Asked about the first published novel in Bengali, most of us would probably say ‘Alaler Gharer Dulal’ (1857-58), written by Peary Chand Mitra under the pseudonym Tekchand Thakur. And we would be wrong. While a pioneering novel in many ways, this wasn’t the first published
Pagla Dashu, the very name evokes a smile and opens floodgates of memories. One of children literature’s most endearing character, Dashu aka Dasharathi is the quintessential school boy whose mad-cap capers and quite-often inexplicable actions carry subtle comedic satire. His bold misdeeds show sparks of
Afghanistan’s troubled history has been stained with bloodbath, but this is again a nation that had caught the attention of legendary Bengali author Syed Mujtaba Ali, who saw this country from a different perspective. An intrepid traveller and a true cosmopolitan, the legendary Bengali author,
Buddhadeb Guha - it still seems too early to call him the ‘late’ Buddhadeb Guha - inherited his love for nature and wildlife, as well as life in general, from his father Sachin Guha. The latter, a large, loud, prosperous, extremely generous man, would organise
On May 24, the world celebrated ‘Bidrohi Kobi’ (Rebel poet) Kazi Nazrul Islam’s 122nd birth anniversary. But what went unnoticed and unsung was the fact that his iconic poem ‘Bidrohi,’ that shot him to fame, is making its centenary this year. The poem is recognized
Nobody who has read Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Bengali works without knowing his background can imagine how reluctantly he took to the language he had once professed to hate. But then, the man we know as one of the most original practitioners of Bengali literature was
With the COVID-19 second wave, we have seen death at its diabolical worst, when all allegories of life appeared to be devoured by the sheer annihilation of human life, dreadful spectacles of which kept circulating in the media, mainstream and alternative. Political pundits continue to
Who else but Rabindranath Tagore can come to the rescue of our battered mental health in these times of crisis? And why not? After all, he himself witnessed deaths of near ones over and over again to diseases that do have a cure today. His
The fifty years since his death have passed as quietly as the 100 years since his birth in 1918. In fact, we are now in the fifty-first year since the incomparable Narayan Gangopadhyay left this world. But neither in the centenary year of his birth,
Nargis A’sar Khanam or Sayada Khatun was the first wife of Kazi Nazrul Islam, though their marriage was not consummated. Nargis was Ali Akbar Khan’s niece. Kazi Nazrul accompanied Ali Akbar Khan to Daulatpur in Comilla and stayed there for about two and a half