Delhi’s Bandaged Heart – Art Critic Aveek Sen on The Art of Losing, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art City Poetry by The Delhi Walla - May 2, 2016May 2, 20163 Poetry in the city. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Leaves shed trees. Bodies leave spirits. Lovers lose lovers. And a poetry book lost its owner. The much-marked and underlined paperback of Elizabeth Bishop: The Complete Poems 1927-1979 belonged to Calcutta-based art critic Aveek Sen. One magical evening The Delhi Walla went to Kiran Nadar Museum of Art to hear Mr Sen talk about the ‘Art of Losing’--that’s a famous phrase from an Elizabeth Bishop poem (‘One Art’). Everyone in the audience--including author Dayanita Singh and artist Shuddhabrata Sengupta--was served with a printed copy of the text after which Mr Sen read out the poem from his own Hogarth Press edition (published in UK, 1984). He employed the next two hours
Our Self-Written Obituaries – Laveena Behl, Kanpur & Delhi Farewell Notice by The Delhi Walla - May 2, 2016May 2, 20160 The 123rd death. [Text and photo by Laveena Behl] She was found dead next to a box of chocolates and a pile of books. It remains uncertain whether the reason of her death was overeating or over-reading or both. Laveena Behl loved, was loved and she miserably failed in every aspect. Her dream was to be a poet of recognition, but she failed to assess the aftermaths of a poet’s fame--her name is to live forever only when she cannot. Ms Behl loved her college days and very likely died with the last wish of reliving them again. Ironically enough, she couldn’t even complete the natural course of her life. She carried along with her a hybrid of cities, languages and cultures, and especially Delhi,