It shocks me beyond words to think of the horror that the girls in the Muzaffarpur children’s home in Bihar have faced. This poem cannot come close to expressing the damage that such sexual, mental and physical violence does. Nevertheless, I had to write about it. This poem is for those girls and their immeasurable strength. ‘Dear God, Why Did […]
Monday afternoon, you step into the clamour of the school bus. You walk past the boys from the younger years busy with their usual jostling and jabbering. Peals of laughter pierce the air, mysterious objects are thrown around, and someone spills a packet of crisps on the floor. The older ones at the back are absorbed by a slice of […]
It is rare to find that one book on my reading list leads so effortlessly into the next one, but no sooner had I emerged from Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' did I stumble upon 'Unaccustomed Earth' by Jhumpa Lahiri, opening with this vivid epigraph (above). Long having claimed her place on my 'Favourite Authors' shelf, Lahiri brings her skill with the short story form to a life of travel and rootlessness.
The blog hath risen from its slumber! As I have had some free time over the Spring Break, I managed to scribble down this poem. This is inspired by some of my recent reading: Shakespeare's 'Marriage of True Minds' and Carol Ann Duffy's 'Valentine'.
With around 10 weeks to go before AS exams, life seems more like a ‘pandemonium of past papers and revision notes’ than a Paradise Prose. That’s not to say I’m not looking forward to the next few months, however, with a regional World Scholars Cup coming up (P is for pwaa and paradise…you guessed it), writing a short story for my EPQ and well, more revision. World Scholar’s, by the by, is a shed load of work – this is my first time doing it – but the literature anthology has been super interesting. Maybe one or two of the poems will feature on here later! For now, though, all of this means that Paradise Prose will be going to sleep for a while, perhaps until April. Thank you for reading all my quibbles and prose and poems. I have a long, long way to go but the whole rigmarole of brainstorming, thinking, writing, sharing and getting feedback is something I love doing, even if my work is only in the bud. Hope to see everyone soon! Keep reading and readjoicing, Shreya
“What had gone wrong with these first descendants of the first great ocean crossing experiment? Was there not a substantial garden area, regular meals, clean clothes from Marks ‘n’ Sparks, A class top-notch education?” These are the telling words of White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It’s not only a riotous panorama of multicultural England, but also a must-have for any […]
Dear Winter Wind by Shreya Manna
Dear winter wind
Can you hear my mind - by which I mean
The thoughts that tumble and tremble and clatter
like tea coasters slipping
off a high table?
