Pankhuri Sinha

Dad had a joke!
He went to Calcutta
To do his PhD research
On Bowen the novelist
And was often asked
It seems, why he needed
To go outstation?
To which his reply
Always was a question
‘And you would have
Done it right here?!’
After which, he smiled
Big, nearly laughed
And proceeded to
Tell another story
Or crack another joke
From an interview
Perhaps the most
Significant he faced
From a panel of repute
Which asked him to
Name two fat critics
And baffled he asked back,
‘do you mean physically?’ And was
Questioned again, ‘Then
Do I spiritually?’ after which
He did reply
But before telling us
The names, he would
Burst out laughing !
Over not just academic
Politics, and its painful
Today, but that whole
Environment, which always attempts
To lessen the individual!
The war over shapes
Is mind blowing
And brutal over jobs!

And dad dear, you are gone!
Not that I would
Or could have told you
About the violence of either wars
The turmoil of the times
Are difficult to explain!
Narrative looks for words!
Expression for medium!
But its a loving
Presence that ameliorates things!
And I miss you!

But your absence is full
Of your presence! I guess
Its all your love and concern!

I can’t remember the second of the fat critics
One was Chesterton!
But he isn’t exactly figuring in my interviews
These days!

Ah, writing is such a business of MaaraMaari
Now!

And the residency utility
Debate is the latest
To enter the fighting arena!

That one went to
A residency to write
In itself is a half joke!

One could write sitting
In one’s backyard!
Or by the front porch!

If the exact same
Is not uttered its very cleverly spelt out
In the introduction of the
Other!
So and so has written
So much and so much!

Without loitering around
On hills or in countries
Abroad!

Oh dear dad, wish you
Were around and put in
A word for me!

After all, Maugham wrote
A room with a view in Italy!

Shelley wrote near Naples
Hemingway wrote
The whole world is writing, wherever it
Needs to write! Wants to write?
What ever it needs to write? Why do we have
Such restrictions on topics, places and worse
Prescriptions!
Why do we not just join the bandwagon?

.iBilingual poet, story writer and translator from India. Two poetry collections published in English, two story collections published in Hindi, six poetry collections published in Hindi, and many more are lined up. Has been published in many journals, anthologies, home and abroad. Has won many prestigious, national-international awards, like the Girija Kumar Mathur Award, Chitra Kumar Shailesh Matiyani Award, Seemapuri Times Rajeev Gandhi Excellence Award, First prize for poetry by Rajasthan Patrika, awards in Chekhov festival in Yalta and in Premio Besio Poetry competition in Italy, Sahitto award in Bangladesh, and Premio Galateo in Italy for poetry in mother tongue. Has been translated in over twenty seven languages.

She has studied in Delhi University, Symbiosis Pune, SUNY Buffalo, and the University of Calgary, Canada. She has worked in various positions as a journalist, lecturer and a content editor. Has done writing residencies in Hungary and Bulgaria, and attended the Tranas Literature Festival in Sweden.