Listen to Debasmita Bhattacharya read বিসর্জন (Bishorjon):
the hands of God
painted yellow
three eyes staring back as I
watch from behind my father’s legs
“Eita or prothom bar, o shamne jak?”
“It’s her first time, can she go to the front of the truck?”
blaring lights, blaring sounds, blaring voices
we finally reach
and as I
watch her float away—the last time I will see her for a long time—
I remember another time I had seen her,
in the other place, where it gets cold at this time of year,
and there is no truck, and there are no lights, no sounds, no voices
Debasmita Bhattacharya spends copious and slightly concerning amounts of time watching stand up comedy. She dreams of one day being onstage with them (even though she has made two people laugh in her entire lifetime). When she’s not doing that, you can find her complaining about the TTC, admiring dogs, or wishing she were a part of the Von Trapp family.
This work appears in the Winter 2020 edition of the UC Review: Translation.