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The momentous weather hazards during the pre-monsoon season (April–May) over Kolkata (22° 32′ N, 88° 20′ E), India, is mostly due to lightning flashes and surface wind gusts associated with severe thunderstorms. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) model is developed to forecast the lightning flash rate and peak wind gusts which accompany severe thunderstorms. Meteorological parameters derived from radiosonde weather observations from 1998 to 2009 are taken as input whereas lightning data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) and wind gusts from a ground-based observatory are taken as the target output parameters. The skill of the MLP model is compared with the multiple linear regression (MLR) analysis method, and it is observed that the MLP model provides better and more accurate forecasts than the MLR analysis method. The results also reveal that the forecast accuracy is more for surface wind gusts than for the lightning flash rate, both during training and validation of the model. The MLP model forecast is validated with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) weather observations as well as Doppler weather radar and satellite imagery of 2008 and 2009 thunderstorms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genetic algorithm (GA) is introduced to fix ranges of parameters, in a quantitative manner, pertaining to forecasting the genesis of severe thunderstorms in the pre-monsoon season over Calcutta (22°32′, 88°20′) in the northeastern part of India (20°–24°N latitude, 85°–93°E longitude). The results depict that definite quantitative ranges of parameters can be made available before as well as after the occurrence of severe thunderstorms using a GA. Thus, a suitable combination of these ranges of parameters before the onset can represent a possible predictor of thunderstorm genesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents several poems by Sutapa Chaudhuri including "Behula," "Sanaka," and "For Lakkhinder." First Line: Somehow, it seemed like a callous; Last Line: to resuscitate life with a true love's kiss. First Line: Her old eyes stare nonchalant, burdened with; Last Line: her tales of youth and sunny eyes unheard forever. First Line: The nights, I know, won't pass. Last Line: made-over room in a lonely togetherness.

Three poems by Sutapa Chaudhuri are presented. "A Meeting with a Poet." First Line: It was on a dim evening; Last Line: the same in the language of sea and shore. "The Earthquake at Nepal." First Line: the dark sentinels; Last Line: nature's bounty restored. "Snapshots." First Line: Memories of joy and life; Last Line: Patterns fall in place, haphazard.

An interview with Nandini Sahu, chief editor of the periodical "Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature and Language," is presented. She discussed various topics including era in which she started writing poems, inspiration in her poetry, role of a poet, nature of poems she writes and reason behind writing poems in English.