April Blogging Challenge

April Blogging Challenge - 25

Y is for Yellowed Diary

In the dark corners of my room, hidden beneath those old treasure chests

Carefully hidden from the prying eyes, safely tucked in a faraway corner

Is a yellowed diary which holds my heart in pieces that you left me with.

It holds the love I had for you, with all the dreams we had seen together.

Some fragments of broken promises and some of false hopes.

Those pages witnessed all that we had been through shedding copious tears with me each night

When you find do hold it with all the love for it is fragile like the old memories it holds

Flip pages with care not to tear any more than the shreds it already is in.

Slowly turn to the last page to read my last words:

Every night I stare at a star studded sky wondering what’s in store for me. I try to connect the dots and form a picture only to realise some of them are missing. Someone once told me every time I shed a tear a twinkling star is born and when I will connect them I will be able to witness the journey of my life. Does that mean every time my heart broke a star fell down? Maybe, because that explains the missing dots so well.

Books on Cinema

For a long time, cinema was a world I wasn’t allowed to enter. I grew up in a home where movies were banned. No television, no glimpses of silver screens, and no songs echoing from old classics. For nearly a decade, cinema was a forbidden word like a secret behind a closed door. And yet, like all things that carry truth and longing, it found its way to me. Stories have a way of finding you, slipping through cracks, whispered between pages, caught in melodies. Sometimes through the corners of borrowed books, sometimes through whispered summaries from classmates, sometimes just through the magnetic pull of posters and songs I wasn’t supposed to hear.

Movie Review: If by Tathagata Ghosh – A Tender Portrait of Love, Loss, and Possibility

If , a 26-minute short film by acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Tathagata Ghosh, is a sensitive, evocative piece of storytelling that lingers long after the credits roll. Set against the everyday rhythm of life in Kolkata, the film delicately unpacks the story of a lesbian couple torn apart by the weight of societal expectations and dares to imagine a different future, one where a mother's love might just change everything. What struck me first was the film’s raw, grounded realism. The characters feel like people we know, middle-class families navigating a complex world with quiet resilience. The world of If is filled with silences, glances, and stills, rather than heavy dialogue. Ghosh masterfully uses these moments to speak volumes, allowing viewers to sit with discomfort, interpret the unspoken, and feel deeply.

Book Review: The Story of Eve: Selected Poems by Zehra Nigah

Few voices in Urdu poetry have carried the weight of history, resistance, and deep personal introspection quite like Zehra Nigah. One of the first women to break into the traditionally male-dominated world of Urdu poetry, Nigah’s work stands as a testament to the power of words to illuminate, question, and challenge. The Story of Eve: Selected Poems, translated by Rakshanda Jalil, brings together some of her most powerful nazms and ghazals, showcasing both her literary elegance and her unflinching gaze at the human condition, particularly through the lens of gender, social injustice, and political turmoil.

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