From the Editor’s Desk

As India celebrates 75 year of independence, it is time to sit back and reflect on how far we have come and where we are headed. In times such as these, literature gives us hope, as we continue to publish some special pieces. For the August issue we feature SMM Ausaja’s photo essay that looks at the journey of 75 years of India through Indian cinema and its posters, in fiction we have wonderful stories including the very interesting, ‘A Topic too Distressing to Mention’. Take a look at our poetry section, it comes full of surprises - ‘In Memory of Things That Break’ is just an example of how perishable we are, and how literature resurrects us. Poet Sonnet Mondal sends in his recommendations for the TBR Recommends section, but there’s always something more.

To August then, dear readers!

Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury
Managing Editor, The Bangalore Review

Specials

TBR Recommends – August 2022

Every month, The Bangalore Review recommends a reading list, also mentioning in brief why each book must be read. This month’s list has been compiled by the Indian poet, Sonnet Mondal.

Non-Fiction

Evolution of Film Publicity Art

Film historian and archivist of vintage film memorabilia, SMM Ausaja, takes us down memory lane of the evolution of Film publicity in the Indian Movie Industry.

Poetry

One Night Stand

He takes me to a bed where there is no rest
I rattle with him

His moans overpower the sirens of the street
and shakes his body in a variety of motions

Featured Works

Fiction

The Silvian Reset

His brother Dan had noticed these changes in James. Dan noticed James had been visiting the doctor as frequently as someone just diagnosed with cancer. At first, Dan worried something was wrong, and asked if there was anything he should know about.

Poetry

Isle of Caves

Wall after wall, cave after cave, many armed, many legged, many headed desire dances its heart out. Liberated by the im- measurable devotion of anonymous hands.

Fiction

The Shirt

“Our tailoring needs didn’t go beyond the occasional shirt or a pair of trousers. I got my black bespoke tuxedo with fine stripes stitched there. Paragon, strictly for gents, did not sell clothes, only offered tailoring service. The head tailor himself was the owner.

Poetry

in memory of things that break

the love you feel when a baby is first born the night he left for college (the morning he returned but only because he forgot his hat)

Fiction

Celestial Harvest

She crosses the front yard, pushes the gate open, reaches the graveled sidewalk, and sits down on the curb. The heat weighs heavily on the street; molten mirages shimmer on the pavement. Stilled air, tampered sounds.Christiane’s kitchen, with its human comforts and knowable scale, seems far now.

Poetry

Unconfession in My Psychoanalyst’s Office

I tremble in a flower’s vocabulary— retract my hands like from a hot sky or suddenness dreams which pass through my body are no different from hands

Fiction

Just a Shirt

The third time he put on the shirt he didn’t look in the mirror at all, and that almost made it okay, except that he knew that if he looked in the mirror, he would see his frizzy hair and his pasty skin turned blotchy...

Poetry

Driving the Skyway Bridge

You don’t see her, hair like wings ephemeral catching fire from Florida sun, wire fences no match for birds taking flight unnaturally.

Non-Fiction

In-between Emotions: A Triptych

The author translates, among other things, the relationship she shares with Bombay, the city of her birth; how she has accepted and made peace with the method in its madness.

Poetry

All the Howling

The night locked and cellular, the landscape grows increasingly perplexed at the Color aspects of American democracy,

Fiction

A Topic Too Distressing to Mention

Janice was scarcely 30 when she came to Claresboro, a newly licensed veterinarian joining Dr. Quigley’s small-animal practice. We knew her family from a long way back–her mother grew up here before moving to the city, and her grandma Paula still owns the flower shop on Minton Street.

Poetry

Rich People

There are plenty of seats on the summit. You can see the dark clouds amassing from miles away. I had a big wedding. I’ve stood beneath a waterfall.