Wani Nazir — Excerpt: Santosh Bakaya’s poetic mini-epic is an evocation of the dreamscape bathed in lost garden scents and memory whorls, and the rhythms of a haunted, healing world.
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Farrukh Dhondy’s Rumi: Bridging Mysticism, Music, and Modernity
Wani Nazir — Excerpt: They are a musical, rhythmic, and symbolic world, and every metaphor has a spiritual, cultural, and cosmic meaning. Translating Rumi might either dampen the original’s exuberant essence or sever its strong ties to Persian and Sufi culture.
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Dwelling in Dust and Memory: Rohit Manchanda’s A Speck of Coal Dust
Wani Nazir — Excerpt: Manchanda’s comprehensive description reminds me of Narayan’s Malgudi, which is very place-based, or Anita Desai’s researched landscapes. But his view is full of life, character, and joy in the small things in life.
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The Ustad Who Stole Harmony — Review of Ustad Allauddin Khan’s My Life: Story of an Imperfect Musician
Anjana Basu — Excerpt: Revered as the founder of the Maihar Gharana and guru to greats such as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Nikhil Banerjee, Allauddin Khan left behind not only a musical legacy but also a personal account of his extraordinary journey.
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Translating the Ache in The Dead Fish: Mahua Sen and the Many Voices of Rajkamal Choudhary
Wani Nazir — Excerpt: Choudhary doesn’t write about real life in the usual way; his world is strange and frenetic. The holy and the vile walk hand in hand. Sometimes a prayer turns into a protest. Sen has a hard job expressing that tilt, when faith turns into irony.