Translated from the Bangla by Abhik Ganguly
A sudden cessation of sleep. Does a storm rage outside? The window panes dance to the light and sound show of the gale. Rolling around in bed, in the flickering light of thunder, I see someone crawling.
‘Who’s there? Who?’ I ask. The crawler doesn’t utter a sound. I walk up to him and ask again, ‘Who are you? What is that you want?’ He quietly keeps searching without raising their head. I ask again, ‘What are you looking for?’ Finally, I hear a response: ‘I’m indeed looking for something; the moment I get it, I will walk out of here.’ ‘Still, what are you looking for?’ I press. Softly, in a hushed tone, he utters with forgetfulness, ‘Spine.’ The thunder roared again, and in the flash of lightning, much to my surprise, what do I see: not just him, but many people are crawling and searching for the same thing in every corner of the house.
Shankha Ghosh (1932 – 2021) was an Indian poet and literary critic. He was born in Chandpur district of the then Bengal Presidency, present day Bangladesh. He got his undergraduate degree in Arts in Bengali from Presidency College, Kolkata in 1951 and subsequently his master’s degree from the University of Calcutta in the year 1954. Acclaimed in India, his work lacks global recognition due to poor English translations.
Abhik Ganguly is a poet, writer, and scholar-practitioner. Currently, he’s a Junior Research Fellow pursuing his PhD at the Department of English, University of Delhi.