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I was at a wedding this monsoon, mouth full of delicious food and ears stuffed with brass band litany — an Indian staple when I received a text message from Hawakal about a literary project they wished to discuss with me. I sneaked out, dialled them with a hand over my uncommitted ear, and as the bride and groom took their oaths — younger cousins upholding tradition by hitting on prospective partners — the

Teji Sethi’s moss laden walls is a ceaseless collection of loss ripening (like a cuckoo’s voice and mango blossoms in one of her poems) through sun and rain—the very first offering, previous even to the book’s first section break indicating ‘haiku and senryu,’ memorializes a lost father:

starched turbans
in your wardrobe
long to be
creased

Collegiality and Other Ballads is an object lesson. But, of course, men can do feminism. They must, or be content to let inequality prompt the flailing, lashing damage so many do learn to coolly and cruelly refer to as the human condition. They may do it badly, thrusting a frightened or revolted, lazy or greedy gaze out from a being they believe

CLASSIX (an imprint of Hawakal) is proud to release Sanjeev Sethi’s fifth book of poems, Hesitancies. Sethi is in fine form: he broadens his gaze, looks deeper at himself and his

যে সমাজে ওঁর বাস, সেই সমাজের মানুষজন ওঁর গল্পে হেঁটে চলে বেড়ায়, কথা বলে, ঝগড়া করে, কাঁদে-হাসে, মান-অভিমানের বুলি ঠোঁটে মেখে নেয়। চেনা-জানা মানুষগুলো চরিত্র হয়ে উঠলে তাদের বুঝে নিতে বেগ পেতে হয় না কোনো। এই মেলামেশায় সমাজ আর সময় নিজেরাই চরিত্র হয়ে ওঠে, পাঠকের অগোচরে। আর তখন, অজস্র শব্দরাশি সমস্ত তুচ্ছতার