NY/NJ Bengali

A Living Memory : A New Novel by Pronoy Chatterjee

From amongst a small but distinguished crowd of novelists of Indian origin in this country, Pronoy Chatterjee may not be a name that stands out in the public eye. The more famous authors like Jhumpa Lahiri, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Amitav Ghosh and others have enjoyed the limelight more than some of the less famous writers like Pronoy who write for the love of writing, who write to express their deepest feelings for humanity - in the little time they can extract out from the busy daily life of a well renowned professional. But, it is the authors like Pronoy, who can sometimes tell us the tales that we have lived though all our lives, the tales that bring back memories of a past that we long for, bring in hopes for a future that we all dream about.
“A Living Memory” is Pronoy’s second novel (published by Author House) where he tries to “capture the complexities of desire and conflict in a small village in colonial India”.
I have not read the book as yet, but the story line (given below) has attracted me enough to get a copy for myself to read. Continue reading A Living Memory : A New Novel by Pronoy Chatterjee…

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“The Namesake”: A Personal Experience

Sudipta Bhawmik
[Previously published in Anandasangbad]

On 7th of March 2007, I had the opportunity of watching Mira Nair’s latest film, The Namesake”. The film had officially premiered the earlier evening which unfortunately, I was not able to attend. However, the producers of the film were kind enough to arrange couple of seats for me for the special screening for the Museum of Moving Images which included a Q&A session with the director Mira Nair (and surprise guests Tabu and Irfan Khan).
Being a participant in the filming process (in a very limited way in the role of Subroto Mesho), I was especially curious to see the final result – the big picture as you may call it. At the end of the screening when Mira asked me how I liked the film, I was sort of speechless. I did answer something like “great” or “wonderful”, but that was only a gut reaction – I was still trying to figure out my feelings towards the film. I was not able to give Mira the right answer. I figured, maybe, if I try to jot down my thoughts, I’ll be able to come up with a better answer. Continue reading “The Namesake”: A Personal Experience…

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