Realising The Truth Can be Difficult (Part One)

It seems so simple: all the human population has to do to end injustice of any sort is realise that all life was made intrinsically equal. I don’t mean people are all equal in terms of biology, wealth, socioeconomic status, physical beauty according to current standards or any of that transactional stuff. I’m talking about…

Shlaime (Noun): A Poem by Shreya Manna

I had conflicting feelings about sharing this poem. The seeming atmosphere of outrage around us doesn’t seem to encourage self-reflection. Almost everyone will have seen memes about the ways in which 2020 has been a catastrophic year – a deadly disease transforming work, if not stopping it all together, the Black Lives matter movement catching…

Prose in the Time of a Pandemic (An Essay)

A post about the role that blogging, writing and the study of Literature plays during a pandemic like coronavirus.

Self-Song – A Poem

Today is the Bengali New Year (Shubho Noboborsho or Poila Boishak). Since people from West Bengal mark this festivity as a time of auspicious beginnings, I thought that I should write a poem to mark a sacred beginning of my own creation.

Water-Forms Poetry Project: Final Poem

A poem about water-forms.

Water-Forms Poetry Project – Part 1

Hello again, I’m back with (more) attempts at writing poetry and an update about starting Hilary Term (i.e. Term 2) at Oxford. Since I’ve been gone, I’ve been writing away for our weekly essays about everything including the lives of saints in Old English up until the modernist experiments of T.S. Eliot. I’ve taken up…

Falling in Love – A Poem

Trees spilling with boughs of white flowers Like bright eyes, shrouded in the waxy palms of leaves I watch some fall, stolen by the breeze, I watch them fall (in love). Petals unfurling, they embrace the dusk with open arms, sprinkling the earth. Hush. Listen to them land: tiny, soft blankets for unseen slumbering fairies.…

The Truth About My Struggle Against Depression and Anxiety

One thing this decade has taught us, like many decades before it: truth is dangerous. The quiet act of putting pen to paper, words on a page, releases tremors that travel far, and won’t be suppressed easily – even if the author himself is eliminated from the equation. Though this blog stands testament to my…

The Outsider on Oxford

It’s the age-old controversy: bring up the hallowed halls of the University of Oxford or Cambridge in a conversation, and you are bound to find yourself dredging up countless accusations of the institution being steeped in elitism and a lack of diversity. Having heard a good few of these myself before applying to Oxford, I…

Sixth Week Thoughts: English Student at University of Oxford

Hello again fellow prose-lovers, play enthusiasts and partners in rhyme (sorry, I had to use that pun once it came to mind). Since I last posted, the weeks have flown by and I am already in the penultimate week of my first term. Surreal! Those that have followed my journey to the University of Oxford…

About Me

This is just a short excerpt for the about page.

Start Here

Where does one begin when face-to-face, erm, screen-to-screen with a teenager with a passion for all things wordy? If you’re asking this question, I’ve already answered it for you in these few pages. About Me My Mission (coming soon) Paradise Prose Blog Manifesto Copyright Notice

Back with the Books: Learning Old English at the University of Oxford

By: Shreya October 31, 2019October 31, 2019

Uncategorizedcourse, english, old, oxford, study, university of oxford, VideoLeave a Comment

I’m back! I missed writing on this blog, but over these first few weeks of university I’ve gotten up to plenty of (essay) writing for my course tutors which will make my writing here much more worth reading. So, you might know that one of the things that makes the English course at Oxford stand…

The Oxford Comma: Reflections on Life Before and After Receiving my Offer from the University of Oxford (Part 2)

By: Shreya August 31, 2019

Life, Start Here, Writing in the Real Worlda-level, inspiration, learning, oxford, perfectionism, perfectionist, reflections, sadhguru, self reflection, spirituality, university, university of oxfordLeave a Comment

You’ve seen me reflect on the path that I’ve already travelled on the way to my Oxford offer. While that post was for the most part a Highlights version of these past two years, this one is a counterweight, considering the things I did in these past two years which didn’t work and what I…

The Oxford Comma: Reflections on Life Before and After Receiving my Offer from the University of Oxford (Part 1)

By: Shreya August 20, 2019August 20, 2019

Uncategorizedchallenge, curriculum, education, learning, narrative, oxbridge, oxford, sixth form, study, universityLeave a Comment

The Oxford Comma Now that the initial facts have had the time to sink in, I take it as a responsibility to ask: where do I stand now, once I’ve put a comma after ‘Oxford’ (yup, pun in the title is shamelessly intended)? An offer to study at Oxford is, without doubt, a testament to…

Thinking in Zebra Mode – and Literature

By: Shreya August 3, 2019August 5, 2019

Life, Reading, Writing in the Real Worldcriticism, essay, interpretation, psychology, Reading, WritingLeave a Comment

Reading Literature is more than just a question of books; it’s a question of our worldview, our endless mental assumptions. This post is an attempt at becoming conscious of my own Achilles heel – black and white thinking.

Home: A Poem

I wrote this poem in light of the events in the news recently that have made the word ‘home’ a politically charged one, and also as a memory of my personal experiences that put into question what home might be.

Literary Theory: Why Should a Young Writer Care?

By: Shreya July 14, 2019

Reading, Start Hereacademia, critical, english, literary theory, literature, studies, study, Terry eagleton, university, WritingLeave a Comment

Why should I be spending my summer holidays reading Terry Eagleton’s ‘Introduction to Literary Theory’? The unglamorous reason, of course, is to acclimatise myself to the looming rigours of studying English at university. Another reason is anxiety: count yourself lucky if you can sit in one place without your mind running wild. Mine, meanwhile, needs…

An English Literature Workshop with Myself, Age 14

Humbling, funny and cringeworthy – that was my experience of writing this scene imagining myself as a mentor to a teenage version of myself. For all the earnest young writers and English students out there!

Breathe In Dawn, Breathe Out Starlight: A Poem

By: Shreya June 29, 2019

Uncategorizedbreath, breathe, creative, dawn, fight, inspiring, nature, original, poetry, powerful, WritingLeave a Comment

Breathe in Dawn, Breathe out Starlight – some poetic observations on the endless intelligence and regeneration of the natural world around us.

The Dress: A Fairytale…Or Is It? – A Short Story by Shreya Manna

By: Shreya June 22, 2019June 26, 2019

Writingcreative, damsel, dress, fairytale, fantasy, Featured, knight, mental health, perfectionism, princess, short story, story, WritingLeave a Comment

In childhood, it’s possible for us to see, even believe, in the magic of fairytales. But as we grow older, there’s no reason why we can’t take our grown-up problems and laugh at them, thanks to the superpower that being human gives us: the power to tell stories. This fairytale is really a story I wrote for myself, to capture the circus of our minds that only we can hear.

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

By: Shreya June 13, 2019July 8, 2019

ReadingLeave a Comment

One more exam, and then the freedom to write blog posts beckons! (can you tell that I snatched some time for this one between French revision sessions?). So, let’s talk ‘Vile Bodies’ by Evelyn Waugh. It sounds like an apt name for secondary examination organisations. It is in fact a comedy, and the satirical type.…