The Theatres Of Kolkata And Me

I walked into a theatre once

The smell of confidence and wood

Girish Mancha and my father

Anticipate, as one would

And I did, the impact hit

As did their feat on the stage

Shri Rudraprasad Sengupta

And his kin did disengage.

Then my goddamn jaw

Lay in awe on the floor

As I discovered my love for Natok

And the splendor that lay in store

Nandan and the Academy

Of fine arts, added so well

In my golden reel of memories

Tickets, tickets, tickets, swell.

Hell, the smell, of laminated wood

And confidence! so intense

To dwell rent-free in my head

And to think, it’s all pretense!

Minerva with Anirban Bhattacharya

I will never ever forget

The movements, moments of magic

Every smile and silhouette

And as I go home from Madhusudan

I look back at what I lived through

The stories of love, pain and self

Life swings by through this view.

Mallika Mandal

B.A. (H) Economics

Batch of 2024