A Moveable East
Siddharth Dasgupta
Red River: 2021
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If the Afghan landays, laconic and aphoristic, carve into one end of the poetic spectrum, Siddharth Dasgupta’s style—call it baroque ’n’ roll—makes its play at the other end. Not that it doesn’t have its serious overtones and undertows, but the energies of its imagery and diction veer in and out of sheer sprezzatura. It’s a poetry of exuberant inclusivity, a mannered expansiveness that you can track across two axes in the poem ‘Once Upon an Irani Café’. One axis is
In this confluence of characters, cities,
sorrows, and fragilities, find
a place that reminds you of
the melodies you’ve known …
with the other, in ‘Galata by the Sea’, is where observations and recollections are
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- Tags: India, Issue 25, Michael Freeman, Siddharth Dasgupta