Mallika Sengupta is a proponent of an unapologetically political poetry and an important voice in contemporary Bengali literature. She began writing in 1981 and has since published eleven books of poetry, two novels and several essays, and edited an anthology of women’s poetry from Bengal. She works as a lecturer of sociology in a Kolkata college where she is currently the head of her department. She is also the Poetry Editor of Sananda, the Bengali women’s fortnightly (edited by Aparna Sen). 

Sengupta has won numerous awards, including the Sukanto Puraskar (1998) from the Government of West Bengal, and a Junior Fellowship for Literature (1997 – 99) from the Department of Culture, Government of India. She has travelled to several poetry festivals, conferences and seminars in India, Sweden, Austria, USA and Bangladesh. English translations of her work have appeared in various anthologies. In addition to teaching, editing and writing, she has been actively involved with the cause of gender justice and other social issues. Along with other poets and artists, she has initiated Aloprithivi, a forum committed to raising consciousness among marginalized women and children through poetry, music and drama. 

THE GIRL ON THE SUNLIT ROAD

As the shadows of Minto Park shifted
They too moved away from the sun's heat
The two creatures who had left the dreadful house
Two storm-tossed birds - daughter and mother.

What took place in the night's darkness ? Outrage ! Outrage !
Incessant violence would tear up the woman
While the eyes of the mute girl streamed
She watched nightlong, nightlong, blood trickling down
Her mother's bruises.
The nightly eyewitness from a neighbouring window
Flared. Slamming his window shut he says, " I want privacy, privacy "

Window cries out, " Why are you beating your wife ? "
" My goat, whether I slaughter it, head or bum foremost
That's my business ", the man said.
This is termed privacy My Lord.
If one human being kills another
You will keep quiet !
Where's the human being ! That's the man's wife.

The Police Officer turns philosopher-
" Resolve your domestic conflicts at home
If your husband hits you a little
Why do you rush to the police station ? Go, go devote yourself to the family. "

" They'll kill my mother"
The girl wept at her maternal grandmother's feet
Her granddaughter's face made the old woman's heart tremble
Her sense of duty is relentless- throughout the ages she has learned
A woman's real space is her husband's home
" You have to return whatever the agony"

Where will the woman go with her young daughter !
Today a friend's house, tomorrow another's
But day after tomorrow
The day, day after ?

Mother and daughter sit in Minto Park
Clasping her mother the girl cries uncontrollably
" I shall not return to that man" 
To the daughter and mother who have escaped from home
Home is a black hole
Her vagina would be ripped from incessant brutality
Yet the man's fury never seemed to abate
-" No I will return no more"
Holding her daughter fast
The woman walked down the sunlit road

( Desh -1995) 

Translation : Sanjukta Dasgupta.