Well, it all began in the first year of our marriage when I realised my husband is being royally ignored on Jamai Shashthi, a day when a son-in-law in Eastern India, particularly in Bengal is supposed to enjoy all the attention from his in-laws, showered
Bengalis of India had lost the respect for their mother tongue long back. They were more busy talking to each other in English to prove their intellectual superiority rather than in Bangla, a language that has produced some of the best literary works of the
When my teenage son dragged me a couple of months back to meet Sonada of Guptodhoner Sandhaney, I was reluctant to see another ‘naïve’ Bengali detective movie. After all our generation grew up among various Bengali detectives, from Kiriti, to Byomkesh to Feluda. Leaving aside
‘What’s in a name?’ You call a rose, by any name, yet it remains that sweet scented flower. Well, Shakespeare seems to have been more liberal about names that modern pundits are about women attire. I would love to take this cue and ask: ‘What’s
Remember that scene from Padmavat where the Rajput queen performs Jawhar Vrat to evade surrendering to the Muslim invader Allauddin Khilji’s Army? Well, it seems people like Payal Rohatgi, the B-grade actress and model of Bollywood mixed up Jawhar Vrat with social atrocities like Sati!
A movie opens with the lines: ‘Many relationships have been destroyed because words were not spoken, many people moved away because silence reigned.’ The same movie ends with poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s revolutionary lines: ‘Ami bhogobaan bukey enke debo podocchinho’ (the courage to even challenge
I have always loved the colour red, for it has signified the hue of blood or a dying sun in the horizon. But whenever I saw a red flag fluttering on any factory top, I feared and dreaded, may be another industry is on its
My Bishnupur trail did not just end with the famous terracotta temples. It was also about the Baluchari Sarees, that unfortunately never got the status of a Benarasi, but have enough potential to excel even a world famous Dhakai Muslin! Bishnupur was a prominent seat
If you are heading to the Hills this summer, do not miss this innovative and happening tea lounge of Kurseong. For years, the small eateries and road-side shacks have served plates of steaming momos and bowls of thupkas to hungry tourists heading for Darjeeling. But
When very strong actors come together on the same screen, then at times conflict of acting prowess tend to dilute the screenplay. Basu Paribar is a complete exception to that, where every actor from Aparna Sen to Lily Chakraborty, from Soumitro Chatterjee to Kaushik Sen,