Thali Katori

About the Book: 

Thali Katori brings together two words that celebrate difference, acknowledge the need for the sensitive appreciation of difference, the virtues of complementarity and the nourishment that poetry and the arts, as vitally as savoury and sweet dishes, dal and other vegetables, gives us, to keep us alive, to refuse, in Hugh MacDiarmid’s phrase, ‘a life deprived of its salt.’

Thali Katori is a feast of many flavours. Thali, literally means a plate on which a selection of many dishes is served. Katori signifies the bowls which accompany the thali. Together, the dishes are all different, but they complement each other, bringing out each other’s flavours and unique identities.

Featuring poems and extracts from writers such as Sir Walter Scott, Vikram Seth and Hugh MacDiarmid, Thali Katori is a collection of poetry and prose that celebrates the difference and the diversity of the Indian sub-continent and Scotland. Through a diverse collection of poetry that explores the unique history of the relationship between India and Scotland and the ways in which it has affected the lives of many since, both Scottish and Indian writers alike are brought together in this anthology to create a feast of appreciation for the diversity of culture and identity of the two nations.

Thali Katori provides a platform for a multitude of voices… if one is searching for a synergy then it surely must be that of the experience of the Diaspora and the formation of attachments to the Motherland. Amrit Khan

Reviews: 

This lovely anthology is full of great poetry and beauty from Sir Walter Scott to modern lovely poets, only a few of whom I have quoted here, and it will make a wonderful gift. ALINE DOBBIE , IndiaGBnews.com

About the Authors:

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.

ALAN RACH was born in Airdrie in 1957. He studied English literature at Cambridge University from 1976-79. He completed his PhD in the Department of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University in 1986. His academic career has included positions as a post-doctoral research fellow, senior lecturer, Associate Professor and Pro-Dean in the Faculty of Arts, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand 1986-2000. He returned to Scotland in January 2001 and is currently the Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.