Once in Darjeeling, when I was 12 years old, I remember standing in front of a smallish bank, staring at all the flowers neatly planted in rows.

I wake up to the chirping of birds. So many different types of sounds! There are beautiful Koels singing on the tree tops.

Karl Marx once said, “Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.”

Saad Z. Hossain writes in a niche genre of fantasy, science fiction and black comedy with an action-adventure twist.

Today’s SLR is all about accomplishing what you have set your heart on. We meet Bangladeshi author Saad Z. Hossain whose debut novel was recently released in USA.

The glorious backwaters of Kerala have been calling me for years.

In commemoration of the Bangladesh Independence Day on 26th March, today's SLR starts with a poetic salute to our past; moves on to a proclamation of love for our present; and ends the poetic trail with an optimistic wish for our future.

I sing of Heroes

Not gold, not silver, not pearl, neelam it is not.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

I suspect that the qualities useful to an aspiring writer are very similar to those considered desirable in a writer who is already successful.

Aspiring writers are invited to send in a short story or poem that must contain the number “twenty-two” in some form or manner.

I have just finished the draft of a novel. I shall ask a couple of people to read it – a fellow novelist with whom I've swapped work since we were both beginning our first books ten years ago, and a nonfiction writer I can trust to be honest about her response.

Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer, who won the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature, has died at the age of 83, his publishing house Bonniers says

It is a universally acknowledged truth that a reader of novels must have, at some point of time, read a book by Jane Austen. My first Jane Austen novel was “Pride and Prejudice” during my adolescence.

In continuation of last week's page, SLR presents Part-II of inspirational women writers or poets, as selected by some of our favourite authors.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” — Anaïs Nin

Dinesen nearly thirty years ago. Like nothing I'd ever read before, it was poised somewhere between Andersen's tales and the 1001 Nights, but with a storytelling panache entirely unique to the author.

In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself - limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist. (Albert Camus)

Most people, including his close associates, don't see Syed Mujtaba Ali as a rebel. He had all the traits of a regular guy: a family, love for his siblings, dedication to parents, and commitment to one's roots.