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“What! Another daughter! She is not going to live, do not worry, she is such a weakling, look at her complexion! She is dark as sin!”An old woman hobbled into our house and pointing a gnarled finger at the newly born infant [me] in the crib delivered this dark prophecy. She was bundled out of the...
Life Story JourneyWhen I first met her virtually the previous year in 2019, I had a chance to talk to her over a phone and the moment I heard her voice coming from across the other side, her guffaws and effortlessness in connecting with me as a new comer made me understand in that stance that she is a person who is not...
INTERVIEWS Author Poet WriterAlthough SantoshBakaya has a doctorate in political theory, she is I passionate about Literature, having made a mark both in prose and poetry. Her three mystery novels for young adults were very well received. Recipient I of the International Reuel Award for writing and literature 2014, for her long...
Where Are The Lilacs? About the BookShe got up, clutching her throat, the book Agony and the Ecstasy, lying by her side, falling to the ground, her silken hair chaotically confused all around her once pretty face. Her beauty was lost between the many lines which now were so much a part of her, prematurely settling on her forty year old...
Dr Santosh Bakaya’s latest offering, Flights from My Terrace, is a delightful collection of fifty-eight autobiographical essays that reflect on life and relationships. These essays capture universal human sentiment with élan. Bakaya, the author of the critically acclaimed Ballad of Bapu, a biography...
When I first met her virtually the previous year in 2019, I had a chance to talk to her over a phone and the moment I heard her voice coming from across the other side, her guffaws and effortlessness in connecting with me as a new comer made me understand in that stance that she is a person who is not...
Three months back in Kolkata, I was gifted by author extraordinaire Dr.Santosh Bakaya, a phenomenal book of verses that she wrote, a first of its kind on the political life of Bapu, Mahatma Gandhi, and a tour de force in exceptionally woven poetry where she gives her signature touches of exuberant language...
My earlier books—mystery novels for young adults, were hastily published. The publisher, a complete novice in the field of publishing fiction, did a shoddy job, to my utmost discomfort. When one finishes a manuscript, one starts indulging in positive imaginings, itching with the intense yearning to...
My first impression of M.K. Gandhi is a simple drawing of a drooping figure of a frail man with a stick in hand. It was drawn by one of my cousin brothers, when we were studying in primary school. That drawing then appealed to me as a simple thing to do without much artistic skill. From that pictorial...
Interviewing Dr. Santosh Bakaya, Author of Where Are The Lilacs, a collection of poems on restoring peace and harmony. With her stupendous poetic treatise Ballad of Bapu (published by Vitasta, 2015) on the life and times of the father of the nation and the advocate of the non-violence movement, Mahatma...
Everyone has a story to tell; each one of us writes poetry – some, without even realising. That stream of consciousness that runs in our veins? It’s poetry waiting to be written. We believe in the power of words, and that power is what urged us set up PoetsIN. It’s because of those inner streams,...
The eminent author-academic-blogger-biographer-TedX speaker from Jaipur, India, Santosh Bakaya discusses her world and craft with fellow writer and editor Sunil Sharma. Q: What does it mean to be: a woman, a poet and academic in the post-colonial, mass society? Santosh: In the intellectual space provided...
The colourful balloons soaring against a blue sky catch one’s attention at first sight, bringing the sense of joy that balloons always do. ‘A Skyful of Balloons’ is a novella by the erudite wordsmith, Santosh Bakaya, a story set in a sprawling bungalow in Raj Bagh, Srinagar, where the ebullient...
Star – light, star bright [A story that begins and ends with a person looking up at the stars] He looked up at the stars and sighed, counting them one by one. There was total silence in the neighborhood, but the trees rustled and time and again an owl hooted. He missed the buzz and drone of insect...
Dr. Santosh Bakaya, an academician, scholar, author, essayist, and poet from India is truly an incredible woman who has already created an important niche for herself in both the literary and the academic arena. A doctorate in Political Theory, she has excelled in teaching Political Science and also...