Tag Archives: Story

Book Review: ‘Premendra Mitrer Shrestho Golpo’ By Premendra Mitra

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Another book that I read this year was Premendra Mitrer Shrestho Golpo (Best Stories of Premendra Mitra). As the title suggests, this book is a compilation of short stories by Bengali writer Premendra Mitra. Honestly speaking, I had difficulty appreciating most of the stories mainly because they have been written in an abstract manner. The stress of the writer is on depiction of the environment, human expressions and emotions, whereas the plot is secondary. But certainly, the description is flawless — all stories help you in experiencing life in varied colours. This is a characteristic of nearly whole Bengali literature irrespective of genre — it evokes emotions in you that you yourself weren’t aware of.

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Book Review: ‘Kiriti Roy’ By Nihar Ranjan Gupta

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I had survived the first COVID wave last year with art as my only recourse. And to survive the second wave, I took refuge in literature, particularly fiction. With rising number of COVID cases, general indifference and influx of bad news and negative communication, the need for a strong distraction grew immensely. I knew that only nicely written detective novels or stories have the ability to engage the mind and keep it away from external influences. Another genre is horror; however, I am not very aware of literature in that genre, and have read only short stories. Anyway, coming back to detective novels, I had a good experience in the past from Saradindu Bandyopadhyay, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and innumerable stories published in Anandamela. Problem with detective stories is that there is no scope of re-reading. Once you have read a particular story, you already know who the culprit was and all the nitty-gritty of the crime. So another reading of the same story has no charm and nothing new to offer. I keep it in my mind that the first reading is going to be my only reading of the story and therefore try to give my full attention to it.

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My Favourite Stories From Contemporary Bengali Literature : The Lone Tree

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: ‘Galpa Samagra’ By Sunil Gangopadhyay

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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

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

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

Stories That Influenced Me: The Beggar At Bus Stop

Begging

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This story had appeared in Navabharat Times and is among the shortest pieces of fiction I have read. This story showed how intense emotion can be generated even with very few words, so that elaborate melodrama is absolutely not required. Now, in the beginning itself, let me raise the alert that the philosophy of the story is debatable. I myself couldn’t convince myself to the thinking of this story. This is a complex world, circumstances do not follow any computer algorithm; people are not logical creatures — it is not necessary that any person would act the same way in all possible circumstances and would deal with everybody in absolutely same fashion irrespective of the state of mind or circumstances. Anyway, let me narrate the story. Continue reading

Stories That Influenced Me: The Night Bus

8687566638_c29e76810c_n (1)I had gone to Delhi for some exam and was now returning to Rishikesh by evening bus. It is a usual practice among students to make the 6-hour night journey to take various competitive exams. Buses were efficient and comfortable. Bus journeys also allow us  to come across different people from different backgrounds and help us see the different shades of this colourful world. Continue reading

Stories That Influenced Me: The Boy Who Loved Street Food

6714250699_ca627e03d8_nThis story had appeared in children’s magazine Lotpot. A young boy was very fond of Indian fast food, or rather street food — chaat, samosa, tikki and so on. Every other day he would demand his father to take him to the stalls offering such spicy delicacies.  His father resisted a lot, but had to surrender. His mother would teach him how eating street food was not healthy, and even went to the extent of offering to make some of those snacks at home itself. But the boy didn’t listen. He did not find the same flavour in home made snacks as found in street food. In fact, he was completely addicted to the street food. His parents were very worried, but could not figure out how to deal with the problem. Continue reading