Book Description

A BOMBAY IN MY BEAT is a literary ear to the songs and frequencies from the music player as well as the soundtracks of the city, which find their way into a personal expression. With a nod to the jazz poetry of Langston Hughes and the inflected locution of Beat Generation poets, here is a collection that searches out the sound of slanting truths. The result is a sonorous vaudeville on the page that is poignant, whimsical and intimate, exploring themes on anything from urbanness, politics, human connection and Louis Armstrong's baritone.Praise for the Book"To me it seems that some volatile energy has created and crafted Mrinalini's poems in this volume. The reader is caught by the scruff of his or her neck and thrown into a cauldron of sound that is pleasing to the ear despite its frenetic pace."- Keki N. Daruwalla, Padma Shri awarded poet, writer and critic"Mrinalini Harchandrai's A Bombay In My Beat is inventive, visceral poetry. She seeks herself - as if by echolocation - through the city's cacophony and sonic harmonies to reach towards a meditative silence. Internal rhythms, quotations from songs, riffs and refrains create an almost tangible sensory ensemble in which we too participate."- Priya Sarukkai Chabria, poet, writer, translator and editor of Poetry at Sangam"This is a collection that fuses words with sounds, a peculiar phenomenon that renders the poems musical."- Namrata Pathak, PhD, poet and Assistant Professor of EnglishAbout the AuthorMRINALINI HARCHANDRAI is a writer mostly based in Mumbai. Her writing features on several literary platforms, most recently including Juggernaut, Muse India, The Joao Roque Literary Journal, Vayavya and Earthen Lamp Journal. Her work has been anthologized in The Brave New World of Goan Writing 2018 and RLFPA Editions' Best Indian Poetry 2018. Her poem won first prize in The Barre (2017) and she was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2018.