers and Readers. Reviewed by Liz Niven 231
Tom Hubbard, The Devil and Michael Scot: A Gallimaufry of Fife and Beyond. Reviewed by Kenny Munro – Energising a Cultural Renaissance in Fife and Beyond 234
Somdatta Mandal – ‘Kobi’ & ‘Rani’: Memoirs and Correspondences of Nirmalkumari Mahalanobis & Rabindranath Tagore. Reviewed by Malashri Lal 237
Gail Low & Kirsty Gunn, Imagined Spaces. Reviewed by Mario Relich – ‘setting it free‘: The Essay Today 241
Gitanjali & Beyond Issue 5_Final