2018

What a time of frozen certainties. Nothing flows. More the clout, Keener the icicles hang in the heart, Less the questioning and the doubt.
Even when the lips grin, Nothing moves in the eye; Unbeknown, closest of friends And relatives in proud isolation die.
The birds that freely came to feed Now come gingerly; Scout however they might, There is no welcoming tree.
That which was spiritual Is now blasphemy; Success makes bosom friends Of religion and currency.
Songs of bonhomie now (…)

by Sobhanlal Datta Gupta
BOOK REVIEW
Challenges for the Indian Left by Murzban Jal (ed.); Aakar Books, Delhi; 2017; 576 + xcii pages; Rs 895.00.
This is an edited volume, comprising thirty-seven essays, penned by noted scholars and political activists belonging to various streams of the Left. It is an attempt to make an anatomy of the Left in India in the context of the growing menace of the Hindu Right and the Left’s decline. The editor has undertaken a gigantic task of putting in one (…)