FLASH FICTION / Chand raat at Mohakhali

17 April, 1971. I reached Kolkata from Agartala on the previous day. Word reaches me that Zahir Raihan has also arrived at Kolkata on the same day.

This year’s Boi Mela was special to me. Growing up, I was never too sold on the hype around the fair—there were always too many crowds;

Lesedi is not “right in the head”. He avoids talking and discards words that do not make sense to him like garbage.

Complexity in any area of law leads to specialization. But it also comes with the risk of tunnel vision, of failing to visualize the bigger picture.

We get to know only so much about what happens around us until literature takes an interest in it. The same would have happened with the shutdown of the jute mill in Khulna, nearly two decades ago, if a novel like Kalchakra (Annesha Prokashon, 2018) had not presented it to us.

Can there be decisive action without discourse, even if it takes the form of one or two conversations between friends in a work of fiction?

The Story of A Brief Marriage (2016) focuses on portraying the intricacies of alienation and uncertainty through the story of Dinesh, who has survived  the Sri Lankan civil war. 

Cousins Faiza Shabnam and Bibha Habiba Haque, students of Class 4 in Dhaka’s Scholastica school, have written a novella about three space travelling teenagers. 

Come, let’s smoke a cigarette together on a dark veranda and count how many flats

Approaching International Women’s Day 2022, the unnerving visual of the Ukrainian parliamentarian Kira Rudyk wielding a Kalashnikov that she finds both “scary and powerful,” is in reality a dynamic redefinition of women’s participation in national struggles.

All these years walls of our town stood tall, home to white-winged birds, nostalgic sun, tales too deep for us to tell; last night walls came down crashing,

Pita (Father), a novel written by Faiz Tauhidul Islam, is a saga of two fathers and their two estranged grown-up children. It is a gripping tale that takes the readers on a journey of anticipation and uncertainty. The plot line is full of twists and turns which make the reading often a guessing game and an engrossing experience.

People often struggle to express themselves in the era of digitisation. It is a time when we are convicted by censorship, causing the decay of emotion and the loss of the ability to stand out against oppression. Humans, as a result, struggle to survive meaningfully.

Each book in this list features strong, fearless, bold, multi-faceted, creative, inspiring, vulnerable, witty, and most importantly, real women from all walks of life.

On February 21, 2022, the poetry anthology Arise out of the Lock was published by London and Singapore-based publishers,

When a character from history becomes a significant figure in the state, it is difficult for a researcher or writer to write about them. They have to tread very carefully while composing a book with unknown, yet important, collected information.

Held on March 4-5 at the Gulshan Lake Park in its second iteration since 2019, the fair included stalls by several bookstores and publishers including Bookworm Bangladesh, Bengal Boi, University Press Limited, Baatighar, ULAB Press, Bishwa Shahittya Kendro, and more. 

For Ekushey Boi Mela taking place in Dhaka, Bidyanondo are encouraging readers and visitors to get vaccinated with the slogan, “Dui Dose Tika Nile, Melay Boi Free te Mile”.

Eventually, though, I did land on it, my first Bat-memory. It originated where my fandom for most superheroes originates—the land of comic books,

My Facebook messenger tinkled a couple of times. All good on a Saturday morning. After all, while Facebook is a swirling fog of people’s achievements – someone got married, had a baby, passed a degree, landed a dream job, published a book, the messenger option offers some personal space sharing.