Genealogy: Jashodhara Chakraborti

Photo Credit: Jashodhara Chakraborti

You may think I am a street dog, It's a description I defy When it comes to where I come from There's more than meets the eye. My ears aren't dog eared, No, no - you mustn't think that A great great grand uncle Used to be a fruit bat. If my eyes captivate you, I'd like you to know That my maternal grandmother Was part canine, part doe. When I nip downstairs in my trotters Rumours are rife That I used to be Anubis In another life. There's some labrador in me And healthy Indian pie But my home life is rather Bengali That I cannot deny. Between fish, sweets and siesta And Britannia Marie with tea I am quite the Bengali Bhadralok But for the lamppost pee.

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Jashodhara Chakraborti is the author of two fantasy adventures for Young Adults, The Wordkeepers and its sequel, Skyserpents (as Jash Sen). She is also a TedX speaker, a regular moderator at The Kolkata Literary Meet and an occasional columnist. Jashodhara discovered her love for funny rhymes during the lockdown. She will let you decide if she is a poet.

अनमयस्क कविता: Chinmay Jha

Photo Credit: Jr Korpa (@korpa)/ Unsplash Public Domain Dedication

अनमयस्क कविता

बैठा सोचता हूँ

आज शायद-

बेतूकी हर बात कविता

उठ के चलना,

बैठ जाना,

लडखडाना

और संभलना

कुछ नयी

और हाँ-

हर पुरानी बात कविता

दिन पहर

या शाम बोझिल

हर सुबह की बात कविता

एक नशीली रात कविता

बैठा सोचता हूँ

आज शायद-

बेतूकी हर बात कविता|

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Chinmay Jha is a gold medallist in Mathematics at undergraduate-level and an Economics graduate from Delhi School of Economics. In day to day life, he works as a Data Scientist in the field of Machine learning & Artificial Intelligence at a consulting firm. For Chinmay, writing is a creative hobby and an escape from the mundane reality. He writes poems and short stories and is fondly known among the group as "the one who writes Bougainvillea!"

Know Your Poet/Lyricist: Cyrus Vesuvala

Cyrus Dali Vesuvala

Cyrus Dalí Vesuvala is a singer/songwriter who has been writing music and lyrics for over four decades. He has written over 80 original songs, poems, and other musical compositions several of which he has illustrated with his original artwork.

His musical influences include Leonard Cohen, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, CSNY, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beatles, Bread and Jim Croce, not necessarily in that order.

He has also collaborated with other musicians and lyricists in the US, Europe and Bahrain on several projects, working at times as a lyricist and at other times as a musician. He lives in Gurugram.

His music is available at soundcloud.com/psyve.

Listen to Cyrus' Full Circle: Requiem for Benazir (Winds of Change)

Full Circle: Requiem for Benzair (Winds of Change) is NOT intended to be a political song nor indeed intended to make any political statement. It is simply a human response to a double tragedy in an individual's life.

The song is written over a period of almost three decades - most of the "then" part in 1980, about the time of Benazir's father's hanging by his political enemies when they came to power. The "now" part was written almost three decades later when she herself was assassinated while on a political rally. Cyrus consciously chose to NOT tell the story in chronological order... starting with her assassination first.

Lyrics: FULL CIRCLE: REQUIEM FOR BENAZIR (WINDS OF CHANGE )

(NOW)

No solace now to help them cope

A loss so hard to bear

A nation on the brink of hope

Dragged down to such despair

You went out in a flash of heat

In a searing flash of light

Work unfinished, incomplete

Their song was killed tonight

Just as the crowds began to gather

With the setting of the dark

They were singing praises to your father

When the mad man found his mark…

Two thousand miles away I looked

On as the tragedy did unfold

The final chapter in this book

A story left untold

Now as darkness starts to gather

Around your children too

This requiem to your father

Now serves as your cenotaph too

(THEN)

Benazir, your father’s in the ground-

Benazir, you watched them put him down-

Benazir, your father lied- he’d promised not to die,

And Benazir, you’d sworn you wouldn’t cry…

Benazir, your face has turned to stone-

Benazir, you do not weep alone…

Benazir, the winds of change that wiped your tears dry

Now blew your father’s killers from the sky…

Benazir…

Benazir…

Listen to more of Cyrus' songs at soundcloud.com/psyve.