Category: Guest Post

Growing up in a traditional, middle-class Bengali household, I was introduced to the spectre of 1947 Partition by Ma. Once done with her household duties, she found her retreat in books that she discerningly read in Baba’s study. With impish delight, I would take the opportunity to play around our home, avoiding Ma’s careful eyes. However, mostly, I also saw her reading to understand how books were an integral part of our family for both Ma and Baba. I vividly remember one afternoon, when after…Continue Reading “From Keeper of Stories to Collector of Objects: My Journey with the Partition” →

Born in a family that originally belonged to the Chittagong district of undivided Bengal, I was conscious of my roots and my other ‘desh’ (country) since my childhood days. The Ghosh-s were residents of Dhalghat, a place that prominently figured in the nationalist movement of Bengal, as it was one of the centres of the revolutionary activities carried out by  ‘Master-da’,  Surya Sen. Sen, the renowned freedom fighter, was the key figure behind the Chittagong Armoury Raid or the Chittagong Uprising in 1930. The Ghosh…Continue Reading “‘Desh’-er Ranna: On Inheriting the Cuisine of Chittagong” →

Ten years ago I met Gazi in Bangladesh’s Satkhira region, in a small island called Koikhali. He had come with his immediate family about 60 years back, at the stroke of midnight, with nothing but the clothes on his back. Although in the beginning he had been able to keep in touch with the rest of his family in India, he had not heard from them in many years. The Indian government had started building a wall and anyone trying to travel to the other…Continue Reading “The tears that still bind – by Annu Jalais” →