Deepak Kashyap

“i have often wondered what resides in an accent. is it a presence - an identity, a trajectory, a history? or is it rather an absence - an estrangement, a withdrawal, a blank space refusing to be filled? and are we immigrants synonymous to our accents? or are we, or can we ever aspire to be, more than that? this is not to deny that our accents are fundamentally important to who we are, and they are near and dear to our hearts. they are an inextricable trace of the paths we have travelled, the loves we have loved and never forgotten, the scars we still carry and which still hurt. but that doesn't mean we are from our accents.”
― Elif Shafak, How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division

“So that you will hear me
my words
sometimes grow thin
as the tracks of the gulls on the beaches.

Necklace, drunken bell
for your hands smooth as grapes.

And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

It climbs the same way on damp walls.
You are to blame for this cruel sport.
They are fleeing from my dark lair.
You fill everything, you fill everything.

Before you they peopled the solitude that you occupy,
and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I want to say to you
to make you hear as I want you to hear me.

The wind of anguish still hauls on them as usual.
Sometimes hurricanes of dreams still knock them over.
You listen to other voices in my painful voice.

Lament of old mouths, blood of old supplications.
Love me, companion. Don't forsake me. Follow me.
Follow me, companion, on this wave of anguish.

But my words become stained with your love.
You occupy everything, you occupy everything.

I am making them into an endless necklace
for your white hands, smooth as grapes.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the humans’ hierarchies?”
― Elif Shafak, How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division

“back then, not many realised that social media was like the moon: it had a bright side, full of light and promise, and then, an unexpected dark side. the same digital platforms could contribute to the spread of misinformation, slander, hate speech, division and falsehood, and were received enthusiastically by autocratic regimes, extremists and demagogues themselves.”
― Elif Shafak, How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division