A scholar, critic and translator, Jharna Sanyal was professor of English at the University of Calcutta. The Magic Web and Other Stories: Ashapurna Devi on the Widow and Her World, –a collection of Bangla short stories in translation, had been published by Orient Blackswan in 2012.She is also a creative writer who writes in both Bangla and English. She is a painter by passion and loves to travel. Some of the poems in this collection are reflections of these engagements.