Mindscape In Cyberspace

Boipara.com - Online Archive of Bangla Literature has launched a blog as an extension of their effort to archive non-mainstream Bangla literature and little magazines on Internet and make these rare and marginalized literary works accessible to everyone. This extended archive is called Boiparar Blogpara - A Bengali Literature Archive Blog and can be accessed at following location:

http://boipara.blogspot.com

Few important archived materials on this Bangla Literature Archive Blog:

• Bangla Poems of Falguni Roy
• Short Story of Amiyabhushan Majumdar
• Biography of Sandipan Chattopadhyay (part)
• Writings and Portraits: Works of Hiran Mitra

Boipara, being the first and probably the most viewed online Bengali Literature Archive, focusing on Bengali Little Magazines and marginalized literature, is constantly putting their effort to add more and more content to the archive. This Bangla Literature Archive Blog [http://boipara.blogspot.com] is a new initiative taken by Boipara.com as a part of their endless effort to make alternative Bengali Literature and Little Magazines available and accessible to everyone and anyone.

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 »