Away for Exams

Dear readers, My time at the University of Oxford is drawing to a close; it is now time to sit my final examinations. As a result, I will be taking a hiatus from blogging and writing 😦 Thank you to all my readers for inspiring me to keep writing. I love to see my words…

Jeannine: A Poem

Shreya

Love keeps trying to open my eyes: a poem

With love, Shreya

Hope, A Poem

Hope: A Poem

The Visitor

A new poem, The Visitor.

Mind Monsters Inc.

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…

When I Make Space to Pause – A Poem

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…

Twilight Kissed: A Poem

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…

How to Fix a Broken Human: A Poem

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…

Words and Music #2: Where is Home? (A Poem)

Inspired 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…

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

Words and Music

By: Shreya December 24, 2020March 21, 2021

WritingLeave a Comment

Hello, 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…

Union

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…

Realising the Truth Can be Difficult (Part Two)

By: Shreya July 11, 2020July 22, 2020

Life, Writing in the Real Worldbhagavad, cbt, depression, mental, mental health, mind, strength, thinking, truthLeave a Comment

Mental health: can it be solved just within the mind?

Realising The Truth Can be Difficult (Part One)

By: Shreya July 4, 2020March 21, 2021

Life, Writing in the Real Worldequality, human, injustice, intrinsic, material, race, reality, reflection, spiritual, truthLeave a Comment

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

By: Shreya June 21, 2020June 21, 2020

Life, Writing, Writing in the Real World1 Comment

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

By: Shreya April 14, 2020April 14, 2020

Life, Writing, Writing in the Real Worldbengali, Life, new, poetry, pohela baisakh, reflection, self, Writing, yearLeave a Comment

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

By: Shreya February 23, 2020

Writingconsciousness, creative, creative writing, divine, draft, experiment, God, poem, poetry, seeking, spirituality, water, water forms, WritingLeave a Comment

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.…