Literary Trails

Reminiscences, a kavita and tri-lingual calligraphy by H. Masud Taj. …[Read More]…

Anubhav Tulasi’s poetry is suffused with the colour and odour of the Assamese soil and the sensibilities of the Assamese mind. He considers himself an Indian poet with his Assamese identity, intact A selection rendered from Assamese by various translators. …[Read More]…

A neo-gothic tale of a down and out thief and his moment of epiphany when he ‘witnesses’ in the dead of night an old couple being threatened by goons. Are they ‘pleading for his help? Imagination or destiny? U. K. Kumaran. Tr. from Malayalam by K. M. Ajir Kutty …[Read More]…

Poet-artist Radha Gomaty pens a moving fable of a woman seeking love, her disappointments and the pursuit of a resurrection that is just a finger away yet ungraspable, …[Read More]…

Architect-Poet-Calligrapher H. Masud Taj contemplates space-time via a chapati travelogue and memoir that enfolds his poetry and calligraphy. …[Read More]…

Asokan Charuvil’s stories are sharp commentaries on societies torn apart by competing ideologies. The Sea of the Dead is an allegory on times changing, from a more simple nature-friendly life to a modern consumerist one.. Translated from Malayalam by K. M. Ajir Kutty …[Read More]…

Tarapada Roy (936-2007) was a prolific writer and his stories and sketches, mostly humorous, are still relished. His poetry almost never translated before, resonates with the song of the banal, finds flourish in the minor notes of irony that surround us, says Sayandeb Chowdhury.…[Read More]…

Yashoda Nandan Singh translates from Hindi some more of Bhawani Prasad Mishra’s poems including “Mein Sannata Hoon. Also included is the translator’s own short poem.…[Read More]…

In times of divisiveness and hatred, a poet finds the language of love and liberty in the filaments of mothers’ tongues, whispered, carved out of the earth and sweat, rising from silenced histories. Sabika Abbas tr. from Urdu by Pratishtha Pandya…[Read More]…

Jayshree Misra Tripathi calls herself an ‘arranger of words’ pens verses that celebrate homecomings and homelands as more than just physical spaces; as journeys into memory and discoveries of rootedness. …[Read More]…

Poet-artist Radha Gomaty artist of pain and ways of becoming offers up ‘A Beautiful Lie’ and two other poetic meditations with her line sketches, on journeys from some primal location that could end in pain, passion or million shards.…[Read More]…

In his elegy, Riyaz Latif undersores the immense suffering of children in the beleaguered Gaza region A bilingual version.…[Read More]…

Malashri Lal’s poetry fuses the transcendent and the ordinary, the spiritual and the mundane, mythology and modernity; we see the world through multifocal lens, making us aware of the chiaroscuro of life, the light and the aphotic shades. These poems remind us of the beauty in the harvest of autumn, the bloom of spring, finds Mahua Sen. …[Read More]…

All his life Jayant Mahapatra (1928-August 2023) tried hard to maintain a proper ecology in his linguistic environment, to keep alive what is essentially humane and aesthetic from erosion and obliteration. Poet and teacher Anamika pays tribute to this ‘Good Samaritan’ and his Inscape or moral geography.…[Read More]…

Ashok Gopal introduces us to Dalit autobiographical production and consumption, the predominant genre in Dalit Marathi literature by a close reading of prolific Dalit writer Sharankumar Limbale’s own works and review of the subject.…[Read More]…

In this richly evocative tale, Bashir, now a porter the last of a shikar family, meets with his moment of truth about the sacredness of life when he confronts the ‘king’ of the forest, rifle at the ready, to shoot. By Balwant Bhaneja …[Read More]…

Valson Thampu’s Beyond Religion demystifies spirituality, distinguishing it from any one religion and locates it in the individual’s search for God in this life, without middlemen, with the recognition of the diversity of paths to divinity. Ann Harikeerthan reviews. Followed by an excerpt from the book. …[Read More]…

A.J. Thomas poet and former editor of Indian Literature of Sahitya Akademi introduces the reader to Assam’s well known poet Jiban Narah. Steeped in the culture of the Brahmaputra Valley Narah’s poetry is influenced by his Missing tribe identity but expands his poetic presence at the national level. …[Read More]…

Jocelyn Wright delves into a close reading of Kashmira Sheth’s Keeping Corner as an example of what she calls Peace Literature preceded by an overview of the conceptual terrain of that term.…[Read More]…

A searing allegory of the way women are treated in a society governed by misogyny, lax moral codes and a political discourse that sanctifies both. Asghar Wajahat translated by Alok Bhalla.…[Read More]…

“Paksha” lit: “side”, a paksha is the period either side of the Full Moon Day (Purnima); so, an aspect, facet or part of something; derivatively, “take the side of someone in an argument” or “to support something.” In ancient India, there was a rule, during debates, that a proponent could proceed to his next point only if he first repeated in his own words a point made by an objector, and then answered that point to the objector’s satisfaction. Prabhu S. Guptara reflects on this word, lyrically. .…[Read More]…

A riveting and deeply philosophical story on changes in a traditional artisanal family pondered over by a carpenter working on a scaffold in a heavy downpour on a high-rise construction site. By Balwant Bhaneja. …[Read More]…

H Masud Taj contemplates love and poetry via a calligraphic tribute to Kaifi Azmi, who passed away on 10th May in 2002.…[Read More]…

When religions divide hearts and hearths, love can flourish only if both remain open to vaad-samvaad; in life and death. Zakia Mashhadi’s fiction translated by Faruq Hassan and M. U. Memon throbs with contemporary relevance. …[Read More]…

Shruti Kapila’s groundbreaking work Violent Fraternity… embodies a major history of the evolution of foundational Indian political thought that shaped the country’s modernity. Ganeshdatta Poddar reviews …[Read More]…

Michel de Montaigne’s birthday, February 28 is celebrated as National Essay Day. Academician H. Masud Taj reflects on the essay’s tenacious tentativeness. …[Read More]…

Poet and essayist Bibhu Padhi ponders the devastation of the earthquake in Sumatra, its tsunami- effects on India’s eastern coast and is haunted by a child’s tired eyes. Five poems on how “unfaithful life can be” …[Read More]…

How does one cope with grief and loss, the onset of loneliness? This extract from a novella, Resurgence by Balwant Bhaneja, traces with elements of gothic horror, the journey of its grief-stricken protagonist …[Read More]…

Bilingual poet, essayist and literary critic Asif Raza offers up elegiac verses from his collection of poems, self-translated from Urdu, Whispers From the Shadow Side. Exclusive to The Beacon …[Read More]…

The ‘Essay’ has usually occupied a secondary position in the world of literary creations despite its rich history starting with Montaigne down to Borges, Orwell. Chesterton, Nirmal Verma to name a few. Riyaz Latif’s essays that appeared in The Beacon variously, confirm the luminousness of the genre. …[Read More]…

Reminiscences, a kavita and tri-lingual calligraphy by H. Masud Taj. …[Read More]…

A short story about love, remembrance woven as a dream fantasy by the Ganga river by one of India’s foremost fiction writers Zakia Mashhadi. Translated from Urdu by Faruq Hassan …[Read More]…

Two poems by Huzaifa Pandit, a poet , translator and university teacher from Kashmir that express the range of emotions felt by a sensitive soul at the violence wrecked on his land and people. …[Read More]…

A poignant story of a professional man’s decline into homelessness, loss of self-worth and family who finds unexpected enlightenment and recovery of the self. By Balwant Bhaneja…[Read More]…

A short fiction by Mridula Garg, rendered into English by Pooja Sancheti that opens the doors to differing perceptions on life-expectations, and nature’s vicissitudes leading up to a denouement that reflects the whimsical nature of male behaviour …[Read More]…

A searing allegory on the horrors attending the birth of the two nations, seen from the lowest depths up as a prostitute offers the founding fathers a unique option for redemption through compassion, by Krishn Chander. Translated from Urdu by Ayesha Kidwai. …[Read More]…

During a stint at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, social anthropologist Smita Tewari Jassal held a variety of religious conversations in different contexts over six years seeking insights on how religious practices adapt to and accommodate with Turkey’s specific brand of secularism. Her focus? The headscarf, and a Turkish Islamic practice called sohbet. …[Read More]…

In this riveting tale of life on the ghats of a lake, Sundaram, doyen of Gujarati letters, portrays more than just caste hierarchies as he weaves local myths and quotidian chores into gothic fantasy, laced with eroticism, tantalizingly ambiguous in its denouement. Translated by Hemang Ashwinkumar. …[Read More]…

Considered a “poet’s poet” for the standards he set in the genre of Hindi-Urdu modern progressive poetry, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, in this poem translated by Alok Bhalla from Hindi, draws sly distinctions between faith and religion.…[Read More]…

In this poetic dialogue with a marginalized present, Gandhi’s truth of ahimsa gets through to the unborn, holding out the promise of redemption. …[Read More]…

China recently announced it would forgive 23 interest-free loans to 17 African countries and redirect $10 billion of its IMF reserves to nations on the continent in addition to a series of cancellations and restructuring of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019. This disproves the West’s accusations of China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ says Ben Norton …[Read More]…

From K. Satchidanandan, songs of hope, verses of despair, and the faith of love like the light that gets in through the cracks of the gloating darkness.. Self-translated by the poet from Malayalam. …[Read More]…

A mini-fiction pared down to a quiet gothic-horror by Jyothi A, a senior psychiatrist practising in London and translated from Malayalam by poet and translator, A.J. Thomas …[Read More]…

In this collection of poems, self-translated from Malayalam, K. Satchidanandan offers up a vision, dark yet one that lifts the fogs of illusion to show us the way we live…and die …[Read More]…

In the scorching heat of the city, Malashri Lal finds solace in the Amaltaas tree. In the next poem Anju Makhija rues the abandoned farmhouse as a trope for displacement…[Read More]…

M. Nandakumar’s story harkens back to the gothic tales about the alter ego coming alive as we follow our protagonist’s encounters with a life changing ‘other’. Translated from Malayalam by Aadya Sain…[Read More]…

In the sweltering heat of Agra, Jane and Rosie, English tourists and two pedal rickshaw pullers encounter two cultures with their role reversals and self-esteem recoveries in this short story by Balwant Bhaneja…[Read More]…

Asif Raza’s vision of the Creator as a “a self-conflicted Deity and of his Creation as his cathartic relief from his own internal chaos and contradictions” informs his poem Genesis. Two other poems from his unpublished collection, “Whispers from the Shadow Side”.…[Read More]…

The Beacon decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the City Lights Publishers and Bookstore in 1953 in San Francisco by Lawrence Ferlinghetti by putting together four introductory essays on four Beat writers by some of the best critics of their work. Alok Bhalla introduces the issue curated by Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…

The Beat Generation, a multi-generational movement has continued to have an impact, on American culture, its influence still felt in contemporary slam poetry, performance poetry.. As a younger member, Sanders was a prominent artist in the early sixties avant-garde that generated a postmodern art style and a social rebellion that has had a profound influence down to the present day, notes Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…