# A Transparency against the Sunlight

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2022/10/10/a-transparency-against-the-sunlight/
- Published: 2022-10-10T23:29:52+00:00
- Author: shuktara

5/5 - (1 vote)

**Author: **Jyotsna Agnihotri Gupta[⌊A sample cover of the book: red coloured handloom sari with gold embossed nameplate and lettering for the title and author's name. The border of the sari lines the right hand margin of the cover.⌉](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/A-Transparency-against-the-Sunlight-scaled-1.jpeg)
**
Pages:** 140 **Year of Publication:** 2022 **Price:** Rs 550 **ISBN:** 978-81-958199-
5-9 (9788195819959)

_**About the Author**_
 Jyotsna Agnihotri Gupta (born 1948) taught English at Lady
Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, from 1969 to 1980. Four of her 
poems feature in Professor P. Lal’s **_Modern Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology_
_and a Credo_**, published by **Writers Workshop**, India, in 1971.

In 1980 she moved to the Netherlands, where she has lived since with her family.
She has a PhD in Sociology from Leiden University and has taught courses on gender
and diversity at several Dutch universities including Leiden and Maastricht University.
She has written extensively about reproductive technologies, gender, women’s health
and bioethics. Her publications include _New Reproductive Technologies_, _Women’s
Health and Autonomy: Freedom or Dependency?_ (Sage, 2000). She has also worked as
a freelance gender consultant for the World Health Organization in Geneva and the
International Commission of Jurists.

In 2013 she retired from teaching, and besides continuing to publish her research,
she spends her time learning to paint, mainly watercolours, and with black ink (
_sumi-e _technique) in Chinese and Japanese traditions.

This is her first book of poems.

_**Teaser**_

_Wedding Anniversary_

Nearly five decades ago,
 with a pen dipped in the ink of love we signed our names
on documents in the presence of three witnesses. The Marriage Officer added his 
signature and official stamp, handed us the certificate of marriage declaring us
husband and wife.

Once home
 the pundit summoned the sacred fire as witness, made us walk seven times
around it. Tied in the sacred knot the pledge for us to be together for not one,
but seven lives to come.

In these now almost five decades
 we have seen the ups and downs of life argued 
and made up saw our son and daughter flourish made some dreams come true.

And now,
 after all that time together, when we sit beside each other, can someone
tell me, why hangs this eerie silence between us? Is it that after being together
for ages there is nothing more left to say to each other? Or is it because to communicate
we have no use for words no more? Without uttering a word we can read each other’s
thoughts?

 

07/02/2021
 (Translated from the original written in Hindi)

_**Contents**_
 96 poems spread across 4 sections