POET PROFILE: ELLORA MISHRA

Biography:

Ellora Mishra hails from Odisha, India. She is currently residing with her husband and 5 yr old Son in The Hague, Netherlands. An alumnus of BITS Pilani, Rajasthan (B.E. Hons Chemical) & XIMB, Odisha (MBA Finance) she has around 12 years of corporate experience in IT and corporate banking spaces across organizations. 

She is an avid blogger and loves to pen her musings under her pen name Ira Mishra. When she is not experimenting with her culinary skills she loves to capture moments and experiences through photography and to travel places. She has also recently started her travelogue to share her travel stories. 

While she quit her job in India and joined her spouse on one of his abroad work assignments, she decided to rekindle her childhood passion in writing. Writing has always been her safe haven to escape to. She hopes to pen down books in various genres of fiction going forward, and enjoy exploring the world of writing.  'Dots & Streaks' (short poetic tales) is her debut book which has won the coveted LIT Digital Award 2020 & has been nominated for Litfest 2020 by NE8X. Her short fictions have been longlisted for events like Story To Screen 2020 and have been selected for anthologies like that of Writer's Melon.

Ellora Mishra (a.k.a Ira Mishra)

Poems:

Essence

The Aureole (Featured Poem)

For years I had kept rummaging 

Looking for all those trinkets

Amassing them over for almost an eternity 

All that which glittered

And all that which promised to shine

Just for that halo

Even if not to my mind's eye

But, for that of the other's 

I so yearned for that halo...But, alas...

For it never did appear

Or even if it did

I didn't seem to cherish its gleam

Like those halos of the other's

However, sometimes I did ponder

If those were also there

Just in my mind's eye

Or were they really present

Like what seemed an era of trysts

Only for a speck of that radiance

But, to no avail

Exasperated, thus, I closed my eyes

To all that... which was outside

And in all my weariness, finally, today

Reached out, for that quest, within

With the lone hope to dissolve 

That eternity outside into the infinity inside

And that moment was when

I felt a thousand ripples rise

In that untouched lake of elixir

Which lay there waiting all this while

Just for my single touch

And before I could raise my eyes

I felt that enigmatic circle of light

In all its purity of glow

Radiating around my head

And in that split second of divine

I felt the white radiance 

Of that single star in my hand

And now, it mattered no more

Neither those glittering halos

Nor the others.

Sense

An Emergence 

For what was like eons 

The words lay there inside 

Like smothered embers 

In a hearth buried deep 

Cloistered in the confines within 

Almost in a limbo 

For, to what virtue were they 

Than to be lost yet again 

In that labyrinth of hackneyed words 

Pronounced each time 

As just another blasphemy 

But then, came that day 

When the blood moon rose 

And rekindled the cinders 

To unleash a phoenix of words 

Disintegrate from a lone voice 

Emancipate from within 

Flaring above from the binds 

Of those age old ancient shackles 

And like erupted molten lava 

Spread out into infinitesimal roots 

Of voices and words 

Taking into its fold the prejudices 

And melting out the vicious 

In the purity of that ignition 

Giving birth to a new day 

Of a new liberated dream

Essence of Infinitude

The little yellow lights glistened

Outside the glass panes

In the shroud 

Of the darkness around

Their fluorescent light

Almost cajoling one and all

To reach out 

And captivate them 

Making them your own

And bask in that 

Sought after triumph 

Like all those tiny fire flies

In the secure of your palms

But then, if only, ever

The candescence could be 

Captured in its entirety 

Perhaps, that's what is after all

The most elusive virtue 

Of any luminosity

For, as long as it is in view 

The yearning remains

To conquer it 

But when it is within

Its infinitude

Housed inside

Will remain inconspicuous 

As always, as ever

Apocalypse

So, it was confirmed

Not anymore a concocted tale

Or a figment of imagination

But very much a reality

Just about a door's knock away

Awaited the apocalypse anyway

And all you could do

Was only wait with bated breath

Behind the closed door

For this, too, to pass

And pass this will too

But will it be the same again

Didn't they say, it will never be so

But I wonder, what is that change

That will come to be

Every single ray of the novel concern

That has now replaced the sunshine

The community of yesteryear strangers

That has gathered to form all around

The far and near ones coming to life

That were lost so long in the virtual world

Are these all to stay

All that which has risen

From their forgotten pyre

Like another unfathomable phoenix

Or will they all also pass

Along with the apocalypse

Perhaps this ain't about the apocalypse afterall

Maybe this is about all the epiphany moments

Far and few between

That are here and to manifest

Which are to remain

As the other end of the fathomless imagination

Long after the doors open

Hope

Bright and yellow

The sun-kissed flowers

In their own glow

Lay there somewhere

Amidst the barren flow

In the middle of nowhere

Disregarded they bloomed

And heedless they perished

Till one day the barren

With the curiosity that it cherished

Asked, oh dear flower

Whom do you endear

Don't you think

Your virtue here is futile

The flower however smiled

If at all it was all in vain

Why would I mystify you, again

But if you should know

Then let me foretell you so

The barren is barren

In wait of that bloom

Which I'm the only one to herald

The only harbinger of that Emerald

Even if this were the doom

I am the hope

And so, I shall continue to bloom

Ellora Mishra is paired with Lauren Rudolph, visit Lauren to see her works.

Poet Statement:

Any form of art is a way of communication between the souls. Poetry also for me is one such medium. And it is this very medium of communication that I happened to explore when I kind of fell short of words. So, you can say that as the digits in the years of experience with life grew the number of words seemed to fall short to get those life experiences through! That's when I automatically got lured by the world of poetry in which just a magic of few words can leave you with a multitude of lingering thoughts. Usually the technique I follow is to think of some incident or some experience that I came across in life or say it could even be a life lesson or anything that tugged my soul and left a few questions unanswered maybe! I then weave my words around it. Sometimes, an image or an art form can induce the thoughts and sometimes it's the other way round.

For this event of 'IGNITE-from within the confines-' I again followed the same methodology. I feel that every art form has a language of its own and the thoughts they bring are unique to each soul. And so as to bring forth the creativity of each individual which reflects this uniqueness of thoughts, I tried to understand that language that the art forms assigned to me for the event communicated with me in my own way. I sincerely hope that my words did justice to the art forms and can leave behind a trail of thoughts as was the motive. 

Hope to see many more such collaborations in future which amalgamate two kinds of art forms together. I feel honored and privileged to be part of such an event of celebration of art. 

You can reach Ira Mishra at:

Blogs: http://livelife2dfullest.blogspot.com/  

https://mydateswiththeworld.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @ellora280

Instagram: @ellora280 

Email: ellora280@gmail.com

Art & Poem

Vision & Concept by Deepa Gopal

Video by Anoushka Sunil

Intro clip and thumbnail- Vibhin P C

Introduction 

Video edit by Anoushka Sunil

Intro clip and thumbnail- Vibhin P C

CURATOR'S TIDBITS:

Ira (Ellora Mishra) is a vibrant person, so full of life and I see a ‘happy-go-lucky’ girl in her. I reached her through Tomichan Matheikal’s blog. I downloaded Ira’s debut of short poetic tales, ‘Dots and Streaks’, from Blogchatter E-Book Carnival and read her work, the very first time. I saw a range of emotions there, the warmth and tenderness of ‘Time’ stuck with me for some reason. Her poems seems to seek within, soul-searching, stirring her being and it ties a chord with others as well. That same chord defines Lauren Rudolph’s art too. She’s a seeker of the essence, the core and the soul of being. I haven’t had the chance to know Lauren more as a person. However, her art connects and connects deeply. She was part of ‘My Creative Day’ mini-series that I had organized at Hues n Shades, my personal blog, last October.

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