Please Stand Back From The Platform Door

Name: Please Stand Back From The Platform Door
Price: 22.0000 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 978-988-8492-44-2

A Proverse Prize Publication

Vishal Nanda

English , 2021/11 Proverse Hong Kong

Tags: Poetry

215 x 140 mm , 80pp ISBN : 978-988-8492-44-2

US$22.00

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PLEASE STAND BACK FROM THE PLATFORM DOOR contains slices of perspectives in a great big place. But the writer contends that these perspectives are held by others as well, that others have felt them, that they resonate through Hong Kong and into other cities, and other disconnected, disjointed individuals on other trains on their way to other stations.

The writer hopes that you will find something inside that you can relate to, that you can feel something about. He hopes by the end of it you will have had some kind of view into or out of a window, despite being on a train underground. A glimpse into the mind of a Hong Konger, one among seven million others.

We might agree on some things and disagree on others, but by the end we would have traveled together, and that is enough to make acquaintances of us both, which, as he says, “is quite alright by me”.

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BRIEF: Perspectives in poetry on Hong Kong, hopefully relatable also to other urban environments. By a 2nd-generation Hong Konger of Indian descent, who is also bipolar.

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COMMENTS

A tour de force.—Peter Kennedy, School of English, University of Hong Kong

Vishal has found his voice with this collection.—David McMahon, author of Vegemite Vindaloo, Penguin India

As if a bright focus light is suddenly switched on, we see afresh the business of living.

—Lily Swarn, Internationally awarded, multilingual poet, author

Vishal Nanda’s wonderful panorama of Hong Kong offers the reader a kaleidoscope of memorable poetry.... a cornucopia of evocative emotion—sometimes mirroring the author’s anxiety and at other times his exuberance for the moment—a joi de vivre. Indeed, there is a visual playfulness in Nanda’s words which will remain in the reader’s mind for some time.

—J. P. Linstroth, Proverse Prize 2019 (Epochal Reckonings), Florida USA

Almost a hundred years ago Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis offered us a vision of the future and in Vishal Nanda’s debut collection we have arrived there. But we can’t be anywhere other than Hong Kong in 2021 where ‘we have conquered humanity despite so little space’ with this ‘third culture kid’.... Through his words we have a heartfelt contemplation of what it means to belong, to be angry, to struggle with and survive the modern demons that threaten our mental health: what it means to be human in Hong Kong right here, right now. Amid this clamour he asks, ‘Can I get the future ladies and gentlemen?’ and comes back with an emphatic takeaway message – ‘Hear the music in between the noise. Not ringing, not tinnitus. But joy.’

—Neil Douglas, London, UK

VISHAL NANDA is in all respects a “third-culture kid”. He was born in Hong Kong of Indian parents who emigrated to Hong Kong in 1957 and he is thus a second generation “Hong Konger”. A published poet, he is a member of the Hong Kong Peel Street Poets, performing poetry at their events since 2014, and winning the group’s Poetry Slam Completion in 2019. He has additionally performed spoken word poetry at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, TEDx events, and on radio at RTHK3, among others.