Ratnottama Sengupta, formerly Arts Editor of The Times of India, teaches mass communication and film appreciation, curates film festivals and art exhibitions, and translates and write books. She has been a member of CBFC (Certified Board of Film Certification), served on the National Film Awards jury and has herself won a National Award.
Interview
‘He made History stand still on his Pages’
An interview about an eminent screenwriter and author, Nabendu Ghosh. His daughter, senior journalist Ratnottama Sengupta unfolds stories about her father. Click here to read.
Prose
Dhaka Book Fair: A Mansion and a Movement
Ratnottama Sengupta writes of a time a palace called Bardhaman House became the centre of a unique tryst against cultural hegemony. The Language Movement of 1952 that started in Dhaka led to the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised February 21 as the Mother Language Day. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta sings her own paean in which a chorus of voices across the world join her to pay a tribute to a legend called Lata Mangeshkar. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta muses on an NGO who has won a Magsaysay Award for his work with cloth distribution in India contextualising it against the issues raised in Give Me a Rag, Please by Nabendu Ghosh. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta muses as she translates a Tagore’s song. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta recaptures a time when as a teenager she witnessed a war that was fought to retain a language and culture. Click here to read.
In a tribute to Bollywood legend Dileep Kumar, Ratnottama Sengupta recollects the days the great actor sprinted about on the sets of Bombay’s studios …spiced up with fragments from the autobiography of Sengupta’s father, Nabendu Ghosh. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta recalls her experiences of the Egyptian unrest while covering the 35th Cairo International Film Festival in 2012. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta recaps about the silk route. Click here to read and find out more.
Ratnottama Sengupta gives us the role ‘kanthas’ (hand-embroidered mats, made of old rags) played in India’s freedom struggle. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta goes back to her childhood Mumbai to the mid-twentieth century. Click here to read.
The Worshipper of Mother Earth: A Nostalgic journey
Ratnottama Sengupta journeys to show how past and present are interlinked in art and pays tribute to a polyglot, Maniklal Chatterjee. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta muses on the wisdom of the wild in a storm. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta discusses how translations impact the world of literature. Click here to read.
Translations
Give Me A Rag, Please:A short story by Nabendu Ghosh, translated by Ratnottama Sengupta, set in the 1943 Bengal Famine, which reflects on man’s basic needs. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta translates Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s Bijoya Doushami. Click here to read.
Rangiye Diye Jao, a song by Tagore, transcreated by Ratnottama Sengupta. Click here to read.
Satyajit Ray, Bibhuti Bhushan & Nabendu Ghosh and a Famous Triology
To mark the birth centenary of Satyajit Ray, Ratnottama Sengupta translates from Nabendu Ghosh’s autobiography experience of Pather Panchali ( Song of the Road) — between covers and on screen. Click here to read.
Short story by actress film-maker Aparajita Ghosh translated from Bengali by Ratnottama Sengupta. Click here to read.
Ratnottama Sengupta transcreates three poems from Bengali. Click here to read.
An August Account of ‘Quit India’ Movement
Ratnottama Sengupta translates from Bengali the excerpts recorded by Sandhya Sinha (1928-2016), who witnessed an upsurge in the wake of the Quit India Movement, part of India’s struggle against colonial rule. Click here to read.
The Magic Spell of Scheherazade’s Nights
Translated by Ratnottama Sengupta, these are reflections by Sandhya Sinha (1928-2016) on the magic of storytelling in Arabian Nights. Click here to read.
Translated by Ratnottama Sengupta, a short story by Sandhya Sinha (1928-2016). Click here to read.
Borderless 