Exhibiting at the Ann Bryant Gallery, East London

Acrylic on Canvas by Amitabh Mitra

High Street, Grahamstown

Watercolor on Handmade Paper by Amitabh Mitra

Hon. Noxolo Kiviet, Premier of Eastern Cape visits Accident and Emergency Department of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital

With the Hon. Noxolo Kiviet, Premier of Eastern Cape today at our Accident and Emergency Department of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, Mdantsane. A wonderful gesture from the Premier on the morning of Christmas day. Accident and Emergency Department is a specialty department with all my doctors and nurses been trauma trained, it caters to the community of Mdantsane and its surrounding areas.

Road from Makiwane, Mdantsane

Acrylic on Canvas by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Protesting

Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Buffalo Flats

buffalo flats enters a salient draft
winds of a change
and the same old suffering respite
i have nearly forgotten caring
many years after the election
a sun remains indifferent here
an afterspirit of dancing
blues
jazz
colors of a twinkle
like all those shades of years
since i left
buffalo flats is a thought
in these mermaid nights
long after they fall in
adjacent grey patterns
long after the girl sang of unforeseen
summers
holding you
in lips
would also be
a thought
so far from you.

Buffalo Flats is a colored area of East London

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Old Delhi Cafe

this happened again
on a strangecafenoon
river days flew where a distance
left a crooked wind
a lone fort gaunt
daring again to remember
memories stuck to mirrors
we had seen each other so
often then
cups, glasses and lips
all together
happened
again

and in the midst of a forest
sleep
our eyes
once again rode
many a writhing
storm
voices staged suddenly
where i had once touched you

again.


Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Gwalior

when did i last see you
in an alley of closed darkness
you once said reasoning remains
an unflowering tree
stalking the mind
stalking the heart
stalking sand
in parched throat
benumbed fusions
and a rough wind
i looked elsewhere
aggression had always
been a new
dawn.

Poem and Watercolor by Amitabh Mitra

Royal Gwalior Sparkling Wine

Royal Gwalior Sparkling Wine, Limited Edition is now available. The wine produced in Western Cape has a rose tinge and flavour. Wine labels has my poetry and art. Each bottle bears my signature.

Designer Madiba Shirts and Gwalior Ties

Designer Madiba Shirts, Mdantsane Breathing T Shirts and Gwalior Ties are now available. Shipping worldwide

Ann Bryant Gallery, East London, South Africa

Ann Bryant Art Gallery, St. Marks Road, East London, South Africa
Built in 1905
Ann Bryant left her collection of art, building and the grounds to the City of East London when she died on 16 September 1946

Pen and Ink Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

East London

east london
an african sun suddenly stood
still
in the midst of rain
people
and thoughts
unseen
a song climbed
another tenor
splashing you
ferns of laughter grew wild
a patter of rainsteps
ran amok
shadows
tugged
whispered
of distant shores
long lost touch
wet with a shiver
of dawn.

Photograph by Kaustav Mitra

Preview Mdantsane Breathing

Mdantsane Breathing by Amitabh Mitra

Viva

viva
surges in throbbing pulse
beating drums of another war

viva
hiding a million dreams
tearing a million dreams

viva
the colour of a sky blanched
protesting a rainbow promise

viva
a country runs on fasting streets
on the silence of old shadows

viva
the child shackled in the emerging sun
tries to smile and laugh.

Poem and Drawing on a hand made paper by Amitabh Mitra

Carnival Nights

an evening creaks in
touching shadows with a tinge
of smile
a slow release laughter
aloe and wild grass shake to
jazz moments
tiredness breaks its shackles
ran the curves of a distant sun
words lost its way home
as usual
a poem unwound itself
from an angle of your eye
mdantsane bursts itself in a mayhem
of another carnival night.

Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Nights

lulama hurries home
mdantsane enters a war zone
an evening creeping into a shelter
of spoken shadows
a dying night screams somewhere
the last breath snatched without pity
happiness now brims in the slaughter
of the unforgotten.


Poem and Drawing by Amitabh Mitra

Mdantsane Breathing

Mdantsane is the second biggest township after Soweto in South Africa. This series of watercolour and poems are made possible due to my close encounters on a daily basis to the township life here. Mdantsane like many other South African townships is a glowing example of survival against all odds, its people who refuse to bow down to disparity and extreme distress till this day.





they come early in the morning
waiting long hours to be seen
till another evening
night shadows reach the long corridor at the end
where healing is yet another drought
a surface scarred of multiple incisions
like the hospital floor
when will the woman sing again
when would the child stop fearing the sun
when would the baby learn to smile
when would the man break the liquor bottle on his head one night
i look beyond the same corridors.

Poem and Watercolour on a handmade paper by Amitabh Mitra

Leaping the Lilac Sun Launched

After a successful launch of poetry / art book, ‘A Slow Train to Gwalior’, Amitabh Mitra brings you yet another extravaganza of art and poetry in his latest book, ‘Leaping the Lilac Sun’. The book was simultaneously launched at New Delhi and East London today. A coffee table book printed on premium paper, this book is a reflection of contemporary South African Poetry and is a proof of Amitabh Mitra’s close interest in fusion of art with poetry. This book is priced at Rand 700 including postage. Any enquiry to Amitabh at amitabh@amitabhmitra.com

drawing suns near her breast
where the lilacs are the word
of strange blind men
Pritish Nandy
Riding the Midnight River