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

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)

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)

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

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?

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

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

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

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.…

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

Requiem for 2019

By: Shreya May 18, 2019July 8, 2019

Lifebeginnings, exams, graduation, mental health, new, start, strongLeave a Comment

As the exams are around the corner, I thought I would take the opportunity to write the quintessential ‘what a year’ post. And an explosive year it has been for the class of 2019. My graduation year has been everything I needed it to be, but nothing close to what I imagined it would be.…

Unperfection, A Poem

By: Shreya April 20, 2019June 26, 2019

WritingFeatured, WritingLeave a Comment

Unperfection by Shreya Manna Teaching myself how to unperfection Reminds me of that time I tried to do A water slide and chickened out only To sheepishly return because The queue I spotted on the other side Was way too long. And I was hoping To return to earth sometime very soon. In the little…

Sapling in the Woods (A Poem)

By: Shreya March 22, 2019June 26, 2019

WritingFeatured, inspiration, mental, motivation, poem, strong, wellbeing5 Comments

Beneath my feet are crunching leaves, martyrs to the world’s law, And above me the canopy, shaking leafy branches in a tribal dance, Like a million green eyelashes in the sky’s eyes Nobody is listening. The gnarled limbs of the trees spread to claim the sky Gather the sun like gold, loot, I look up…

Waterfall (A Poem by Shreya Manna)

By: Shreya January 24, 2019January 24, 2019

Writingemotion, poetry, waterfall, write, WritingLeave a Comment

Sometimes I feel like a waterfall wrestling with gravity I am heavy and torrential and endlessly crashing against granite. Somehow I spill into the canals dug by words, Slowing, a stream, rolling along soft clay. What I see is a stream of consciousness moving forward. What I see is the endless play of elements as…

Paradise Prose is Sleeping (Again)

By: Shreya September 28, 2018

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After successfully negotiating AS Levels in French, English, History and Psychology, lo and behold, here comes the onslaught of Year 13. Homework, university applications, extra reading, an EPQ are just a few things on my never-ending to-do list for the moment. In following with Paradise Prose custom (thanks to schoolwork, this has happened before), the…

Thoughts on the Poem “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath

By: Shreya September 23, 2018September 27, 2018

ReadingLeave a Comment

‘Mirror’ appears like a relatively simple poem. However, in no way does it lack depth: narrated from the point of view of a personified mirror, we witness the coming and going of a woman who looks in and reacts bitterly to what she sees. What I found most stunning about this poem were the contrasts.…

Middlemarch by George Eliot: Dorothea Brooke – Feminist or Failure?

By: Shreya September 8, 2018September 8, 2018

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In the literary community, there seems to be quite a debate on whether Dorothea Brooke from George Eliot’s Middlemarch is a truly “satisfactory” character. Feminist critics such as Lee R. Edwards have pointed out that Dorothea succumbs to the conservative expectations of society, ultimately becoming no more than a mother and a wife. In some…

My First Internship at a Media and Publishing Company: Motivate

By: Shreya August 19, 2018August 21, 2018

Writing in the Real WorldLeave a Comment

So, this internship began with a strange mixture of feelings: excitement, because I was lucky enough to meet someone who could give me the opportunity to intern in one of the UAE’s largest media and publishing companies. Nervousness, because I still felt like a clueless teenager trying to walk around in shoes too big for my…

Dear God, Why Did You Make The Night? (A Poem)

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…

A Flash Fiction Experiment: The Boy in the Glass Case

By: Shreya August 2, 2018August 3, 2018

WritingLeave a Comment

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…