Annapurna, Anna, Nalini… call her by any name, she would have always remained Rabindranath Tagore’s first love. And it’s always said ‘First Loves’ can never be forgotten, they are like the waft of the first Spring breeze, like the innocence of the first sapling that
December 4, 1908. A trial was in progress at the Khulna District Court against a poet charged with sedition. Rabindranath Tagore was summoned to appear before the court and record his statement against the defendant. But the ludicrous fact was the accused poet had dedicated
“Finally, they have chosen me?” That was the first question that Narayan Debnath asked after being chosen as a Padmashri awardee this year. For a man who over 70 years has dedicated his life into creating landmark Bengali comic strips like ‘Bantul the Great’, ‘Nante
The tongue twister of a word, ‘agathokakological’, may require some practise to get its pronunciation right. Its meaning is quite simple, however – it literally means, composed of both good and evil. Probably coined by the 19th-century British poet Robert Southey, it is derived from
Imagine a Bengali woman translating world literature from French to English, that too in early 19th century! Considered to be one of the founding figures of Indo-Anglian literature, Toru Dutta alongside Henry Louis Vivian Derozio brought a revolution in English and French literature, yet how
“The birth of two spiritual leaders within a short span of a few thousand years is remarkable and of immense importance. I had this very strong conviction within me that Buddha was reborn as Christ. Buddha had predicted that he would return after 500 years,
There is a twist to every tale. And to every historical event is linked a modern discovery. Present cannot exist without the past. But when way back in the 1960s, an ancient Bengali book printed in Kolkata, was located in the desert lands of Broken
He has been one of the greatest scholars of Bengal -- a social reformer, educator, writer and philanthropist. But Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar will be more remembered as one of the greatest intellectuals and activists of the 19-century and the ‘Father of modern Bengali prose.’ He is
For him, no woman was Charitraheen. All women, even a courtesan or a prostitute was pure. That’s why Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay is probably one author whose maximum number of works have been adapted for movies, both in Bollywood and even in Bengali cinema. And they
The late author Leela Majumdar once said Dhiren Bal reminded her of her brother Sukumar Ray A cat called Bhutu, his parents, and his friends live in a picture-perfect village somewhere in Bengal. All of them have neat little houses in their neat little village, all