Dear Editor,

Congratulations on your wonderful magazine DoubleSpeak. I find the name of the magazine quite hilarious. If you google (apparently this is a verb now) the word “doublespeak” and ask for an example this comes up. “Doublespeak is the complete opposite of plain and simple truth. … For example, if a pharmaceutical company said something like, “There are some minor side effects,” when they should clearly be stating, “This drug may cause a heart attack,” they’re using doublespeak and communicating in a deceptive manner.” While I do not appreciate the doublespeak from a pharma company, doublespeaking in poetry is an entirely different matter. The purpose of my letter is to pen (in this case type) a line or two about the poem “The Road” by Debbie Ghosh.

Life is journey that we all go through without realizing it or appreciating it. We may have also written countless essays to get good marks in school or college etc. But how many times does it happen that we sit down and think about it and may be pen a thought and above all draw inspiration from what we see and feel to describe life – as it is. Debbie Ghosh’s poem The Road exactly does that. Those 24 lines sums up what life is even though we do not realize it.

In this modern world who has time for living, we just survive. Maybe, if we stop for minute and put our thoughts like Debbie, we may learn to live.

With Regards

Soumen Mandal

Soumen Mandal is an experimental Physicist working at the Cardiff University. He currently resides in the city of Cardiff, UK. He has been an avid photographer who loves to capture the humour and uniqueness in the things around.