THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 14th May 2026 Teji Sethi - Guest Editor

Editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh

Guest Editor: Teji Sethi

Host: Srinivas Sambangi

Featured Poet: Rupa Anand

A Thursday Feature

14th May 2026

Documenting Personal Stories in Haibun

Like other Japanese short forms, I presume haibun also saw a literary migration to the Indian subcontinent around the same time as haiku.  When I first came to haiku, I dared not attempt haibun as the form looked too prosaic, and I was always drawn to micro-poems. Then I stumbled upon some Indian poets writing haibun and tanka prose and was utterly pleased to see them retain the flavour of Indian words and cultural rhythms. These were narratives of their towns, temples, local celebrations vividly portraying Indian landscapes and sensibilities, written in simple English yet true to haikai aesthetics. I instantly took up writing haibun and tanka prose. In 2019, I wrote my first first tanka prose about my grandfather's 72-year- old Lahore house. It got published in Ribbons. 

The haibun I showcase today is by Rupa Anand, in which she documents a personal story from the erstwhile Punjab.

Tana-Bana

           for Lila Anand

Rupa Anand

Mother-in-law had eight siblings. Her family lived in Lahore, in unpartitioned India, and after a brief romance she married Dad, who lived in Delhi. My husband, born in 1948, a year after India’s independence from the British Raj, was the second of four boys. 

verdant green

a Himalayan bluetail  

skims the skies 

Come June, when the holidays started, this charming school teacher would take these rascals across the Indian border by train to the family house in Lahore, Pakistan. There, they would run amok, climbing trees, scraping knees, chasing chickens, milking cows and dunking mangoes in buckets of chilled water with the pulp trickling down skinny elbows. The home ensconced in farmland resounded with laughter and pattering feet. 

chatai on the grass —

finding faces

in faraway clouds

As the holidays drew to an end, Mother would begin packing the bulky khaki hold-alls of that era crammed with pickled goodies, summer mischief and her sons. And catch the train back to New Delhi. 

white jasmine 

over our neighbour’s fence

scenting both sides

the fragrance of family 

    deep in every heart

Note: ‘Tana-Bana’ is a Sanskrit term referring to the fundamental process of weaving, specifically the warp (Tana) and weft (Bana) 

Contemporary Haibun Online 22:1, April 2026.

Guest Editor: Jenny Ward Angyal

Prompt for Writers

I'd like you to refresh your memories and map a narrative from your native. Revisit the lanes of your childhood and bring them out on paper. Dig up some vernacular words and create an imagery of yesteryears. If not haibun, you'll surely find a haiku or a tanka hiding in the crevices of your memories! You can even build a narrative around them. 

 ***

Thank you, Teji, for another interesting haibun and the prompt this week.

_Srinivas