Aruna Chakravarti reviews Bornali Datta’s In A Better Place: A Doctor’s Journey. Click here to read.
Somdatta Mandal reviews Baba Padmanji’s Yamuna’s Journey, translated from Marathi by Deepra Dandekar. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy reviews Robin Ngangom’s My Invented Land: New and Selected Poems. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews S.Irfan Habib’s Maulana Azad – A Life. Click here to read.
Conversation
Being fascinated with the human condition and being vulnerable on the page are the two key elements in the writing of fiction, author and poet Heidi North tells Keith Lyons in a candid conversation. Click hereto read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Robin S. Ngangom’s My Invented Land: New and Selected Poems. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Vikas Prakash Joshi’s My Name is Cinnamon. Click here to read.
February, 2023
Somdatta Mandal reviews Sudeshna Guha’s A History of India Through 75 Objects. Click here to read.
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Priyadarshini Thakur Khayal’s Padmini of Malwa: The Autobiography of Rani Ruupmati. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Colleen Taylor Sen’s Ashoka and The Maurya Dynasty: The History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire. Click hereto read.
Review/ Interview
Andrew Quilty, an award winning journalist for his features on Afghanistan, shares beyond his book,August in Kabul: America’s Last Days in Afghanistan and the Return of the Taliban, in a candid conversation. Click here to read.
Conversation
Abhirup Dhar, a horror writer whose books are being extensively adopted by Bollywood, talks about his journey and paranormal experiences. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Andrew Quilty’s August in Kabul:America’s Last Days in Afghanistan and the Return of the Taliban. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Vinoy Thomas’s Anthill, translated by Nandakumar K. Click here to read.
January, 2023
Somdatta Mandal reviews Priya Hajela’s Ladies Tailor: A novel. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Shrinivas Vaidya’s A Handful of Sesame, translated from Kannada by Maithreyi Karnoor. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews K.A. Abbas’s Sone Chandi Ke Buth: Writings on Cinema, translated and edited by Syeda Hameed and Sukhpreet Kahlon. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews MA Sreenivasan’s Of the Raj, Maharajas and Me. Click here to read.
Conversation
In Conversation with Abhay K, a poet turned diplomat, translator and a polyglot, converses of how beauty inspired him to turn poet and translating Kalidasa and other poets taught him technique. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Sanjay Kumar’s Performing, Teaching and Writing Theatre: Exploring Play. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Abhay K’s Monsoon: A Poem of Love & Longing. Click here to read.
December, 2022
Somdatta Mandal reviews The Shaping of Modern Calcutta: The Lottery Committee Years, 1817 – 1830by Ranabir Ray Chaudhury. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Freny Manecksha’s Flaming Forest, Wounded Valley: Stories from Bastar and Kashmir. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy reviews Manoranjan Byapari’s How I Became a Writer: An Autobiography of a Dalit. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews In Search of the Divine: Living Histories of Sufism in India by Rana Safvi. Click here to read.
Review/Interview
A discussion on Samaresh Bose’s In Search of the Pitcher of Nectar, a book that takes us to the heart of the Kumbh Mela, a festival recognised by the UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, with the translator, Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee. Click here to read.
Discussion
Shantanu Ray Chaudhari converses with writer Gajra Kottary, a well-known writer of Indian TV series, novels and stories. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Radha Chakravarty’s translation of Tagore’s Farewell Song. Click here to read.
An excerpt or two short narratives from Rhys Hughes’ Yule Do Nicley. Click here to read.
November, 2022
Reba Som has reviewed Aruna Chakravarti’s Through the Looking Glass: Stories. Click here to read.
Somdatta Mandal has reviewed Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Birth Lottery and Other Surprises. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy has reviewed Afsar Mohammad’s Evening with a Sufi: Selected Poems, translated from Telugu by Afsar Mohammad and Shamala Gallagher. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha has reviewed Rahul Ramagundam’s The Life and Times of George Fernandes. Click here to read.
Review/Interview
Suchen Christine Lim, an iconic writer from Singapore in conversation about her latest book, Dearest Intimate. Click here to read.
Interview
Blazing trails, as well as retracing the footsteps of great explorers, Christopher Winnan, a travel writer, delves into the past, and gazes into the future while conversing with Keith Lyons. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An Excerpt from Manoranjan Byapari’s How I Became a Writer: An Autobiography of a Dalit, translated from Bengali by Anurima Chanda. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Evening with a Sufi: Selected Poemsby Afsar Mohammad, translated from Telugu by Afsar Mohammad & Shamala Gallagher. Click hereto read.
October 2022
Somdatta Mandal has reviewed BM Zuhara’s The Dreams of a Mappila Girl: A Memoir, translated from Malayalam by Fehmida Zakir. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy has reviewed Taranath Tantrik: And Other Tales from the Supernatural byBibhutibhushan, translated from Bengali byDevalina Mookerjee. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha has reviewed Satyajit Ray Miscellany: On Life, Cinema, People & Much More, a collection of the maestro’s writings and illustrations. Click here to read.
Review/Interview
Anthony Sattin, an award winning journalist and travel writer in conversation about Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped our World, his recent book published by Hachette, India. Click here to read.
VR Devika talks of the dynamic Muthulakshmi Reddy, the first woman in the world to preside over a Legislative Assembly who sought justice for Devadsis and prostitutes and discusses her book, Muthulakshmi Reddy: A Trailblazer in Surgery and Women’s Rightspublished by Niyogi Books. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Taranath Tantrik and Other Tales from the Supernatural by Bibhutibhushan, translated from Bengali by Devalina Mookerjee. Click here to read.
An excerpt from A Handful of Sesame by Shrinivas Vaidya, translated from Kannada by Maithreyi Karnoor. Click here to read.
September, 2022
Rakhi Dalal reviews Rhys Hughes’ Comfy Rascals: Short Fictions. Click here to read.
Hema Ravi reviews Mrutyunjay Sarangi’s A Train to Kolkata and Other Stories. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Krishna Bose’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Life, Struggle and Politics, translated and edited by Sumantra Bose. Click here to read.
Review/Interview
Meet Barun Chanda, an actor who started his career as the lead protagonist of a Satyajit Ray film and now is a bi-lingual writer of fiction and more recently, a non-fiction published by Om Books International,Satyajit Ray: The Man Who Knew Too Much in conversation Click here to read.
Jim Goodman, an American traveler, author, ethnologist and photographer who has spent the last half-century in Asia, converses with Keith Lyons. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
Ruskin Bond, excerpted from Between Heaven and Earth: Writings on the Indian Hills, edited by Ruskin Bond and Bulbul Sharma. Click here to read.
Excerpts from Rhys Hughes’ Comfy Rascals: Short Fictions. Click here to read.
August, 2022
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Tagore’s Four Chapters translated and introduced by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjatsabam visits Mamang Dai’s Escaping the Land. Click here to read.
Aditi Yadav reviews Pallavi Aiyar’s Orienting : An Indian in Japan. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal visits Neelum Saran Gour’s Requiem in Raga Janki. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Rakesh Batabyal’sBuilding a Free India. Click here to read.
Review/Interview
The Making of Historical Fiction: A Conversation with Aruna Chakravarti unfolds the creation of her latest novel, The Mendicant Prince, based on the prince of Bhawal controversy in the first part of the last century. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from The Dreams of a Mappila Girl: A Memoir by B. M. Zuhara translated by Fehmida Zakeer. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Michael R Burch’s poetry book, O, Terrible Angel. Click here to read.
July, 2022
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Tagore’s Gleanings of the Road translated by Somdatta Mandal. Click hereto read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Geetanjali Shree’s Mai, Silently Mother, a Sahitya Akademi winning translation of the Hindi novel by Nita Kumar. Click here to read.
Indrashish Banerjee reviews Nabendu Ghosh’s Dadamoni: The Life and Times of Ashok Kumar. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Prosanta Chakrabarty’s Explaining Life Through Evolution. Click here to read.
Interviews
Eminent film journalist, Ratnottama Sengupta, converses with legendary actress, Deepti Naval, on her literary aspirations at the Simla Literary festival, Unmesh, in June 2022. Click here to read.
Keith Lyons interviews Steve Carr, a writer who has written 500 short stories and has founded the Sweetycat Press. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from The Mendicant Prince (based on the Bhawal sannyasi case) by Aruna Chakravarty. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Nabendu Ghosh’s Dadamoni: The Life and Times of Ashok Kumar. Click here to read.
June, 2022
Meenakshi Malhotra revisits Harsh Mander’s Locking down the Poor: The Pandemic and India’s Moral Centre. Click here to read.
Indrashish Banerjee reviews Keki N Daruwalla’s Going:Stories of Kinship. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews Pronoti Datta’s Half-Blood. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Deepti Priya Mehrotra’sHer Stories –Indian Women Down the Ages — Thinkers, Workers, Rebels, Queens. Click here to read.
Interviews
In Conversation with Rinki Roy (daughter of legendary director Bimal Roy) about The Oldest Love Story, an anthology on motherhood, edited and curated by journalist and authors, Rinki Roy and Maithili Rao. Click here to read.
Achingliu Kamei in conversation with Veio Pou, author of Waiting for the Dust to Settle, a novel based on the ongoing conflicts in North-east India. Click hereto read.
Book Excerpts
Excerpt from Tagore’s Gleanings of the Road, translated by Somdatta Mandal. Click here to read.
Excerpt from Waiting by Suzanne Kamata. Click here to read.
May, 2022
Rakhi Dalal revisits Tagore’s The Post Office, translated from Bengali in 1912 by Devabrata Mukherjee. Click here to read.
Indrashish Banerjee reviews Upamanyu Chatterjee’s Villainy. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy reviews Sunil Sharma’s Burn The Library & Other Fiction. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Radhika Gupta’s Limitless: The Power of Unlocking Your True Potential. Click here to read.
Interviews
Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri: In Search of Serendipity: Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri, an iconic editor and film writer from India, converses on his own journey and traditional publishing. Click here to read.
A Wonderer Who Wanders Between Waves and Graveyards and Digs Up Ancient Tales: In Conversation with Amit Ranjan, a writer-academic, who is trying to redefine academic writing, starting with his book, John Lang the Wanderer of Hindoostan, Slanderer in Hindoostan, Lawyer for the Ranee. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Upamanyu Chatterjee’s Villainy. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Ramy Al-Asheq’s Ever Since I Did Not Die, translated from Arabic by Isis Nusair, edited by Levi Thompson. The author was born in a refugee camp. Click here to read.
April, 2022
Rakhi Dalal reviews Ramy Al-Asheq’s Ever Since I Did Not Die, translated by Isis Nusair, edited by Levi Thompson. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews Iskendar Pala’s Tulip of Istanbul, translated from Turkish by Ruth Whitehouse. Click here to read.
Candice Louisa Daquin reviews Marjorie Maddox’s poetry collection, Begin with a Question. Click hereto read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Kiran Manral’s Rising: 30 Women Who Changed India. Click here to read.
Interviews
In A Voice from Kharkiv: A Refugee in her Own Country, Lesya Bukan relates her journey out of Ukraine as a refugee and the need for the resistance. Click here to read.
In When a Hobo in a Fedora Hat Breathes Tolkien…, Strider Marcus Jones, a poet and the editor of Lothlorien Journal, talks of poetry, pacifism and his utopia or Lothlorien. Click here to read.
In Why We Need Stories, Keith Lyons converses with Ivy Ngeow, author and editor of a recent anthology of Asian writing. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from a fast-paced novel set in Mumbai, Half-Blood by Pronoti Datta. Click here to read.
An excerpt from a Malaysian anthology, The Year of the Rat and Other Poems edited by Malachi Edwin Vethamani. Click here to read.
March, 2022
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Mahasweta Devi, Our Santiniketan translated by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.
Indrashish Banerjee reviews The Tombstone in My Garden: Stories From Nagaland by Temsula Ao. Click here to read.
Keith Lyons reviews Asian Anthology: New Writing Vol. 1: Stories by Writers from Around the World, edited by Ivy Ngeow. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Why They Killed Gandhi; Unmasking the Ideology and the Conspiracy by Ashok Kumar Pandey. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Friends in Wild Places: Birds, Beasts and Other Companions by Ruskin Bond. Click here to read.
An excerpt of a short story by Yang Ming from Asian Anthology, edited by Ivy Ngeow. Click here to read an excerpt.
Interviews
From the Himalayas to the Banks of Thames: In Conversation with Sangita Swechcha, a writer shuttles between England and Nepal and writes of her homeland. Click here to read.
At Home Across Continents : In Conversation with Neeman Sobhan, a Bangladeshi-born writer who writes of her experiences as an expat in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Italy and America. Click here to read.
February, 2022
Reviews/Interviews
Sriniketan: Tagore’s “Life Work”: In Conversation with Professor Uma Das Gupta, Tagore scholar, author of A History of Sriniketan, where can be glimpsed what Tagore considered his ‘life’s work’ as an NGO smoothening divides between villagers and the educated. Click here to read.
Akbar: The Man who was King: In conversation with eminent journalist and author, Shazi Zaman, author of Akbar, A Novel of History. Click here to read.
Book reviews
Indrashish Banerjee reviews The Best of Travel Writing of Dom Moraes: Under Something of a Cloud. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews Masala and Murder by Patrick Lyons. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Kavery Nambisan’s A Luxury called Health. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Growing up Jewish in India: Synagogues, Customs, and Communities from the Bene Israel to the Art of Siona Benjamin, edited by Ori Z. Soltes. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
Two Banalata Sen poems excerpted from Jibanananda Das: Selected Poems with an Introduction, Chronology and Glossary, translated from Bengali by Fakrul Alam. Click here to read.
An excerpt from Mahasweta Devi, Our Santiniketan. Translated from the Bengali by Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.
January, 2022
Book Reviews
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Somdatta Mandal’stranslation of A Bengali Lady in England by Krishnabhabini Das (1885). Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews Anuradha Kumar’s The Hottest Summer in Years. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Selma Carvalho’s Sisterhood of Swans. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Amit Ranjan’s John Lang; Wanderer of Hindoostan; Slanderer in Hindoostanee; Lawyer for the Ranee. Click here to read.
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Interviews
Keith Lyons introduces us to Kenny Peavy, an author, adventurer, educator and wilderness first-aider who has travelled far and wide and wishes everyone could connect with the natural world right outside their door. Click here to read.
In Rhys Hughes Unbounded, Hughes, an author and adventurer, tells us about his inclination for comedies. Click here to read
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Shazi Zaman’s Akbar: A Novel of History detailing his interactions with Surdas and Braj. Click here to read.
Excerpts from A Glimpse Into My Country, An Anthology of International Short Stories edited by Andrée Roby & Dr Sangita Swechcha. Click here to read.
December, 2021
Aruna Chakravarti reviews Devika Khanna Narula’sBeyond the Veil. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Anirudh Kala’s Two and a Half Rivers. Click here to read.
Keith Lyons reviews CJ Fentiman’s The Cat with Three Passports: What a Japanese cat taught me about an old culture and new beginnings. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews BP Pande’s In the Service of Free India –Memoirs of a Civil Servant. Click hereto read.
Interviews
In Bridge over Troubled Waters, academic Sanjay Kumar tells us about Pandies, an activist theatre group founded by him that educates, bridging gaps between the divides of University educated and the less fortunate who people slums or terror zones. Click here to read.
In Lessons Old and New from a Stray Japanese Cat, Keith Lyons talks with the author of The Cat with Three Passports, CJ Fentiman who likes the anonymity loaned by resettling in new places & enjoys creating a space for herself away from her birthplace. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
Somdatta Mandal’s translation of A Bengali Lady in England by Krishnabhabini Das (1885). Click here to read.
Suzanne Kamata’s The Baseball Widow. Click here to read.
November 2021
Himadri Lahiri reviews Somdatta Mandal’s ‘Kobi’ and ‘Rani’: Memoirs and Correspondences of Nirmalkumari Mahalanobis and Rabindranath Tagore. Click here to read.
Suzanne Kamata reviews Iain Maloney’s Life is Elsewhere/ Burn Your Flags. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Anita Agnihotri’s Mahanadi –The Tale of a River, translated from Bengali by Nivedita Sen. Click here to read.
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Turmeric Nation: A Passage Through India’s Tastes, authored by Shylashri Shankar.
Click here to read.
Interviews
In Conversation with Akbar Barakzai, a Balochi poet in exile who rejected an award from Pakistan Academy of Letters for his principles. Click here to read.
In Conversation with Somdatta Mandal, a translator, scholar and writer who has much to say on the state of Santiniketan, Tagore, women’s writing on travel and more. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
Arundhathi Subramaniam’s Women Who Wear Only Themselves. Click here to read.
CJ Fentiman’s award winning book, The Cat with Three Passports. Click here to read.
October, 2021
Aruna Chakravarti reviews Golden Bangladesh at 50: Contemporary Stories & Poems edited by Shazia Omar. Click here to read.
Somdatta Mandal reviews Wooden Cow by T. Janakiraman, translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Kannan. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews Suzanne Kamata’s The Baseball Widow. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Mohona Kanjilal’s A Taste of Time: A Food History of Calcutta. Click here to read.
Review/ Interview
Unveiling Afghanistan: In Conversation with Nazes Afroz, former editor of BBC and translator of a book on Afghanistan which reflects on the present day crisis. Click here to read.
Interview
The Traveller in Time: An interview with Sybil Pretious who has lived through history in six countries and travelled to forty — she has participated in the first democratic elections in an apartheid-worn South Africa and is from a time when Rhodesia was the name for Zimbabwe. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
An excerpt of In a Land Far From Home: A Bengali in Afghanistan by Syed Mujtaba Ali, translated by Nazes Afroz. Click here to read.
An excerpt from letters written by Tagore from Kobi & Rani, translated by Somdatta Mandal. Click hereto read.
September, 2021
Rakhi Dalal reviews Anvita Abbi’s Voices from the Lost Horizon. Click here to read.
Basudhara Roy reviews Bina Sarkar Ellias’ Song of a Rebel and Other Selected Poems. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Wendy Doniger’s Winged Stallion and Wicked Mares. Click here to read.
Interviews
Professor Anvita Abbi, a Padma Shri, discusses her experience among the indigenous Andamanese and her new book on them, Voices from the Lost Horizon. Click here to read.
Keith Lyons talks to Jessica Mudditt about her memoir, Our Home in Myanmar, and the current events. Click here to read.
Book Excerpt
An excerpt from ‘Kobi’ and ‘Rani’: Memoirs and Correspondences of Nirmalkumari Mahalanobis and Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Somdatta Mandal, showcasing Tagore’s introduction and letters. Click here to read.
August 2021
Book Reviews
A review by Meenakshi Malhotra of Somnath Mandal’s The Last Days of Rabindranath Tagore in Memoirs, a translation from a conglomeration of writings from all the Maestro’s caregivers. Click hereto read.
A review by Keith Lyons of Jessica Muddit’s Our Home in Myanmar – Four years in Yangon. Click hereto read.
A review by Rakhi Dalal of Maithreyi Karnoor’s Sylvia: Distant Avuncular Ends. Click here to read.
A review by Bhaskar Parichha of Arundhathi Subramaniam’s Women Who Wear Only Themselves. Click here to read.
Interviews
Goutam Ghose, multiple award-winning filmmaker, writer, actor discusses his films, film-books and journey as a humanitarian artiste. Click here to read.
Dr Kirpal Singh, a well-known poet and academic from Singapore, talks of his life and times through colonial rule, as part of independent Malaya, and the current Singapore. Click here to read.
Book Excerpts
Beyond The Himalayas by Goutam Ghose, based on a five-part documentary taking us on a journey along the silk route exploring parts of Pakistan and China. Click here to read.
Our Home in Myanmar – Four years in Yangon by Jessica Muddit, a first hand account of a journalist in Burma. Click here to read.
July, 2021
Book Reviews
A Sense of Time by Anuradha Kumar reviewed by Rakhi Dalal. Click here to read.
Murder in Daisy Apartments by Shabnam Minwalla reviewed by Gracy Samjetsabam. Click here to read.
The Third Eye of Governance–Rise of Populism, Decline in Social Research by Dr N Bhaskara Raoreviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.
Interviews
In conversation with an American poet, Jared Carter, who has received multiple encomiums like the Walt Whitman Award, the Poets’ Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and much more. He tells us of his life and how he writes a poem. Click here to read.
In conversation with eminent academic and translator, Radha Chakravarty. Click here to read.
June, 2021
Book Reviews
Neelima Dalmia Adhar’s The Secret Diary Of Kasturba reviewed by Meenakshi Malhotra. Click here to read.
Shrilal Shukla’s Fragments of Happiness translated by Niyati Bafna and reviewed by Rakhi Dalal. Click hereto read
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Transformational Leadership in Banking edited by Anil K. Khandelwal. Click here to read.
Interviews
In conversation with Fakrul Alam, an eminent translator, critic and academic from Bangladesh who has lived through the inception of Bangladesh from East Bengal, translated not just the three greats of Bengal (Tagore, Nazrul, Jibanananda) but also multiple political leaders. Click here to read.
In conversation with Arindam Roy, the Founder and Editor-in-cheif of Different Truths, an online portal for social journalism with forty years of experience in media and major Indian newspapers. Click here to read
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from Enter Stage Right by Feisal Alkazi with a visual of young Alkazi dancing in one of the earliest discos of New Delhi. Click here to read.
An excerpt translated by Ratnottama Sengupta fromNabendu Ghosh’s autobiography. Click here to read.
May, 2021
Reviews
A review of Feisal Alkazi‘s memoir, Enter Stage Right: The Alkazi Padamsee Family Memoir by Rakhi Dalal. Click here to read.
A review of Shakti Ghosal‘s The Chronicler of the Hooghly and Other Stories by Gracy Samjetsabam. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Raising a Humanistby Manisha Pathak-Shelat‘s and Kiran Vinod Bhatia. Click here to read.
Interviews
Communication scholars and authors, Manisha Pathak-Shelat and Kiran Vinod Bhatia, discuss how to bring up children in these troubled times, based on their book, Raising a Humanist, which has just been released. Click here to read.
Sonya J Nair of Samyukta Poetry talks about the Samyukta Research Foundation and its affiliates and its festival, Anantha. Click here to read.
Book Excerpt
Excerpted from A Bengali Lady in England (1885): Annotated Translation with Critical Introduction to Krishnabhabini Das’ Englandey Bangamahila by Nabanita Sengupta. Click here to read.
April, 2021
Interviews
In Conversation with Arundhathi Subramaniam: An online interview with this year’s Sahitya Akademi winner, Arundhathi Subramaniam. Click here to read.
Sumana Roy & Trees: An online interview with Sumana Roy, a writer and academic. Click here to read.
Book reviews
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Reconciling Differences by Rudolf C Heredia, a book that explores hate and violence. Click here to read.
Nivedita Sen reviews Nomad’s Land by Paro Anand, a fiction set among migrant children of a culture borne of displaced Rohingyas, Syrian refugees, Tibetans and more. Click here to read
Candice Louisa Daquin reviews The First Cell and the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the last byAzra Raza. Click here to read.
Book Excerpt
Excerpted from Raising a Humanist: Conscious Parenting in an Increasingly Fragmented World byManisha Pathak-Shelat and Kiran Vinod Bhatia, the focus is on media and its impact. Click here to read.
March, 2021
Interviews
Avery Fischer Udagawa is an American, who lives in Thailand and translates from Japanese. Click here to read more.
Anuradha Kumar is a writer who pans through different cultures and continents. Click here to read more
Book Reviews
Bidyut Chakrabarty’s Socio-political Thought of Rabindranath Tagore, published by Sage India, reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.
Suzanne Kamata’s Indigo Girl reviewed by Gracy Samjetsabam, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 2011 Tsunami in Japan. Click here to read.
Sutputra Radheye’s Inqallab on the Wall, a collection brought out by Delhi Poetry Slam, reviewed by Rakhi Dalal. Click here to read.
February, 2021
Interviews
In conversation with Suzanne Kamata, an American who writes from Japan and has a unique angle to here writing. Click here to read.
Avik Chanda converses about his best selling book on Dara Shukoh and its current relevance. Click here to read.
Reviews
Bhaskar Parichcha reviews Wendy Doniger‘s book Beyond Dharma — Dissent in the Ancient Sciences of Sex and Politics. Click here to read.
Gracy Samjetsabam reviews Nishi Pulugurtha‘s Across and Beyond, an anthology of essays on travels across the globe. Click here to read.
Nivedita Sen reviews Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury‘s The Adventure Of Goopy The Singer And Bagha The Drummer, later made into a movie by the legendary grandson of the author, Satyajit Ray. Click here to read.
January, 2021
Interviews
A conversation with Devaki Jain, a Padma Bhushan recipient, an author at eighty eight, an economist who found inclusion for women and a strong human who lives her life on her own terms. Click here to read
A conversation with Dr Mossarrap Hossain Khan, the founding editor of Cafe Dissensus. Click here to read.
Reviews
Gone Away by Dom Moraes, reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.
No Strings Attached: Writings on Odisha by Bhaskar Parichha, reviewed by Bijaya Kumar Mohanty. Click here to read.
Waiting for the Dust to Settle by Veio Pou, a novel dealing with the conflict in Northeastern India, reviewed by Rakhi dalal. Click here to read.
December, 2020
Interviews
In Conversation with Aruna Chakravarti
Sahitya Award winning translator and writer, Dr Aruna Chakravarti reflects on her journey as a writer. Click here to read.
‘He made History stand still on his Pages’
An interview about an eminent screenwriter and author who has had yet another anthology of translated stories, Mistress of Melodies, just been published, Nabendu Ghosh. His daughter, senior journalist Ratnottama Sengupta unfolds stories about her father. Click here to read.
Reviews
The Brass Notebook: A Memoir is a recently penned autobiography by eminent economist Devaki Jain, written based on a suggestion made by Doris Lessings in 1958, with a forward by Amartya Sen and reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.
Nitoo Das’s Crowbite has been reviewed by Basudhara Roy. Click here to read.
On the first anniversary of a movement that seems to be a reaffirmation of democratic processes in a nation torn with angst, Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Shaheen Bagh and the Idea of India. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Mistress of Melodies by Nabendu Ghosh, translated stories edited by Ratnottama Sengupta, which not only bring to life history as cited in his Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Lifetime Achievement award but also highlights his ‘love for humanity’. Click here to read.
November, 2020
Reviews
Lastbench, anthologised protest poetry from America reviewed by Candice Louisa Daquin. Click here to read.
Prescription of Civilization by Wansoo Kim, poetry from Korea reviewed by Dustin Pickering. Click here to read.
A Plate of White Marble by Bani Basu, translated from Bengali to English by Nandini Guha, reviewed by Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.
Book Excerpt
The Birth of The Chronicler of the Hooghly by Shakti Ghosal takes us back to the start of a colonial Durga Puja. Click here to read.
Interviews
Sunil Sharma, writer, academic, critic and editor of the online journal SETU, takes us on an exploration of his well known e magazine. Click here to read.
Aysha Baqir, a writer who has successfully empowered many underprivileged women in Pakistan, on her journey as a development personnel and novelist. Click here to read.
Interviews, October 2020
Teresa Rehman, an award-winning journalist, speaks of her journalistic journey. Click here to read.
Santosh Bakaya, an academic and writer who has written a book on Gandhi in verse, speaks of Gandhi and Gandhian beliefs. Click here to read.
Reviews, October 2020
India Dissents: Edited by Ashok Vajpeyi, reviewed by Debraj Mookerjee who finds, ‘To read India Dissents is in a way therefore an attempt to try and rediscover India’s soul.’ Click here to read.
Gandhi & Aesthetics : Edited by Tridip Suhrud, the nine essays are a fitting tribute to the inventive beauty of Gandhiji and its wide-ranging applicability in present-day society… says reviewer Bhaskar Parichha. Click here to read.
Review of Santosh Bakaya’s Ballad of Bapu by Moiank Dutta. Click here to read.
Nivedita Sen‘s review of Sukumar Ray‘s Habber Jabber Law translated by Arunava Sinha. How non-nonsensical are the nonsense verses of Sukumar Ray and has it been lost in translation? Click here to read.
Interview, September 2020
Agron Shele, founder of Atunis, discusses his blog and anthology. Click here to read.
Book Reviews, September 2020
Meenakshi Malhotra reviews Love is not a word: The Culture and Politics of Desire, essays edited by Debotri Dhar. Click here to read.
Bhaskar Parichha reviews Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris by Christopher Snedden. Click here to read.
Rakhi Dalal reviews Aysha Baqir’s Beyond the Fields.Click here to read.
Interview, August 2020
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With nuclear war survivor’s daughter, author Kathleen Burkinshaw
Book reviews, July, 2020 edition
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Kathleen Burkinshaw’s The Last Cherry Blossom by Archana Mohan
Avik Chanda’s Dara Shukoh: The Man who would be King reviewed by Dr Meenakshi Malhotra
Dom Moraes’ Never At Home reviewed by Rakhi Dalal
Resonance: English Poetry from Odisha reviewed by Gopal Lahiri
Interviews, July, 2020
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Nidhi Mishra and Archana Mohan from Bookosmia
Binu Mathews, editor of Countercurrents.org
Uma Trilok , Poet & Author of Amrita Imroz, A Love story in conversation with Nalini Priyadarshni
Book reviews, July, 2020 edition
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Naina Dey’s One Dozen Stories by Gopal Lahiri
Madhavi Menon’s A History of Desire in India by Bhaskar Parichha
Sameer Arshad Khatlani’s The Other Side of the Divide by Debraj Mookerjee
Dom Moraes’ My Son’s Father by Rakhi Dalal
Bridging Continents: An Anthology of Indo-American Poets
Bridging Continents: An Anthology of Indo-American Poets, edited by Sharmila Ray and Gopal Lahiri, veteran poets and critics with numerous anthologies to their credit is not a run off the mill anthology. It’s a carefully crafted volume comprising thirteen well-known Indian English Poets along with eleven renowned contemporary American Poets. That’s not all, it comes with a translation of these poems at the end of the book, on the reverse, in Bengali by noted poet Tanmoy Chakraborty. (Click here to read more)
Manab Manik’s My Poetic Offering is clearly an invocation to the Divine. Manik seeks the bosom of the Eternal Lord present in all religions and poetries. In this delightful and unpretentious presentation of sonnet-styled verse, the poet reminds us that divinity is not a fruitless quest. To seek the divine is the heart of poetry itself and the poet in these verses makes it abundantly obvious that he is presented with divinity in his soul. Edgar Allan Poe writes in The Veil of the Soul that the definition of art is “the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul”. (Click here to read more)
Interview with Dustin Pickering
He talks of love and religion and writes poetry that is often critiqued by some as similar to verses from the past. And his role model is from the Renaissance — Michelangelo. To some, he is a loyal friend in need, a person who whips up essays and articles on demand. He is often published within India, which could well be his second literary home. He is prolific with his writing and publishing. He also does paintings and sings songs with a guitar on you tube. Some might have guessed by now — he is Dustin Pickering. (Click here to read more)
Monalisa Dash Dwibedy’s Pearls of a Strawberry Moon is not an ordinary collection of poems that only records the mundane realities of our times, our successes and failures, or our memories and hopes for the future. The poet meditates on the world around her, grows, and allows her awakened self to introspect objectively. She provides us with a yogic view of the world; not renunciation but an evaluation of the self and makes herself a witness to the demolition of her own ego. (Click here to read more)
Unbecoming – A Memoir of Disobedience
Unbecoming – A Memoir of Disobedience by Anuradha Bhagwati is a rare and indefatigable memoir by a former US Marine Captain. She chronicles her journey — from a dutiful daughter of immigrants to a radical activist affecting historic policy reforms. ( Click here to read more>)
He is a maker of dreams for writers – a man who believes in dreams that are woven in words and multimedia across the world. He connects writing with multimedia, not just by writing and YouTube screenings but also by putting upcoming writers on his television show to battle out challenging questions about how literary development affects the world. (Click here to read more)
The Dictionary of Foreign Dream
Slovakian poet, dramatist, prose writer, translator, publicist Pavol Janik is a typical example of this phenomenon, a wonderful voice from the little country Slovakia who seems to find its place beyond its border. His book The Dictionary of Foreign Dreams is a collection of his poems in English translation. This poetry speaks of ordinary and mundane with an extraordinary poetic twist. It has a strong sense of regionalism yet at the same time it appeals to the readers who are not familiar to it. (Click here to read)
The Silence of Motherhood (Movie: Hazaar Chaurasia ki Ma)
Bengal, long considered to be the literary, artistic and social fuel for India’s colonial and post- colonial demeanours, has particularly fascinated cinema’s conscious annals. Satyajit Ray, Aparna Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Gautam Ghose, Tapan Sinha and their likes all found a level playing field here to sound timely sirens and orchestrate photoplays celebrating its collective regional character, with finesse of the highest caliber. (Click here to read)
Suralakshmi Villa (2020) is a novel based on a short story in a previous collection of short stories by Aruna Chakravarti. In the afterword to the novel, the author explains how the novel came about: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, on whose fiction Chakravarti had done her Ph.D thesis many years ago, commented how the short story had possibilities of being extended into a novel. In doing so, the author’s redoubtable skills have come to the fore yet again. (Click here to read more)
Aruna Chakravarti & Sunil Gangopadhyay on Tagore
Today to jubilate this great writer on his one hundred and fifty ninth birth anniversary, we have a conversation by two greats of our era. They, like Tagore, are from Bengal — both Sahitya Akademi award winners; Aruna Chakravarti , a writer who has translated his famed Gitabitaan, and she talks about the great poet with Sunil Gangopadhayay (1934-2012), a renowned Bengali author who authored a novel on Tagore in Bengali, Prothom Alo or First Light. Aruna Chakravarti has translated Gangopadhyay’s novel too and she also has her own novel on the Tagore family women, Jorasanko, which has been a best seller in India. (Click here to read more)
Almost even eighty years after his death, Rabindranath Tagore continues to be written about. Any biographical account of Tagore’s life and works — whether it is in Bengali, English or any other language — is attention-grabbing and is received with awe and admiration. Indeed, for the bard whose immortal lines echo even today – Jodi tor daak shune keyo na ashe, tobe aakla cholo re (If no one answers to your call, walk alone) — no number of books is enough to have another look at his great mind, make another study of his brilliance. (Click here to read more)
An Interview with a COVID 19 virus
Covid-19: I don’t know exactly. Some say I was created by Zionists to reduce the world population. There is also an opinion that CIA has launched me to destroy Chinese economy, whereas USA blames that a Chinese lab has fathered me as a biological weapon. Muslims believe that Allah has created me to punish their enemies. Some vegans are of the view that I am an incarnation of God assigned to eradicate omnivores from the Earth. Really, not sure who I am? ( Click here to read)
Nalini Priadarshni interviews Anu Mahadevan:
An abuse victim in the past, Anu Mahadev is a poet based in New Jersey. She is a 2016 MFA graduate of the Drew University’s MFA program in Madison, NJ. With two poetry collections to her credit, Myriad (2013) and Neem Leaves (2015) Anu is a curious reader and lifelong learner. She is passionate and outspoken about issues such as domestic violence, girls’ education and independence, and depression/bipolar disorder. She loves music, languages, animals and long walks. (Click here to read more)
Sita Under the Crescent Moon – A Woman’s Search for Faith in Pakistan is a dazzling account of a tradition purely for the reason that it combines spirituality with travel. The blurb says it all: “In present-day Pakistan, in the far corners of Lyari in Karachi, or Hingol in Balochistan, or Thatta in Sindh, tightly knit groups of women keep alive the folklore, songs, and legends of Sati—their name for Sita in the Ramayana.” (Click here to read more)
In the surging ripples of the meandering river one is most likely to hear the symphony of the universe. Does the river understand the definition of state or country borders? Can any force stop the flow of the river or refuse to accept the waters of the river because it flowed in from the other side of the border? (Click here to read)
The Speaking Stone by Pravat Kumar Padhy is a poetry collection that makes you ponder and reanalyse everything around us including all that we have taken for granted till now – the environment, nature, our planet Earth and most importantly our lives. Spread across forty-two poems, Padhy manages to string together various emotions and brings forth the magic of the enigma called life, beautifully. (Click here to read)
Nalini Priadarshni interviews K. Sridhar
K. Sridhar is a Professor of Theoretical Particle Physics and has published a book Particle Physics of Brane Worlds and Extra Dimensions published by Cambridge University Press. He has an edited volume on Integrated Science Education and more than a hundred research papers in physics. He is also a writer of literary fiction, has published a work of fiction called Twice Written, a critical edition of which has also been published more recently. ( Click here to read)
A few days before this Valentine’s Day, Nalini Priyadarshni urged her friends on Facebook to “consider getting a book of love verses for your sweetheart this Valentine”. The book is Lines Across Oceans: Intercontinental Love Verses which she has co-written with the late poet D. Russel Micnhimer, also a winner of Poet Laureate award in India. To those who love poetry and those who have been in love, Priyadarshni’s mischievous call to action invoked nothing less than a gleeful sentiment of “ooooh… another one” tinged with “oh no – not again!” It is a sentiment that gushes out of a lover/beloved every time a note of pleasure comes close enough to unfold aspects of loving. (Click here to read)
Camus’ La Peste has never been out of print. In the wake of pandemic that now sweeps the entire world, its sale has seen a surge quite unlike at any other time since its publication in 1947. What else can be a greater proof of the relevance of a work that seems to be an ageless parable of human condition. (Click here to read)
The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz
One of the passages from a thriller that has been circulating the social media circles during COVID 19 is how the Wuhan virus was evolved in a lab in the United States with a Chinese refugee’s help, one who had defected to US “carrying a diskette record of China’s most important and dangerous biological weapon in a decade.” The book, The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz, is listed as a thriller, mystery, suspense and horror. It has been republished with a few changes in 1996, post-Glasnost and post-Tiananmen incident. (Click here to read more)
How will the World Look after COVID 19? — An interview
What is new and positive is that human beings everywhere are shedding their illusions about the current arrangement of the world. They now clearly see that the gangrenous face of the Western system, of imperialism. COVID-19 is a symbol, not just a disease. After dust settles, after the epidemy is defeated, inhabitants of our Planet will never want to be governed by the European and North American “culture”. (Click here to read more)
The one image that I have always associated with the thought of truck/ goods carrier on Indian roads is a boisterous Punjabi driver driving the truck in abandon while singing this song full throttle. Part of the reason lies in my spending my early childhood years in Punjab and part in being enamoured by the bitter sweet song which is as much about love as it is about lamenting the distance between lovers. (Click here to read)
I’d not read a lot of Dustin Pickering before reading a draft copy of The Forever Abode. Pickering had mentioned this was a collection of poetry about a long-term relationship and thus, I found the idea intriguing. Poetry and love going so well together. (Click here to read)
Silence Between the Notes: An Anthology of Partition Poetry
Silence between the Notes is an anthology of Partition poetry which includes contributions from Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, English, Hindi, Bengali and Kashmiri languages. It is a unique collection as this is the first book which is extensive, representative and inclusive of it all. Selected, edited and introduced by Aftab Husain and Sarita Jenamani, this anthology promises to bring forward the voices which had perhaps got lost somewhere in all the noise that followed Partition. (Click here to read more.)
Borderless 