WIVES

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

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The Poet is the Rosary

Looking at Teji Sethi’s moss laden walls, Urvashi V. finds the collection cinematically significant.

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

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On Collegiality and Other Ballads: feminist poems by male and non-binary allies, edited by Shamayita Sen

Urvashi discusses one of the recent publications by Hawakal

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

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Sanjeev Sethi’s HESITANCIES

“The poetry in Hesitancies is poetry to be read and read again, to find the gems within, endlessly inventive, and with an ever present twinkle of self awareness that drags [Sethi] back from obscurity.” — Dreich Broad

Sanjeev Sethi

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

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বিতান চক্রবর্তীর ‘ল্যান্ডমার্ক’

‘ল্যান্ডমার্ক’ আরম্ভ করলে শেষ না করে নিস্তার নেই। উপরি পাওনা ভাষার সাম্প্রতিকতা। সতেজ, সতর্ক, বুদ্ধিমনস্ক… — অধ্যাপক নবেন্দু সেন

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

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