Tag Archives: English

My Favourite Stories From Contemporary Bengali Literature : The Lone Tree

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28317470829_8e99126b55_nI moved to this new accommodation in January this year. The design and construction of this residential complex is quite strange. None of the residents seems to have any clue about what came to the architect’s mind to have designed such a stupid tower. No ventilation, no windows, no outside view. Everything is closed with glass panes, shutters, walls. We don’t even know what colour the sky is at any time of the day or whether it is raining outside or is it sunny. Continue reading →

Book Review: And So Can You By Dr. Roopleen

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I have received the book And So Can You by Dr. Roopleen for review. The secondary title of the book suggests that this is a  book that every doctor and medical student must read. This creates an impression that it is a self-help book which young doctors or students of medicine would like to refer again and again for guidance and inspiration. I can visualize such a book lying comfortably on my book shelf or my desk so that I can reach out to it any time I want or need it. Continue reading →

Book Review: ‘Galpa Samagra’ By Sunil Gangopadhyay

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Image source: Flipkart

For last couple of years, I have been reading Galpa Samagra, a collection of short stories by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Let me start by mentioning that Sunil always described himself as a poet first, and considered rest of his skills or occupations as secondary. But honestly speaking, I do not understand poetry — neither by Sunil nor by anybody else. My foray is short stories, and I am happy with them. Continue reading →

Three Takes On ‘The Stoneman Murders’

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We love suspense. We love mysteries. We love unsolved cases. In my opinion, the best detective stories are those that encourage the reader/audience to participate in the investigation process. That means, all aspects of the case are placed before the reader, and the reader is encouraged to provide solution. I remember one TV series — perhaps titled Apraadhi Kaun?— where every story was presented in two parts. In the first part, all details of the case were investigated and presented. The viewers were then asked who they think had committed the crime. It was an open competition. Viewers would send postcards. In the second part, the winner was announced and also the solution of the case was shown. Continue reading →

Book Review: ‘I Owed You One’ By Madhu Vajpayee

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Image source: Amazon.

This was a very hectic week, in which I had to travel a lot, both by bus and train, taking long breaks in between. It was an official trip and exhausted me completely. Today all affairs have completed, and tomorrow would be my last day in Ahmedabad. All along this one week duration, my constant companion was a recently published novel ‘I Owed You One’ by Madhu Vajpayee. I had received this book from BlogAdda for review. Before I start making my comments on the literary aspect of this work, I would like to stress that books like this one are the reason why printed books will never go extinct. The publishing work of this book is outstanding, and being an artist, I could immediately appreciate and admire the piece of art that the publisher has come up with. Continue reading →

Lalit And Navnindra Behl: The Couple Who Created Wonderful ‘Afsane’

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Finding other people who share our interest and taste is indeed a delightful experience. So you can imagine my happiness when I received positive response from several of you on one of my earlier posts When Your Post Is Not Delivered — which was narration of a drama telecast on Doordarshan. On one side, there are those who are also searching for that serial and similar other programmes, and on the other are those who have a wonderful memory and can recall even more details than what I gave in that post. Motivated by the comments on that post, I myself did some quick search and here are some more details about that story. The serial was titled ‘Afsaane’, and the actors were Lalit Behl and Navnindra Behl. This is how they looked like: Continue reading →

Amit Misra

February 20, 2018

Amit Misra's avatar

Some time back I had posted an article on the Aravrit script, a hybrid script created by joining Arabic and Hebrew scripts. While exploring the work further, I had some doubts, which I communicated to Liron Lavi Turkenich, the creator of the script. If you have a Facebook account, you may like to see the response to my query on this link.

 

Competition In Sorrow

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Do this experiment once. Next time when someone asks you ‘how are you?’, instead of telling ‘fine’, just mention that you are not, and enumerate one or two troubles you have. For example, ‘not fine, I don’t know, but since last couple of days I am feeling intense pain in my stomach’. Or, ‘my children not faring well in exams’, ‘my husband is too busy with his own work, and I am not able to handle so many things alone’. Or just anything. And then see the magic! Continue reading →

A Hungry Country Throwing Away Its Food

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Image source: asiaone.com

In an earlier article, I told you how I learnt to value money after reading my father’s diary. Another habit which we children developed by observing our parents — both of them — was to respect food. We did not learn it by reading their diaries or eavesdropping on their conversations. As a family we used to eat together, and day and night we watched and observed how our parents never wasted a single grain of food. This is one of the reasons that I always stress that children learn by observing their parents and follow their example, whereas lecturing almost never helps. Continue reading →

Book Review: ‘The Big Switch’ By John Thomas

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Book cover image source: Amazon.

Along with rapid growth and development, the IT revolution has also brought in several problems which were previously not known. The young generation is still inexperienced in its dealings with the outside world and does not have any possibility of support from the older generation. How does it fight its battles continues to enjoy the focus of contemporary literature. The recent changes in society in general, and in the workplace in particular, present a lot of scope for experiment in literature. Still, the numerous books that have been set on this background ended up being similar to each other, just like the uniforms of the professionals whose lives they narrate. Continue reading →