rebecca

This novel by daphne du maurier has bowled me over by its wonderful writing skill. The way the authoress has portrayed manderley and its surroundings. I have loved the description of manderley since the first time I read the novel. The admiration has increased with repetition.

It’s a story of a very ordinary looking girl who marries a noble man, whose first wife was a gorgeous seductress.

The novel is about her journey into the footsteps of her enchanting predecessor and all the things she had to face in pursuing that journey.

The way the authoress have portrayed the characters is really fabulous. Even the mansion comes to life with every thing surrounding it. I can take a mental stroll in the woods near Manderley any time. The doves calling, ocean winds rustling the leaves and the faint footsteps of Rebecca. The earlier owner of all those things. The reckless young lady.

It’s a book every one should read at-least once I believe. Just to relish the writing skill.

Of human bondage

I have read this story twenty years or so back for the first time. It was a little dull for me at the first go. But after finishing it I realized it was one of the best novels I have ever read. Then I repeated it and became confident that it’s the best novel I have read. Its still my favourite novel, of course there are half a dozen more in the same pedestal with it but none is above it.

 

I have learnt so much from this one novel, I too am a dreamer just like the hero of this novel. And just like him, I too have wasted a portion of my life pursuing a passion, an ambition which fell flat on its face due to lack of wind beneath my wings. But I have not faced the remaining tests faced by him because I fortunately had more control on my passions.

 

The hero is an orphan, who is brought up by his nonchalant uncle and aunt. A life without any one to guide him. To tell him what is wrong or right. The paths that he followed and their consequences. The lessons which we can learn from him are priceless.

 

I loved three lessons which I received from him, first, to know when to say goodbye to one’s passion, even if it is greatest passion of one’s life. He thought he was a talented painter so he stopped studying medical and went to Paris to become a painter, he was exploited amply by greedy tutors but finally he realized that he does not have the talent and went back to pursue his studies.

 

Second one was the cruelty which he had to face through out his life because one of his feet was defected. That taught me to practice kindness for those who are not blessed with a healthy body.

 

The third one was the greatest one, he fell in the clutches of an evil and cunning woman who shamelessly exploited him for years. But finally he settled down with a very nice girl. who did not had any physical charm but had a heart of gold. We all should learn from him that one sided love with a fiend will only shove you to hell, again and again, till the day you end that affection.

 

Fourth and final lesson was we can make our life a success even if we fall a hundred times in the path to success.

 

Finally I will suggest every one to read this book at-least once.

Aranyak

Its written by my favourite Bengali author, bibhutibhushan bandhopadhyay. The writer of the novel “Pather panchali” story of  Satyajit Ray ‘s legendary movie of the same name.

 

Aranyak means “of forest”. It’s a fabulous story of few years spent by a man in a remote forest covered land of Bihar. A fashionable young man of Kolkata, who had to go to Bihar for livelihood,.  How he fell in love with forest and its people. The innocent people of rural Bihar,. Who were so poor that they used to throng his Kachhari (office) to eat the leftover rice.  

 

First he was sick of that desolate land, without any companionship with kindred souls. Then he slowly fell in love with the nature. It unraveled its virgin beauty to his mesmerized eyes. In the nights he spent on horse back traveling from one place to other, while miles of land lay in front of him, miles behind him and above him the moon shined in a magical glory.

 

The acute poverty of local people, their pain, innocence, exploitations. The  cruelty of those who had the power.

 

How he tried to fill up a local pond with different types of flowers with the help of a person who was equally in love with the place. Then the sad part starts and he had to chop down the forests and every thing to distribute the lands, mostly to the corrupt and powerful people. Finally his return to Kolkata with ever-lasting memory of that beautiful place, virgin nature and human beings.

Maupassant

I have always admired Maupassant, ever since I read his story “The necklace” in my early childhood (translation).

 

I was gifted a compilation of his short stories a decade ago and have been reading it since then, I believe I have already read it more than a dozen times, finished it a fortnight back and am eager to start it all over again.

 

My admiration for him has shot up ever since I have started to write myself. I don’t call myself a writer, I just love to write. M y only alibi is its better to write something than watch movies to kill time. It  keeps the brain active and improves one’s linguistic expertise.

 

Back to Maupassant, if any one asks me to crown my favourite short story writer, I will simply place my crown at his feet. He is a magician. With limited words he can stir any soul which is open. Make them a better person.

 

The more I read his works the more I become mesmerized, how easily and expertly he touches the very soul and illuminates them.

 

His stories are full of human compassion (not for very conservative persons, I should humbly warn).

Bibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay

This is another author my mother taught to love. She was a big fan of bibhutibhushan bandhopadhyay, so am I, just like most of the bengalis, I first read his pather panchali and cried like a river. I first came across this book when I was studying in raisina bengali school, delhi and instantly started to dote after durga. And that girl still holds a piece of my heart, and always will. With time I started to pity sarbajaya, love indir thakrun, feel ranu’s pain. But my first affection was for durga. I have read this book atleast fifty times and can read it again with great pleasure.

A simple story written by a fantastic writer, in gist, so simple a story, just like of human bondage by somerset maugham.. struggles of a clubfooted, ordinary boy. Pather panchali is struggle of a village boy, his entire life. Yet the magic touch of the master sculptor made the entire difference. Its one of my hot favourite books.

Just a little more adored is another masterpiece by him, aranyak, not very popular, even though I don’t know why, may be because most of the people don’t feel strong bonding with nature. The bonding which is reflected in every line of this book. Now, as I am writing this a piece of me is asking me to get up and get the book and start reading it. it’s a fantastic, divine story of a surveyor appointed by a landlord to chop off a forest and sell that land, how he fell in love with that forest and how it broke his heart when he had to order his people to chop it off. I will never forget those descriptions of simple life of rural people and tribals. The gorgeous beauty of virgin forest.

He was one of his kind writers, one of those who has left a priceless heritage for coming generations, books which can be relished again and again with same love.

saratchandra: a brave writer

Well, I guess every one has heard his name, atleast most of the people have courtsey multiple super hit movies made on his novels.

I think all his stories has been shot in bengali and everyone of them has made good impact on viewers. I appreciate him more as a writer. A brave, reformist writers. I have been reading his works since I was five or six years old.. no don’t smirk, he has written for every age group. I have read, re-read his works and the more I have read them the more I have become mesmerized by his mental strength, reformist mentality and power of creating magic by pen.

In one hand he portrays the pain of women.. widows, children of sex workers, sex workers.. on the other hand he portrays the steel which some women have in them, through all adversity. Their affectionate nature which fills up their entire being even when they are in dire straits. Different complexity of human nature, specially the nature of women.. their vices and their glories. Their rise and fall. I wonder if any other writer of indian origin has captured the mindset of women this perfectly.

I particularly love his character shodashi bhairavi.. a woman who was the priest of a village temple, the eyes of the lusty landlord fell on her and the surrounding village politics.. that woman inspires too much of my awe.. well my head simply bows to that woman of extraordinary mental strength and courage. There are some equally touching softer characters too, or the rebels like kamal, rajlakshmi, annada.. so many of them. somehow he had a strange capacity of giving his female characters a complete, normal yet above normal life.

Kapalkundala

I was very young when I first read Kapalkundala by Bankimchandra, I remember that I loved Kapalkundala since our first introduction.. though I was too young to understand her then, still I wanted to be as brave and honest as her. Being a book worm I have devoured hundreds of books but I have not met a character like kapalkundala again.. she is unique, perfect in my eyes.

A little girl most probably abducted by a tantrik, being brought up by him with not very honorable intentions in a scary forest. She grew up roaming in the forest completely alone, serving the tantrik she called father, her only other companion was the priest of a nearby temple.

He rescues the hero, nabakumar who gets lost in the forest. Though she knew that the tantrik will kill both of them, still she saves him from being sacrificed and takes him to the priest. He marries them off and requests nabakumar to take her with him. Who happily does so, first reason because she saved his life and second reason was she was gorgeous, even though she was a perfect tomboy.

He brings her home, her family members too start to love her. She was a very charming lady, her domestic skills were perfect, but she just did not knew any thing about married life and was not least keen to learn any thing about conjugal life. Her husband’s love for her was so deep that he did not forced any thing on her but waited patiently.

Fate had something else in plan, nabakumar’s first wife who deserted him for money comes back to his life and falls in love with him. She slowly poisons his mind, convincing him that kapalkundala refuses him because of infidelty.

In a strange irony of fate nabakumar hands her over to the same tantrik from whose claws she has saved him risking her own death..

The tantrik asks nabakumar to bathe her and bring her back to his hut for sacrificing. As they both were standing in the river bank, Nabakumar’s love overpowers his hatred and he begs her to tell him that she is not infidel. She calmly says that he is the only man she has ever loved. When nabakumar asks her why had she not told him before, she calmly says because he did not asked.

The river bank collapses and they both perish in the raging river.

The traits which make me Kapalkundala’s admirer are her complete un atachment to material things..she gave away her entire box of jewellery to a beggar.
Her extreme honesty and truthfulness is the second trait of her which is magnetic to me.

Her fearlessness.. lack of fear for any thing including death is something I would have loved to have within me.

rabindrasangit

Music in my eyes is the most beautiful creation of human souls. It reveals every emotion of human being..love, anger, hatred, adoration, affection… no human feeling or passion is untouched by this.

Rabindranath tagore is most probably the expert of exploring human emotions through songs. I have not heard another single person with such a splendour of talent.

I have listened to rabindrasangit for years, his music can mould your thoughts to purity. Whatever he touches becomes pure.. love, nature and devotion.

With his magical grip on pen he wrote song after song covering every emotion of human beart. The miraculous part was his choice of magical tunes for his songs. They fitted in perfectly. They enhanced the beauty of his already fabulous poems to the level of heavenly.

He was born amongst and surrounded with people of extraordinary talent. Who helped him in creating tunes for his songs but he always was a part of it, so it was his taste which reflects in all of them.

Whenever I listen to rabindrasangit this is the thing which overwhelms me, how can an artist be so perfect. Not only that, the singers whom he handpicked and trained to sing his songs are the most beautiful singers I have ever heard.. kanika banerjee, shantideb ghosh.. as if he left his soul in them.

Tagore left a magical legacy for us, who can understand his thoughts and lose ourselves in his music.

Kazi Nazrul Islam

Kazi Nazrul Islam(1898-1976):

Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on the 25th May 1898 at Churulia in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal, India.
The poet died at Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh as National poet on the 29th August 1976.

Well, during my growing age I did not liked his poetry, because I thought that he mixed urdu, farsi words freely with sanskrit and bengali words. Now, he is my second favourite poet after tagore.

When I listen to his poems my eyes moisten just to think how the divide between hindu and muslim has been created in india in post independence era. Here is a kazi, who married a brahmin widow and writes that I will sing a song of krishna sitting in the laps of mother goddess kali. His poems are a strong blending of hindu and muslim cultures and his noble soul.

I have a collection of his recitations and I just love them one and all, I have listened to them atleast five hundred times and wont mind listening another five hundred times. There are some recitations I cant resist myself from repeating end to end. May be someday I will translate and share them so you can understand the meaning but what about the magic which he created by blending of urdu and sanskrit?

bankimchandra

Not a very popular writer, if we count by the number of people who read his works and will admit anonymously that they love his work (people often call him their favourite in fear of being looked down upon).

I have picked up some odd writers because of my mother, who was an avid reader and had a uncommon taste. Bankimchandra is one of them. She just loved his works and so do I.

He was more like shakespeare, picking up the most exquisite words and painting a picture out of them. He was truly the emperor of classic bengali language.

I often feel awe struck, how could he use such exquisite word yet create fantastic novels and immemorable characters. Characters so real, like kundanandini or kapalkundala. Bhramar, Indira or Suryamukhi. Kapalkundala is my favourite character in fiction world.

The immense strength of character which this lady had I have never seen another lady with such strength of character. She embodied truth and honesty. Her fearless honesty is awe inspiring for any woman.

Just like I will never forget anandamath, durgeshnandini or bishabriksha… such fantastic usage of language yet such immemorable characters.

books

Well, I am one of those blessed creatures who was born in a family of bookworms.. who was surrounded by books instead of toys and expensive clothes.

A family where money was spent on books and true education, not on material luxury.

I have read all types of books .. actually devoured them. starting from cheap thrillers to writers like maxim gorky. No, I don’t read any thing but fiction.. I am not a serious reader. I have read non fiction only in school, college and other spheres of study.

Books are the best friend any human being can have, all he/she will have to do is select the type of book which will help him or her to reach his destination.

I will simply love to share some of the writers and books I have been touched by. I cant put my finger on a particular writer and say he/she is my favourite.. actually I cant even pin point half a dozen of them as my favourites..