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Human ordeals thrive on ignorance.

To understand a problem with clarity
is already half way towards solving it.
Confusion distorts individual behaviour as well as social action,
and ignorance of the effectiveness of societal intervention
contributes greatly to resignation, fatalism
and, ultimately, callousness.
Amartya Sen


7, 1

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Hindol
Year 7, No. 1

, 1422

Editorial Team :
Malabika Majumdar, Maitrayee Sen,
Ajanta Dutt, Nandan Dasgupta

April, 2015

E-46, Greater Kailash-I,

New Delhi-110048
ohetuk.sabha@gmail.com

ISSN 0976-0989

Front & Back Inside Cover

Srishti Gupta
Back Cover:
Biren De

S
^ S
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92131344879891689053

Artists:
William Hogarth
Sukumar Ray
Jyotirmoy Ray
Photo Credits:
Bharati Sarkar
Madhumita Dasgupta

S
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9
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Bharati Sarkar

DG The Pioneer Filmmaker

75

Sakshi Dogra

The Alchemist

79

Shweta Khilnani

Brick Lane

83

Nilanjana Mukherjee

Poem - A Call

&5

Read : http://www.scribd.com/collections/3537598/Hindol
Blog : ohetukadda.wordpress.com
Give : Make your cheques to Ohetuk Sabha
Call : 98110-24547

1422
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GIVE A GIFT
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Dear Reader,
On the occasion of the Bengali New Year Team Ohetuk
greets you with Shubho Noboborsho. We wish you a peaceful
and fulfilling year.
As Hindol turns six and Ohetuk Adda turns seven, we are
proud to say that our effort to target a distinguished circle of
readers has not gone in vain.
The quarterly bi-lingual literary magazine, as you are aware,
is supported entirely by patron enthusiasm; yet we keep facing
cash flow problems. Annual expenses of the magazine run close
to Rs. 1.5 lakhs. We appeal to you to give whatever you can just
once a year to make a dent in that figure. As you know, every
bit helps.
Please extend the request to your friends too. Cash or cheques
in favour of Ohetuk Sabha can be sent to E 46, Greater Kailash
I, New Delhi - 110048.
Hindol survives on your friendship and patronage. We thank
you for that and once again wish you a delightful year ahead.
Team Ohetuk

, 1422

[S A]

, 1422

10

Dear Nandan,
I just read through Hindol - Forgotten Bengalis No. 2 a few minutes
ago. What a fascinating number. Many like Chintamoni Kar, J C Bose,
Gopal Bhattacharya, Suren Sen have early memories in my mind. I still
have three owlets' pictures shot in Dr. Sen's university bungalow. I will
give you the negative to keep. It should be with you. See if you can print
it.

13.3.2015

Dhruva N. Chaudhuri
Faridabad

I received the Special Issue of Hindol on Forgotten Bengalis (2)

today. I read the article ' Nobel Joyeer Sanniddhye Satyen' with bated
breath. Shantiranjan Basu had paid glowing tributes to Satyen Bose. ' O
ek oiskanto purush.' It is a beautiful expression and aptly describes
him.
However, there are some factual errors. Satyen went to Europe in
1924. May be he worked with Madame Curie in 1925. Whether the
year was 1924 or 1925 requires further research to establish. But Satyen
was never referred to as Basu in Europe. He was Bose. Maybe Bose
with an accent on 'e', but not Basu. Referring to him as Basu by the
Curie family is erroneous and appears strange to our ears.
Was really Satyen Bose really that intimate with Irene? I would not
be surprised if he were. In his youth with his genius he must have been
an irresistible young man. But is there any proof?
Kamal K. Mitra
Kolkata

24.3.2015

, 1422

11

From The Statesman, New Delhi,

Monday 06 April 2015

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FORGOTTEN BENGALIS
One can bank on Hindol, the
quarterly so valiantly being brought
out for the past six years, to give
readers a mindful of pleasurable
reading. The latest issue celebrates
Forgotten Bengalis, who have left their
mark from Bengal to Delhi. Included
are Kazi Nazrul Islam, the eternal
songster; the physicist Sir J.C. Bose,
genius par excellence; Toru Dutt, the
tragic poetess (born a year before the
"Mutiny"), who died at age 21 and is
now a forgotten heroine; Tapan Sinha
and Tarun Mazumdar, two tragedymarred filmmakers; and S N Sen, at
some time Vice Chancellor of Delhi
University, who besides other
achievements, wrote the classic
Eighteen Fifty-seven at the behest of
Maulana Azad.
The collection, with cover
paintings by Nandalal Bose (18821966), legendary disciple of
Abanindranath Tagore, are worth
admiring. Hindol is distributed free and
is published from donations by the
Bengali elite, mainly from Delhi. One
hopes it will continue to delight
discerning readers, despite financial
constraints.
R V Smith

12

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Unfortunately most of the Mughal gardens have suffered from neglect and interference from people with a different taste...Qudsia
Begum, wife of an Emperor... and mother of another... gave her name
to the pretty garden which once stood on the banks of the Jumna.
The river has since receded further east and the enclosing walls have
also been removed but the garden is still a popular recreation ground.

, 1422

29

30

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R V Smith The Delhi that No One Knows- The British came and fell in love with the park for it provided them
with ample space to play tennis and other games and also the
pleasure of long walks in congenial surroundings. Then a Masonic
Lodge was built here and the local people tried to keep away from
it, considering it to be a house of magic.

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The gateway is extremely dilapidated but was clearly once a sumptuous building. Here we have a truly baroque, even rococo, affair,
built mainly from brick but with finely carved red sandstone intricately sculpted plasterwork, much of which has now fallen off.

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The three domes are as elaborate as they could be, with each band
of the fluting clasped at its base by a leaf. The battlements have
a more conventional Kangara Pattern but, without the solid support
found in sultanate buildings or the structural integrity of earlier
Mughal buildings, they have mostly fallen. The facade is plastered
and divided into shallow panels. Each of the entrances is set within
an iwan, with complex net vaulting in each. Inside there is another
display of net vaulting and rococo flourishes. Attached to the back
of the mosque are remains of further vaulted rooms, presumbly a
garden pavilion.

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Fall of the Mughal Empire Neither her humble birth and ignoble profession, nor her later life
in the royal harem had fitted her to play worthily the part of the
veiled power behind the throne in which so many queens of Muslim
India have distinguished themselves. She remained the same vulgar
woman of loose character to the end..., using her son's elevation as
a lever for asserting her own greatness at Court and for grasping at
money.

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This is the middle section of the original garden; there were buildings
and canals above the Sheesh Mahal and another larger pool below
the existing one, discharging into a large tank outside the walls of
the garden.

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Fronting the portal, even in Orcus' jaws,
Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed;
And pale Diseases house, and dolorous Eld,
And Fear and Famine, counselor of crime,
And loathly Want, shapes terrible to view,
And Death and Travail, and, Death's own brother, Sleep,
And the soul's guilty joys, and murderous War
Full on the threshold, and the iron cells
Of the Eumenides, and mad Discord, who
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18th century British painter William Hogarth, best known for his moral works
was much copied illegally prompting the first copyright law in visual arts,
nicknamed Hogarths Act. The present painting is the last of the four-painting
set The Four Stages of Cruelty depicting the end of a cruel persons life. These
words of critic Anthony Bertram may well have described Madhusudan Datta
We may also judge that he was insular, intolerant, conceited, coarse and
mundane; that he subordinated art to the service of a commonplace morality;
that he might be described as a genius who dropped his aitches. But all that
being admitted, we must yet conclude that he is an author, to use his own
favourite word, of profound sincerity, of penetrating insight into character, of
rich invention and of superb competence in his elected field.

, 1422

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, 1422

Heroic Poetry after Meghnad. A fresh attempt would be something

like a repetition. But there is the wide field of Romantic and Lyric
Poetry before me, amd I think I have tendency in the Lyrical way.

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'I'd give my life to fly in space. I'd have then and will now.'
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63
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64

On Crime and Punishment

Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong
as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an
intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond
the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which
is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge
of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you
all.
- Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet
This issue of
HINDOL
is supported by
PINAKI ROY
NEERA BOSE
KALPANA KIRTY
KUNAL SEN
SUCHETA GHOSH
&
RAHUL MAJUMDAR

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65

On Crime and Punishment

And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and
lay the axe unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;
And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful
and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.
Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one
man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day
of his god-self,
And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest
stone in its foundation.
- Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet

This issue of
HINDOL
is supported by
LOTIKA SARKAR
PRABIR SEN
SONA ROY
SMITA CHAUDHURI
ANUBHA GHOSH
&
NANDITA MUKHOPADHYAY

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66
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71

72
Bharati Sarkar
Delhi

DG - the Pioneer Filmmaker

Dhirendra Nath Ganguly, fondly referred to as DG, was a pioneer

film-maker in Bengal starting out in the silent era. Born in an eminent
and highly educated family in Barisal, now in Bangladesh, DG was the
fourth of five brothers. All his brothers were well-placed in life and
would often tease him for his obsession with film-making. Their prediction
was that he would end up only as a posterboy as he had great passion
for art and painting also! But DG was extremely gifted and with his
never-say-die spirit could overcome the near insurmountable odds,
going on to make 49 films.
Born in 1893, his early education was in Barisal, at B M School - an
institution of repute founded by Mahatma Aswini Kumar Dutt. Once
when Rabindranath Tagore visited Barisal, DGs father requested him
to take the boy under his tutelage. Soon thereafter, DG was in
Santiniketan and became a favourite of Gurudev. Once, observing the
young DG engrossed in painting, Gurudev advised him to join the art
classes under Abanindranath Tagore. However, he jokingly implored
him not to draw Gurudevs portrait!
But what DG created later were truly works of art. Filmmaking in
the early decades of the 20th century was beset with great obstacles.
Women refused to be involved in them hence men were required to fill
the void .often ridiculously dressed. DG was determined to get ladies
from good families to act in his films. He believed that film was a beautiful
artistic medium through which the best and the worst prevalent in the
society could be portrayed. His movies were also laden with humour

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DG - the Pioneer Filmmaker

and were full of hilarious

episodes which provided
pure entertainment.
Once DG requested a
close friend to convince his
wife to act in one of his silent
films. His friend sharply
retorted and questioned him
why he was not involving his
own wife, who was no less
beautiful. DGs adorable,
young wife Premika Devi
(screen name Ramola Devi)
then acted in two of his films,
Flames of Flesh and
Panchoshar and earned a
name for herself instantly.
However, at age 22 she died
an untimely death, leaving
behind two little girls whom
DG single-parented for a few years, till he remarried.
His younger daughter Monica was nurtured, trained and inducted
into films by him. She went on to attain name and fame first as a child
artist and later in lead roles. She acted with eminent stars such as Chabi
Biswas, Ahin Chowdhury, Kanan Devi, Shambhu Mitra , Tripti Mitra
and Uttam Kumar.
In his ventures, DG enjoyed the support of Pramothesh Barua,
Debaki Bose amongst many others. His assistant director was Hemen
Gupta (his sister-in-laws husband) whose son, Dinen Gupta was a
well known director and cinematographer. Some of DGs outstanding
films are: Mastuto Bhai, Bidrohi, Excuse Me Sir, Haal Bangla (named
by Rabindranath Tagore), Dabi, Path Bhule and Bilet Pherat (England
Returned), his first film which was released in February 1921.
This apart, DGs prowess on the stage was also noteworthy. The
most remarkable of all was when he acted in the play Aleek Babu as
a youth of 22 years .. at the age of 80 years! His make-up itself took
more than 5 hours.

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73

74

DG - the Pioneer Filmmaker

DG was an expert in
the art of make-up and his
books such as Bhaber
Obhibyekti carry his
photographs disguised as
men and women from
various walks of life. Once
his friends the famous
Debaki
Bose
and
Pramathesh
Baruah
challenged DG saying that
make-up can never be so
perfect as to fool those who
know you well. So DG
disguised himself as a
beggar and reached the
sets. The guard could not
drive the beggar away
inspite of his best efforts
and DG the beggar forced him to call people from the studio and they
offered him alms. Needless to say, he won the bet.
DG was a very fashionable and meticulous man; in his good times
he owned and drove large, fancy cars and led a generous life.
Unfortunately, as it so happens ever so often in our country, rewards
and recognition are bestowed on a person rather late in his life and
many talented individuals are compelled to lead a life of penury in their
twilight years. DG was no exception. He was 80 plus when he received
the Padma Bhushan and then the Dadasaheb Phalke awards from the
Government of India. His keen sense of humour and zest for life, however,
remained intact till his last hours when he laughed and joked with his
daughter about his impending death.
Source: DGs daughter Monica Guha Thakurta and her book DG O Bangla Film.

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75
Sakshi Dogra
Delhi

The Alchemist: A Fable about

Desiring Undesirable Desires

The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, tells the tale of a young shepherd

in Spain who one fine day dreams about a treasure thats buried around
the pyramids. Due to the recurrence of the dream he decides to undertake
a journey to the pyramids in search of this treasure. Although orientalist
tendencies, biblical references and fatalistic clichs abound in the book,
the paper attempts to steer clear of them and instead focus on how
desire is shaped and manipulated which is in turn reflective of the current
times of advertising and commodity competition.
The Desiring Subject
Santiago desires the treasure that he has dreamt about and then
undertakes a journey to possess that desire. Throughout the narrative
we observe in Santiago a hesitance to go forward with his quest.
However, time and again, either the omens or the various characters
seduce him into taking his journey to its rightful end. This treasure is
constantly passed off as something without which Santiago is going to
suffer from deep unhappiness. When Santiago is about to dismiss the
thought of taking his journey forward he runs into the king of Salem, a
godly, fatherly figures who breaks into a discourse on why Santiago
should go forward with his desire/dream. Also, what is interesting is the
observation made by Santiago that the king, the merchant, and the candy
seller - all who plunge him into the endless circuit of desire share similar
features, a trait that is reminiscent of how all advertisements owing to
certain quintessential gimmicks and standardisation appear cloned.
As the novel progresses various aspects of desire induction become

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76

The Alchemist

more glaring. The following lines articulated by the King put things in
perspective.
Its a force that appears to be negative, but actually shows you
how to realize your destiny. It prepares your spirit and your will,
because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or
whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, its
because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. Its your
mission on earth. (TA 56)

Thus, not only is desire cultivated and perpetuated it is also

naturalized. The desire is offered as something born out of the soul of
the universe. All the cultural and capitalist stimuli that encourage the
desire are negated and it is passed off as something that is born out of
some essential need of man to excel and thrive. The omens in the book
perform a similar function. Time and again they figure in the text not as
innocent agents that help man reach his higher genius or destiny but
rather as tropes of the system to further the end of articulating and
producing desire.
Advertising the Lack
As mentioned before, throughout the book Santiago fights the urge
to settle down. Time and again omens and people convince or rather
dupe him into believing that what he has is not enough. Every endeavour,
every achievement of his lacks what the treasure is advertised as
possessing. Thus, coercion is performed by the hypnosis of suggestion.
Roland Barthes takes up similar themes in Mythologies when he speaks
of how various phenomena are naturalized for the bourgeoisie to
consume. The following exchange that takes place between the
alchemist and Santiago is most enlightening in this respect:
I have already found my treasure. I have a camel, I have my
money from the crystal shop, and I have fifty gold pieces. In my
own country, I would be a rich man.
But none of that is from the Pyramids, said the alchemist.

The demand is thus not unadulterated natural demand for a necessity.

The demand is one thats created by the market to further its own logic.
Thus, the end is not to meet the needs of the people as would be the
faade worn by it but rather to accentuate demand and produce capital.
Thus, the need for the product does not precede the supply leading to
the extinction of the conventional demand and supply model.

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The Alchemist

Unending Ending
The book concludes with Santiago finding the treasure in the church
in Spain which he used to frequent regularly. However, the conclusion
does not mark the end of this cyclical and repetitive nature of desire.
Gourd uses the metaphor of the wheel of life to explain the phenomenon
of undying and perpetual desire.
Gould specifies a consumption sequence in which object desire
arises, money is sought to fulfil it, and the object is acquired and
consumed. Postconsumption bliss brings the death of desire,
leading to the rebirth of desire focused on a new object.

Thus the book ends not with a satiated desire but with a rebirth of
another desire or transference of that desire onto something else.
The wind began to blow again. It was the levanter, the wind that
came from Africa. It didnt bring with it the smell of the desert, nor
the threat of Moorish invasion. Instead, it brought the scent of a
perfume he knew well, and the touch of a kissa kiss that came
from far away, slowly, slowly, until it rested on his lips. The boy
smiled. It was the first time she had done that.
Im coming, Fatima, he said.

Thus, the desire for the

treasure is substituted by the
desire for the woman. Two
threads of arguments open up
in the last few lines of the book.
The first is that of the
endlessness of desire. Desire
is then akin to commodity
fetishism and does not ever
exhaust itself. The second
argument recovers some
gender centric questions. If
desire in unending and one
commodity is replaced by
another then Fatima needs to
be read like another
commodity? The woman thus
comes to be circulated in the
market as merely the next

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77

78

The Alchemist

object that presumably will leave the consumer with a sense of

gratification. She becomes the next quest that needs to be undertaken.
Equivalence is then maintained between the material desire of the
treasure and the corporeal desire for the woman.
Conclusion
Thus the alchemist can be read as a text thats far from a dialogue
of dreaming and fulfilling your dreams. It can rather be read as a text
that speaks of how desire is cultivated, how market is created then to
meet that desire and how this desire is always and necessarily insatiable
and unsaturated. There is always transference in desire. What remains
to be seen is whether the success of the book can be attributed to a
certain kind of identification with similar currents outside the text. The
masking of the trend of fetishism, of desire and advertising under the
garb of dreams, objectivism and positivism then would need to read as
the contemporary state of being. Subsequently, do spiritual books then
act like pressure valves that help vent out the anxieties by keeping the
project of duping the people under purdah. And if the answer to the
question is affirmative then cannot the proliferation in the spiritual fiction
writing be seen as another attempt at maintaining the stronghold of
consumerist culture and legitimizing it.
Works cited
Belk, Russell W, Gliz Ger and Sren Askegaard. The Fire of Desire: A Multisited
Inquiry into Consumer Passion. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.
30, (2003): 326-351.
Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. Harper Collins, 1993.
Simmel, George. The Philosophy of Money. London: Routledge, 2004.

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79
Shweta Khilnani
Delhi

Sartorial Dynamics
in Monica Alis Brick Lane

Being dressed is, after all, never natural, declares Claire Hughes
in her book titled Dressed in Fiction. She adds, an authors employment
of dress and accessories can illuminate the structure of a text, its values,
its meaning or its symbolic pattern (Hughes 6). Besides being a material
indicator of class position, dress is the most visible sign which decides
an individuals inclusion or exclusion within a social setting. Within South
Asian diasporic fiction, characters sartorial choices are suggestive of
their sense of self and where they choose to situate themselves within
the self/other divide.
Monica Alis debut novel Brick Lane (2003) encapsulates a varied
register of attitudes towards the politics of dress. Set in Tower Hamlets,
a neighbourhood in London known for its population of Bangladeshi
immigrants, the novel charts the life of Nazneen and her transformation
from a young, listless bride to a self-aware, independent mother of two
daughters. When she first comes to London as a seventeen year old,
Nazneeens encounter with the city and its people is primarily extralingual since she has little knowledge of English. Therefore, she articulates
the external world through other visual mediators, one of which is dress.
The trope of clothing functions across multiple levels in the text; besides
being a cultural signifier, it is also the means through which Bangladeshi
women like Nazneen attain a level of financial independence. By the
end of the novel, both Nazneen and her friend, Razia can successfully
support their families on their income from sewing and manufacturing
clothes.

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80

Brick Lane

Through the sartorial choices made by different characters, Ali

demonstrates the finer nuances of the relationship between dress and
individual subjectivity. The issue is first discussed explicitly by Mrs.
Azad who acknowledges the significance of dress in a socio-ethnic
setting. For her, dressing up in a mini skirt becomes a mode of survival
in the English society; she says, Listen, when Im in Bangladesh I put
on a sari and cover my head and all that. But here I go out to work. I
work with white girls and I am just one of them (Ali 114). Clearly,
dress becomes a significant marker of visible alterity. She goes on to
suggest that one has to comply with a societys traditions in the public
realm while they are free to indulge in their cultural and ethnic practices
behind closed doors. Women who are unable to maintain this distinction
lead their lives covered from head to toe, in their walking prisons (Ali
114) and this, for her, is the ultimate tragedy.
Razias transformation is neatly mirrored on to the clothes she
wears. In the beginning of the novel, she is seen wearing a sari but later
she switches to more western outfits like tracksuits and sweatshirts.
The act of wearing a sweatshirt with the Union Jack printed across it is
a conscious attempt to fashion herself as a British subject and it coincides
with her receiving the British passport. Even as Razia decides never to
wear a sari again since she was tired of taking little bird steps (Ali
95), her dressing sense betrays certain signs of her ethnic origins. Even
while wearing tracksuits, Razia tries to cover her head with a scarf.
Pereira-Ares believes that Razia constructs a hybrid identity for herself
and studies her case as an example of Homi Bhabhas conceptualisation
of cultural translation (208). Razia situates herself between two
cultures and learns to translate and negotiate between them in the
language of clothes. At other occasions in the novel, dress plays a
significant role in the process of establishing identity. After the 9/11
attacks, women upgrade to burkhas from hijab, with an aim to assert
their religious belonging sartorially. Similarly, Karim starts wearing white
kurta pyjama instead of a jeans and a T-shirt and this transformation is
again symptomatic of his deepening involvement in the religious war
against the West.
If these narratives lead us to believe in an unequivocal relationship
between dress and individual subjectivity, Nazneens narrative
problematizes this stance considerably. Right from the beginning, she

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Brick Lane

dresses in accordance with traditional Bangladeshi norms, keeping her

head covered whenever she steps out of the house. While she is
extremely perceptive of the changes in the dressing patterns of people
around her including Razia and Karim, she undergoes a different journey
of sorts. That being said, it would be misplaced to say that she doesnt
recognize the potential of a sartorial makeover. At a particular instance
in the novel, she is seized with panic as her silk sari stifles her like a
heavy chain[s] (Ali 277).
Suddenly, she was gripped by the idea that if she changed her
clothes her entire life would change as well. If she wore trousers
and underwear like the girl with the camera on Brick Lane, then
she would roam the streets fearless and proud. And if she had a
tiny tiny skirt with knickers to match and a tight bright top, she
would how could she not? skate through life with a sparkling
smile and a handsome man who took her hand and made her spin,
spin, spin. (277)

In this moment, she has the urge to rip apart her sari and step into a
new dress and a new life all at once. Yet, the moment passes instantly
and she goes on with her daily
life. At one level, this can be
read as Alis warning against
an over-simplification of the
equation between dress and
identity. There is a mild touch
of satire when Ali writes, For
a glorious moment it was clear
that clothes, not fate, made her
life (278). Ali seems to
suggest that Nazneen needs to
go through a more nuanced
experience to find her true self
and a mere change of wardrobe
will only bring about a
superficial transformation. It is
possible to believe that Ali could
be alerting her readers to the
dangers of essentialising
postcolonial stereotypes.

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81

82

Brick Lane

Towards the end of the novel, Nazneen gets ready to skate on ice
thereby fulfilling her long held fantasy. When she expresses her
apprehension saying that one cant skate in a sari, Razia replies by
saying, This is EnglandYou can do whatever you like (Ali 492).
This is represented as a moment of victory, both for Nazneen as an
individual and as a member of the Bangladeshi diaspora in England.
The fact that she isnt compelled to choose between her ethnic belonging
and one of the earliest images that she associates with England i.e. ice
skating, is testament to the realization of the ultimate multicultural dream
i.e. a world where she has made peace with her religion, ethnicity and
nationality simultaneously. Significantly enough, this moment of supreme
reconciliation is mediated through dress, once again revealing the
importance of seemingly trivial cultural markers as tokens through which
identities are forged.
Bibliography
Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. London: Black Swan, 2004. Print.
Hughes, Claire. Dressed in Fiction. Oxford: Berg, 2006.
Pereira-Ares, Noemi. The Politics of Hijab in Monica Alis Brick Lane. Journal
of Commonwealth Literature. 48.2 (2013): 201-220. Sage Pub. Web. 31
Dec. 2013.

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83

A CALL
Nilanjana Mukherjee
Stilled by own splendour
Dawn pauses
Breath descends
From a saffron sky to dancing wavelines.
Endless lace
Spreads on the sands of time.
Fishlings washed ashore
Deathless beauty in silver strands
Smiles in morning light
At life spreading its wings,
Sweeping low over sands
To gather gifts of the waves
And rising to ride the winds
Till, in their turn,
Earth calls them to rest
And release.
The waves are calling,
The breeze awakens,
Your light fills
My sails billowing
Welcometide!
When it is time,
Upon my last wave
Let me dance ashore in bliss.
To rest a while
On these loving sands
And melt into dawnglow
On a dawn like this.
On a dawn like this.

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84

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Contributions are invited for our new column on social issues :
The Last Word

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