My Father Would Have Been 87 Today
My father would have been 87 today. Even in illness, after suffering stroke and eventual dementia, he was intellectually curious. The day after he suffered his…
The Second Eternity
For E. [This was published in Carved Voices and is based on an earlier essay of mine.] Late one evening, as I waited for her outside…
Love and Time
More time is not more eternity. — Juan Ramón Jiménez What if someone or something exists only for a very short interval of time? Would you…
Kazi Nazrul Islam: Hindus and Muslims
Hindus and Muslims by Kazi Nazrul Islam Translated by Tibra Ali for AlalODulal.org One day I was discussing the Hindu-Muslim problem with GurudevRabindranath. Gurudev said: Look, you…
Discussing Claude Lévi-Strauss with a girl
I once met a girl at a cafe who gave me her phone number. I looked her up on the internet and learned that she had studied…
Journeys to Beautiful Oblivion
1. Before he becomes aware of the truly awe-inspiring nature of death, every young man romanticizes death. In his book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting,…
Kafka’s Computer
Franz Kafka was a nice man. As a bureaucrat working for an insurance company he developed safety measures which helped avoid many industrial accidents. But as…
A short reflection on love
Late one evening, I waited for her outside the public showers of the campground where we were staying with her family. As I waited, I watched…
Paul Celan
The swell of wandering words. These are the words with which Paul Celan’s poem Speak, you also ends. The poem starts with an imperative to speak but to keep…