Category · Blogs and Articles
Poems from Alpvirãm, the Gujarati collection. A pause inside the sentence, never the end of one. Read slowly, and read aloud if you can.
01
In this issue
One poem in full, the meaning of a single word, and an essay about poems kept on paper for fifty years.
Read the poem →A poem by Varsha Pancholi, from the Gujarati collection.
કંકણોના નાદથી જો આટલા મજબૂર થયા,
તો શબ્દના એ બાણથી શું શું નહીં બને?
A poem from the Gujarati collection, in full.
કંકણોના નાદથી જો આટલા મજબૂર થયા,
તો શબ્દના એ બાણથી શું શું નહીં બને?
વેધક તમારી દ્રષ્ટિઓથી નજરને ઝૂકવું પડ્યું,
તો આંખના ઈશારાથી શું શું નહીં બને?
મુખચંદ્રની એ રોશનીથી રૂપ પણ શરમાઈ ગયું,
તો કાજળમઢી કીકીઓને જોતા શું શું નહીં બને?
નૂપુર ઝંકારમાત્રથી સજાવી દીધા ખ્વાબો,
તો પાયલની અદાઓને જોતા શું શું નહીં બને?
બસ આરઝૂ છે એક દિલની નિશાનો લગાવ્યા છે ઘણા,
તો કટારીના એ ઘાવથી શું શું નહીં બને?
વર્ષા પંચોલી
Alpvirãm is the Gujarati word for a comma. A small rest, and then the sentence goes on.
Alp. Little, slight, brief. The smallest measure of something.
Virãm. A rest, a pause, a stop for breath.
Alpvirãm. The comma. A pause inside the sentence, never the end of one.
An essay by Vinay Trivedi about his mother’s fifty year old Gujarati poems.
Read the essayWhat my mother’s fifty year old Gujarati poems taught me about AI, originality, and the strange new value of being human.
AI can study every description of rain ever published. Only you stood in that rain.
The machine can continue her sentence. It cannot become that woman.
Sometimes the missing words are the strongest evidence that a human being was there.
The same questions, in other forms. Memoir, essays and short fiction by Vinay Trivedi.
All blogs and articlesMemory, inheritance, and the parents we understood too late.
Explore memoir →The Last Lines Belonged to Her
Long thinking about originality, AI, family and the things people leave unsaid.
Explore essays →Stories that can be finished in one sitting, and not forgotten as quickly.
Explore short fiction →Every piece by Vinay Trivedi begins with a question it cannot leave alone. Choose one and follow it.
All blogs and articlesThe Readers List
The occasional Gujarati poem, new essays and memoir before anywhere else, and notes from behind the manuscript.
