It stops only briefly. It is unusual in every sense. The tickets, for instance, are measured in proportion to the want. You get on hurriedly and look around at your fellow passengers. A timid 19-year-old is engaged in animated discussion with a veteran. You find a place and settle in. The train moves away and the stagnant moorings upon which your Muse lay fade quickly into the night.
The camaraderie within quarantines you from all your worries. The scenery you pass is what you want it to be. Some travel into verse, others set the metre, and still others become inscribed in epigraphs. You look around and see baggage neatly placed in assigned slots. Each piece illumines the gathering but stops short of overpowering the travellers.
This train is a poetry collective and the friends made here are for life. You can already sense that. The Muse takes you where you want to go. When you get off, you will have carved a whole new path. This is what you have always dreamt of.
All-a-bard The Quarantine Train!
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Deepankar Khiwani
Memorial Prize
by The Quarantine Train
Thanks to generous donors, we have instituted a prize to honour the memory of Poet Deepankar Khiwani, who passed away in March 2020. Deepankar was a poet who was deeply committed to promoting literary activities in India.
First Prize : INR 15000, Second Prize : INR 10000, Third Prize : INR 5000.
All winners receive a certificate and a year membership with The Quarantine Train.
DEEPANKAR KHIWANI
Born in New Delhi in 1971, Deepankar Khiwani lived in Paris for a long time before returning to India. He read Economics at Bombay University and earned postgraduate degrees in accounting and business management. He worked for a consulting and technology company. He passed away in March 2020.
Khiwani’s debut collection of poems, Entr’acte, was published in 2006 by Harbour Line. A master of formal, metred verses, Khiwani explored themes of detachment, masquerade, and ambivalence in these poems. His poems were included in many anthologies including 60 Indian Poets (Penguin, ed. Jeet Thayil), The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (Bloodaxe, ed. Jeet Thayil), Both Sides of the Sky (National Book Trust, ed. Eunice de Souza), 50 Poets, 50 Poems (Open Spaces, ed. Priya Sarukkai Chabria), and The HarperCollins Book of English Poems by Indians (Harper Collins, ed. Sudeep Sen). International publications including London Magazine and Fulcrum have featured his work.
DKM Prize Winners 2022
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