FLASH FICTION / Chand raat at Mohakhali

Words fall short to describe Kamla Bhasin: how does one begin to describe a force of nature like her? Perhaps the simplest way to do so is with the word ‘love’. Kamla was many things to many people—most famous for her fierce feminism, activism, and work in development, rights, peace and justice. However, at the core of it, I believe, Kamla embodied love.

Bangladeshi poet and novelist Farida Majid passed away at a private hospital in Dhaka on the morning of Tuesday, September 28. 

Commemorating Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 75th birthday, Bangla Academy organised a seminar titled “Sheikh Hasinar Srishtyshilota”, and a book exhibition at the Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad Auditorium in their premises today.

A hawker in Jhenidah, with his own hard-earned money, has established a self-made library at his house in College Para area under Kaliganj municipality. 

tears tasted salty when i was little sometimes i would inspect a drop against the light-

One intriguing question in Albert Camus’s philosophical novel “La Peste” (The Plague) is the idea of death perceived through the sense of rationality.

The year Dadi died, monsoon came early. Days of incessant rain, nights with loud thunderstorm. And when there was no rain, my friend Mira and I sang rain songs and floated paper boats in the puddle.

Fifteen pages into Ali Smith’s Autumn—the first installment of the Seasonal Quartet, we are introduced to the protagonist (to the extent they exist in her books), Elisabeth.

Netflix’s new comedy-drama, The Chair (2021), should fit right up the alley of any and possibly every lit major or graduate.

Identity is mercurial: it shifts and morphs into a new being at the change of a breeze. That change is glacial, and often happens on its own volition; but one can also grasp a new identity, hold it tight till it engulfs the old, and thereby change the trajectory of their life completely.

Oorja, as her name suggests, is a bright young girl who is the main protagonist of the story. The novel begins with her travelling back to India after her mother’s demise. She reaches home only to find her father missing. The rest of the book is a journey of love, healing, and rediscovery of her own self. 

My first reaction to the knowledge that someone would attempt to re-tell the story of The Illiad appeared to be a foolhardy venture- one that was doomed to failure because it seemed too challenging and gargantuan a task, but within the first few chapters I could see Pat Barker’s skill in bringing the story of the Illiad to a modern context.

Meanwhile I looked for space, for a new frontier.

This dawn is unvarying, lovely, peaceful, dewy, Morning sky has opened its store of breathing clouds,

The mystical riddle that was the film, The Green Knight (2021), was initially just that for me: a riddle. It was one of those films where I felt like my experience of watching it would be more rewarding if I had some idea of the actual story it was based on.

Jointly edited by Ahasan Hydar and Snigdhadip Chakraborty, Ek Ashchorjo Phul Binoy Majumdar (Ashroy Prokashon, 2021) is a valuable book on the life and work of Bengali poet Binoy Majumdar, who was born on September 17, 1934.

Sufibad O Sufider Shorup Shondhaney (‘In search of the nature of Sufism and Sufis’), written by Syed Rezaul Karim and published in 2020 by Bangla Academy, is a welcome addition to the meager collection of books written in Bangla on Sufism.

I am convinced that while writing her book, The Begum and the Dastan (Westland Publications, 2021), Tarana Husain Khan’s aim was to leave her readers in a literary stupor, dizzy and yearning for more.

The 2021 Booker Prize shortlist was revealed on September 15, with six of the previously announced 13-novel longlist making the cut. Each of the six authors are to receive GBP 2,500, while the winner, to be announced on November 3 at the BBC Radio Theatre, will receive GBP 5,000. Notably, and much like 2020’s competition, only one British author is named in the shortlist.

Dr Anand Bikash Chakma, Associate Professor at the department of History, Chittagong University, launched his book, Carpus Mahal Theke Shanti Chukti: Parbotto Chattogram-e Rashtrio Nitir Itihash (University Press Limited, 2021), at a virtual programme organised by UPL on September 9, 2021.