Lost City Symphony

Author: Indrajit Bose
Pages: 100
Year of Publication: 2020
Price: Rs 300
ISBN: 978-81-946740-0-9 (9788194674009)

About the Author
Indrajit Bose is an English-language-training practitioner and teacher trainer in an engineering college in Kolkata. He graduated from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and did his MA and Ph.D. in English from Jadavpur University. He was trained in ELT by the British Council, India, and holds an eTeaching Business English certificate from the University of South Carolina, USA. This is his first book of poems.

Teaser

Old Cameos

In the long verandah
At the top left landing
Of the wooden staircase,
You will find them waiting.

Grandfather in singlets and shorts:
Beaming toothlessly;
Great-grandfather in alpaca coat,
Frowning majestically.

The lady by a Chinese vase,
So like a Ravi Varma painting,
Is Great-uncle’s first wife
Who died in childbirth.

And those three studious
Ladies are your aunts,
Pramila, Urmila, Nirmala,
Proud university graduates.

The house stands shuttered,
Waiting, as if for their voices
To call, in confusing harmony:
Only the birdcalls resound.

Time has stolen by unawares,
Making a mockery of their youth,
And yet they stand invincible,
Like a long-forgotten cache of soldiers.

They will not grow old,
Never taste the bitterness
Of old age, of lost hopes,
The debilitating pain of disease.

Each time I revisit,
Remembering their untold stories,
I am filled with strength
To brave life’s battles alone.

Contents
50 poems