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  Only in Print  

  Looking Back
  Vol II : issue 2

  Amit Chaudhuri
  Cass Sunstein
  Dibyendu Palit
  Gulzar
  Vinay Lal
  Only in Print

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• Adoor Gopalakrishnan- Kathapurushan (Screenplay) - The award-winning film, as seen by the director, post-production, with his camera directions.
• Dom Moraes- What the scribe wrote (Poetry) - Seven new works, including 'Disguises': 'Always they disguised themselves as you, came with delicate hands, with long hair, effervescent eyes and liquid lips into my arms: their names escape me'
• Joginder Paul - Dera Baba Nanak (Short fiction) - 'A madman's mind is never vacant. In fact, a whole lot of disorderly thoughts drive a person to madness. Not able to mould his thoughts, he was running about, gathering various human parts, trying to give them a form. I watched him. He would painstakingly assemble a human figure. Then he would scan it carefully and shake his head'
• K Satchidanandan- The sign (Poetry)- Three works, including 'Before, after': 'Before voice I was light after voice I will be shame'
• Keki Daruwalla- The ford (Short fiction) - 'He couldn't forget the man, his armour so strange and his face so white. And the air of authority he exuded, as if he was a big nobleman, though Sukhi thought he was an ordinary soldier. A scout, a spy...'
• Kekoo Gandhy- Forever Progressive- Reminiscence -And then came the Progressives 'Though there were no art movements or recognised artists around, Bombay's first generation of collectors were quite generous. Ratan Tata's father, Naval Tata, was a very kind man. We had a party at his house in Juhu and in one night we sold 10 or 12 paintings'
• Nirmal Verma - The last forest (Novel excerpt) - 'How amazing it is that the same man who loves his wife, he can even kill her... And after killing her he is horrified when he realises that he is still the same; the difference between him and the murderer is less than the breadth of a hair'
• Samar Sen - The last spring (Poetry)- 'The rain comes down Along the green horizon of trees The darkness, brutally beautiful, Shall descend once again Breathless, like a train in the night…'
• Vijay Tendulkar -The painted Indians (Personal essay) -'Their faces covered, the brothers were led onto two wooden planks, placed a few yards apart, which would give way at the press of a single button. They were desperately muttering Rama, Rama, Rama, as though it were a mantra which would make hanging bearable. Their voices became hoarse as the ropes were tied securely about their necks…'
• A.J. Philip -After the revolution (Essay) -'Jaipal Singh's objective meant fighting four state governments and the central government at the same time, which was beyond the means of the Jharkhand people. After all, Ashoka the Great had grimly reminded them in his edicts addressed to the atavikas (the forest-dwellers, forefathers of today's Jharkhandis), "Forget not that the Beloved of the Gods, in addition to being righteous, is also powerful."'
• Balachandran Chullikkad-Change of seasons (Poetry)- 'Today age is clear like the mind cured of lunacy, but it does not admit love'
• Sivakami Velliangiri -Indian, very contemporary (Poetry) - 'But we the proletariat we pinpoint the fly on the landlord's nose the men don't guffaw, women don't jangle their bangles, even kids think as they finger their waist-band. we are happy, we move on to the next street…'
• E.V. Ramakrishnan-Terms of seeing (Poetry)- 'Sunlight at an angle, tilting the sun Into the sea. Still, the light lingered over the hill Like an intimate whisper of something Forbidden. By this time, the terms of seeing Were reset: the well was watching us now…'
• PLUS: Mapping India- Sucheta Vemuri makes sense of the Indian census data. Pratik Kanjilal gets mad about custom trainers and duck soup. Unni Rajen Shanker draws his usual conclusions.