From the Ganga to the Tay

About the Book: 

The Ganges and the Tay, the largest water courses in their two countries, are sources of life, conflict and industrial and historical change. "The Ganga and the Tay" is an epic concrete poem in which the River Ganges and the River Tay relate the historical importance of the ties between India and Scotland and their contemporary relevance as a natural symbol of continuity and peace. The poem is illustrated with beautiful photographs of both great rivers, which explore their shared, but unique, personalities through their histories, geographies, mythologies and environments.

Reviews: 

The book is certainly a conceptual and poetic achievement... THE NEWSTATESMAN

Bashabi Fraser's epic tale of two nations, Scotland and India, as told by the competing voices of the River Tay and the Ganges, brilliantly reinvents the flyting tradition in Scottish poetry. A rich blend of mythic, historical, and geographical storytelling, her poem explores aspects of India and Scotland from a radically unusual perspective, paying tribute to the close links between both post-colonial nations. The framework of Hindu imagery for the voice of the Ganges come across most vividly, as does the 'leaping salmon' vigour of the Tay. Passages of sublime lyricism, combined with bardic narrative energy, fuse into a poem which displays very much her own vision, a 21st. century one. And it is a great read! MARIO RELICH

In the art of Bashabi Fraser the cultures of India and Scotland richly blend, and in this magnificent poem the two living traditions speak to each other through the riverine oracles of the Ganges and the Tay. RICHARD HOLLOWAY

About the Author:

BASHABI FRASER was born in West Bengal in India. Living a multicultural and colourful life, Bashabi divides her life between the two countries she loves most – India and Britain. After living in London, Bashabi returned to India to attend a convent boarding school on the Himalayas where she was threatened with expulsion after breaking all possible rules! Happily this threat never came to fruition and with a PhD in English Literature, she is now an associate lecturer in English Literature for the Open University and a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at Edinburgh University. She travels widely working as a poet, attending councils and conferences around the world and has written for many publications, has two collections of poems in print and has been included in a number of anthologies. Bashabi has also written children’s stories and is writing a shadow puppet play and a book on the Bengal Partition and is a classical Indian dancer and choreographer. She now lives in Edinburgh with her husband and daughter.

KENNY MUNRO has been actively working as a sculptor and educator for over 20 years undertaking commissions for the private and public sectors. He has built a reputation for innovative international projects, celebrating cultural diversity and promoting creative, collaborative 'field-work'. His work can be found is diverse locations from Edinburgh, Munich, Adelaide to Bengal. He also writes articles on arts empowerment, ecology and sustainable transport issues.