Mirror of Time: An Anthology of Poems

By Gautam Maitra

This maiden collection is a poetic expression of minuscule emotions scattered and introspection into mannerism and habits of human society. Through the South Asian looking glass, these alphabets of life were written over a period of two and a half decades and were gathering dust. One fine morning, while the family were celebrating my birthday and an approaching old age, it was decided to declassify and from a pool of poems written in English and Bengali, twenty-odd were selected. Half a dozen of them is a translation of poems written in native Bengali. Some of the poems fall in the genre of romanticism, a few on civilizational crisis and modernity.
Man and nature – chicken first or egg first dichotomy may find an answer through this swan song of a pedestrian’s journey and an enthusiast collects sea-shells of events on the beaches of life. A giant Wall replaces an empty piece of land meant for lovers and grazing cows. At another time and place, Mister Sunday enjoys a break from punishing office duty and embrace the free hours that belong to him. A kid in a village asks the sparrow where to find water in this summer where water is everywhere yet not a drop to drink. At last, the rain comes. Bring the storms with it, washing away the sins of civilization. Someone smiles as she looks at the dead man on the deserted beach. At a distance, the debris of the World Trade Center falling from the sky and a clash of civilization erupts – the morality of a race usurped by the anaconda of merchandised sponsors who may tempt the basic instinct of the masses to catch the consumer honey-bees in their flying nets and make Aladdin lamp, a laughing stock.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gautam Maitra
• Release date: Jan 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463834220

Gautam Maitra

The author was born one and a half-decade after colonial Britishers left South Asia leaving behind a diverse society in great turmoil and a once-prosperous global-prided economy in tatters. He grew up in a large middle-class Bengali joint- family at Kolkata whose ancestral routes would take readers to a village in Phoridpur and Lahiri Jamindari in Pabna(now both in Bangladesh), and to the town of Berhampore in Murshidabad (India) - not far off from where the Nawab of Bengal once ruled Bangla. Graduated from St.Xavier’s College at Kolkata. Later qualified from premier finance institutes and served various organisations in various capacities including as an auditor. Since teenage days has written innumerable short stories, essays and poems in English and Bengali and a few of them were published in various online and offline mags like Muse India, Pubali, Jellybean Junction et Cetra. The author’s maiden short story collection titled “Floating Towel and a dozen short stories” has been published and acclaimed by readers. And in a short span, the second book "Mirror of Time - an Anthology of poems" highlighting the fresh poems of the poet author has also reached the readers' hands.

Book preview

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