A Bengali poet writes about being a ‘failure’ despite publishing several books and winning awards

“Go on failing. Go on.
Only next time, try to fail better”

Some small wonders of life are its ironic surprises. My participation in this symposium is just such a surprise for me. At first, I was taken aback when my dear friend Amit Chaudhuri, whose writings I greatly admire and who is perfectly aware of my utter ineligibility to take part in any scholarly discourse, suddenly made me an offer to deliver a talk in an august symposium to be held on the theme of “Failure”. But then I quickly realised that it’s an offer I cannot logically decline, because, being an elderly and obscure Bengali poet who has failed in his pursuit to achieve fame in his long poetic career, I can at least claim with some dignity that failure is my forte. Thus, I agreed with a chuckle at myself, after making a quick mental calculation that my poor English might also go well with the drift of the subject itself.

So here I am, ladies and gentlemen, and here are some bare facts about myself. I have been writing poetry for the last fifty years, having published twelve books of poems, along with two collections of literary essays and one...

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