Mindscape In Cyberspace

Black Robert Journal is an Art and Literature Journal that defines itself by saying, “We subscribe to the notion that there is lots of vital work not being shared, from a spectrum of hills, and we intend to provide contrary voice to the mediocrity of same-same/different-different.”

In their current issue, they have published one Bangla Visual Poetry of mine, titled “Sin” (see the image below) and also an interview with me. The interview was conducted by the poet and vispo artist, Alexander Jorgensen, the Managing Editor of Black Robert Journal.

View my vispo piece here
Read my interview here

Book Cover: Ceiling of Clouds
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Being an avid reader of Bengali poetry and an Bengali literature enthusiast, I always take special interests in the design initiatives that are related to Bengali literature and language. I have designed covers and illustrations for many Bengali poetry collections, novels, short story collections, literature magazines and other similar Bengali publications. Though, I always enjoy working for Bengali books and magazines, I often get really excited if I am working on books that are written or edited by my favorite Bengali authors and poets.

All the covers featured in this post are for poetry collections or novels written by my favorite Bengali authors and poets. It was more than mere professional satisfaction, when I received accolades for these covers from the writer or poet, himself. Quite natural for a designer who loves literature, isn’t it?

Book Cover: The Other Side of the Bread
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Book Cover: Eh Lulu!
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Two of my most recent writings are published on Natunkabita.com - an online Bengali Literature magazine, which is also the online presence of ‘Natun Kabita’ (New Poetry) - one of the most promising Bengali Literature and Poetry Magazines of the time.

I am a regular reader of their printed issues and now I am really excited to see one of my favourite magazines, easily accessible on internet. ‘Natun Kabita’ (New Poetry) is probably one of the very few literary groups in India that consciously tries to question the conventional mode of writing, denies the supremacy of main stream literature, supports non-conformist literary initiatives and regularly publishes strange text pieces; labelled as ‘New Poetry’, like mine! Jokes apart, ‘Natun Kabita’ has been publishing my experimental writings in Bengali, regularly, since 2004 and allowing me to play with language as well as the form, denying all lingustic and literary conventions of mainstream Bengali Literature.

I was reading their ideas about this so called Bengali Natun Kabita or New Poetry and how it was evolved in the last decades of 20th century and thaught it would be helpful for the inquisitive readers if I post few excerpts from their manifesto here,

“In every language and time a conventional main stream of poetry is cultured, it is observed, with nurturing supports from institutions and establishments. … During late eighties through early nineties of last century, young poets from Bengal, … wound up their own magazines under banner of Kobita Campus and initiated the quest for New Poetry. … It was decided to identify the signs of mainstream poetry, then called old poetry, and discard use of those (signs) … Thus came generation of alternative poetry by creation of new space and style, language, centripetal observation from resource point by zeroing subject. They called this NEW POETRY … “

By Barin Ghosal (On behalf of Natun Kabita Online)

The original article “In Search Of Alternative Poetry” can be viewed here »

Another interesting feature on this website is the Video section where they feature video recordings of poetry reading sessions by prominent contemporary Bengali Writers. This issue features, veteran Bengali poet and one of the main conceptualizers of this Bengali “New Poetry” idea - Barin Ghosal.

For inquisitive readers:

• Pronoydhwonir Software - Poetry E-book by Barin Ghosal
• Ku Jhik Jhik - Recent writing of Barin Ghosal »
• Proteekbaad (Symbolism) by Barin Ghosal »
• Amar Somoyer Kabita (Poems of My Time) by Barin Ghosal »

The Season of Watermelons
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I see the dead watermelons, in this season, red and sliced. This season of watermelons gonna be hard, ruthless, I think. The chopper, steel and cold, slits and slices deep in this season, quite often. And someone writes a big ‘3′ on our adultarated blood, with red ink, in this season.

Honestly, in this season of watermelons, in this April, it’s all red, and sliced inside our mind.*

Read the original text in Bengali here
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* I often create images that are directly related to a piece of text. The text contributes to the visual expressions of the image and the image loses its relevance, without the text. The attached image is one of those text-dependant images. The original text is in Bengali (mentioned above in Bengali Unicode) and later I tried to translate the same in English. I do not think the English version is effective enough to bring out the essence of the Bengali text. But that was my best try!