Here is a candid selection of the status messages I posted on a social media website between the months of September and November 2015:
I. On reading 'A Life Long Ago' by Sunanda Sikdar and 'Tagore, The World Voyager' Translated by Sugata Bose:
The weekend that had passed by has been particularly productively used. If time is of the essence in the hustling clamour of the world, then I could have some time off for reading two wonderful books. ‘A Life Long Ago’ by Sunanda Sikdar and ‘Tagore, The World Voyager’ (Translated by Sugata Bose).
‘A Life Long Ago’ is a deeply-felt memoir of the author’s childhood years lived in the 1950s & 60s before Bengal’s partition. The book has been translated from Dayamoyeer Katha (in Bengali) to English by Anchita Ghatak. The original Bengali has been awarded the Lila Puraskar by Calcutta University in 2008 and the Ananda Puraskar in 2010. Partition and post-Partition have been a subject of personal loss and heartburn for decades and some wounds never seem to heal.
‘Tagore, The World Voyager’ is a book of poems by Rabindranath Tagore. All of these Tagore poems are appearing courtesy of a new translation by the renowned professor of history and diplomacy at Harvard University Dr. Sugata Bose.
II. Where Do I Live? - a poem I composed on a whim:
On the sunny side of the street,
By the encroached lake
Whereupon my apartment stands in the light of day,
And under the stars of each night shining down.
There, my friend is my house of over a decade;
Holding sway in the Milky Way.
By the encroached lake
Whereupon my apartment stands in the light of day,
And under the stars of each night shining down.
There, my friend is my house of over a decade;
Holding sway in the Milky Way.
- Composed on 19 Oct 2015
III. On reading 'Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair' by Pablo Neruda and 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest' by Stieg Larsson:
'Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair' is a collection of amazing love poems by the widely acclaimed Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Another book I finished reading is 'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest” by the Swedish author Stieg Larsson.
When I read the first book in the trilogy 'The Girls with the Dragon Tattoo' I knew I was reading an incredible Crime Fiction novel. I was instantly hooked right from the first page. I read the second book and now the final book of the trilogy and it has been a roller-coaster ride with its steep climbs and falls. Reading these books often stunned me emotionally; it caused me to recoil from the graphic nature of the stories.
- 28 Oct 2015
IV. On Writing 'Lost Days of Glory' A Fictional Memoir:
Finishing my fictional memoir LOST DAYS OF GLORY next month. I wrote what I believe to be the final chapter of my memoir (which I’m now calling “CHAPTER 48 – Final Notes” Less of a mouthful and hardly attention-grabbing title. Never mind. But of course, I still have an Epilogue to publish which I am very likely to do after I am done with the final chapter.
I am not at all secure in the belief that this is over, but I think… yeah…it’s all over now!
I nailed it.
I am DONE.
- November 2015
By Arindam Moulick
Pix Courtesy: Internet