Read, Readjoice, Repeat
My mind has birthed some monsters, and I am here to share them with you. Go figure (see below): Parnika was one of my first creations, though I have only named her in hindsight – today. Parnika means small leaf; it is an alternative name for the Goddess Parvathi. She is a small leaf, the…
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When I Make Space to Pause by Shreya Manna So. When I make space to pause, I listen. The bones at the base of my neck are instruments, Clicking and clacking and croaking under the weight of an uneasy head. My feet oscillate. Drumsticks on a d-d-d-d-drum roll. The mind scans and measures each line…
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Hi readers! This is a poem about the sky, in particular those skies that inspire us to just look up in dumbstruck wonder. Hope you enjoy it (see full poem below the image). Twilight Kissed by Shreya Manna Who wove this fabric, this work of art That stretches across the sky? Is it a sheet…
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I’m in a new apprenticeship – Not any intellectual shit, Reading ‘how to be a human’ lit: so flip to page 1, where I find it hard, really no way I can discard, this overconfidence in my inferiority. Too many syllables, (may not be believable) but it’s true. I cannot see the “awesome kid” inside…
Read MoreInspired by the Cloud Atlas End Title Where is home? Nothing stays still. Usually I run towards the horizon, and time plays tag with me Pulling me forward, and forward And forward. One day, I think, I’ll say: tag! But I’ll be tagged myself, and it will be time to leave this world. But sometimes…
Read MoreHello, it’s been a while since I last posted! I’ve been away to focus on my first term of second year studying English at The University of Oxford, as well as mental health. On one hand, I’ve been doing a lot of academic writing these past few months – such is the nature of the…
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Do you know what the device you are holding is made of? I didn’t, until the thought occurred to me when I was writing this blog post. A few clicks later, I arrived at my laptop manufacturer’s website to look for more details. It turns out that the parts made of aluminium and tin are…
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Mental health: can it be solved just within the mind?
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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…
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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…
Read MoreWhere 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
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A post about the role that blogging, writing and the study of Literature plays during a pandemic like coronavirus.
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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.
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A poem about water-forms.
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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…
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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.…
Read MoreOne 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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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