Kolkata Rape Victims Find a Police Officer Who’s on Their Side
KOLKATA, India — After his 16-year-old daughter was gang-raped twice in their Madhyamgram neighborhood in north Kolkata in October, then set on fire, allegedly by associates of her rapists, Rama Shankar Jha was distraught. His daughter died of her burns in a Kolkata hospital in December, and he petitioned the Calcutta High Court to bring…
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Prajwal Parajuly | The Gurkha’s son
He promises to give me “something extra” as we begin the interview in the lobby of a hotel on Kolkata’s Park Street. In the city for the Kolkata Literary Festival (8-13 January), he’s been giving several interviews. Two stacks of his just-released novel, Land Where I Flee, and the 2012 collection of short stories, The Gurkha’s Daughter,…
Election Fails to Resolve Bangladesh’s Political Turmoil
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has won the country’s 10th parliamentary elections in a disputed poll that was boycotted by the opposition and its allies and held amid large-scale violence that left at least 18 dead. Armed with a landslide “victory,” Hasina is set to form the next government even as questions are being raised…
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Tasher Desh says ‘bandh bhenge dao’
Is it time people stopped seeing Tasher Desh (The Land of Cards) as a children’s play? “Oh yes,” chuckles Q. “We’ve f****d it!” The pride in the ‘achievement’ is unmistakable. It is no different from that of a child who has just broken the glass panes in his classroom to protest being thrown out for not getting…
Kolkata Chromosome | Durga’s foot soldier
The Bosepukur Sitala Mandir Durga Puja pandal is difficult to miss. From a distance one can spy the spherical structure looming above the tall fencing of corrugated sheets on the Rashbehari Connector in south Kolkata. The space is cordoned off from public view, but inside, it does not take much effort to locate Kajal Sarkar. The secretary of…
Kolkata Chromosome | Writers’ block
Mumbai-based artist Samir Mondal remembers the day 40 years ago when he first set his eyes on the Writers’ Buildings in Calcutta, as the city was then called. The young man who grew up in a village in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district could not believe it was man-made. “I could hardly blink. I…
A Conversation With: Author and Police Officer Nazrul Islam
KOLKATA – Despite his reputation as a tough, no-nonsense police officer who has stood up to the government on several occasions, Nazrul Islam is soft-spoken and gentle, even when refusing to discuss the controversy surrounding his latest book, “Musalmander Koroniyo” (What Muslims Should Do). “My intention is not to create, or fuel, any kind of controversy,” he…
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Three Years After Cyclone, Changed Lives in Sundarbans
CHUNAKHALI, West Bengal — May 25 was Ayantika Mandal’s third birthday. At her home on May 23 in Chunakhali, on the Indian side of the Sundarbans Delta, she changed into her dotted white dress for a picture, but refused to smile to the camera. “She is shy with strangers,” said her mother, Rina. “Otherwise, she…
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Is Didi Headed for a fall?
Aamra ekhon-o boli ni kon kagoj porte hobe, kintu agami dine kintu setao bole debo. (Till now, we haven’t told which newspapers must be read, but in the future, we will do that as well.) — West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, speaking on March 29 in defense of her government’s decision to bar all…
