Manik Da


Book Description

Satyajit Ray, known to his intimates as Manik-da, remains India's most respected name in international film circles. This book reveals in its simplicity the ease and camaraderie between Satyajit Ray, one of India's finest film-makers, and Nemai Ghosh, photographer extraordinaire. Manik-da is the latter's endeavour to depict the man behind the director's mask. Ghosh first worked with Ray on Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, and Ray immediately found in him a kindred spirit who intuitively understood his requirements - and whom he understood. Thus was formed a partnership that spanned over a quarter of a century. In the process, Ghosh was able to photograph Ray at work and play, capturing on film the many moods of the master director. This nuanced and lucid translation from the Bengali original, which includes a perceptive Foreword by Sharmila Tagore, presents to the English reader Ghosh's thoughts on Ray with over fifty exquisite, never-before-seen photographs.




East-west


Book Description

It Is A Bengali Novel Set Against The Backdrop Of The Biggest Exodus In Human HistoryýThe 1947 Partition Of India. This Novel Is A Record Of Tumultuous Times In East Pakistan As Well As In Indian Bengal. But Their Problems Were Vastly Different. The Story, Revolving Around Two College Friends, Both Bengali Though One Hindu And Other Muslim Soon Takes Into Its Expanding Orbit Other Characters, Families, Issues. The Two Friends Drift Apart, Separated By The Political Division, Then Each Is Caught Up In His Own Problem.




Manik and I


Book Description

It is unusual to come across a life so rich in varied experiences as the one that Bijoya Ray, wife and constant companion to the renowned film-maker Satyajit Ray, has lived. Despite being closely related, Satyajit—‘Manik’ to his friends and family—and Bijoya fell in love and embarked on a life together years before Ray’s groundbreaking film Pather Panchali was made, and their long, happy married life lasted right until Ray’s death in 1992. Bijoya Ray never felt the urge to write her memoirs, but was finally persuaded to pick up the pen when she was well into her eighties. Manik and I brims over with hitherto unknown stories of her life with Satyajit Ray, told in candid, vivid detail.




Rising From the Ashes of Bengal's Partition


Book Description

Usually books on partition are sob stories, but not this one. ‘Rising from the Ashes of Bengal’s Partition’ is an untold story of the journey of a child born around the time of partition, who battled many hurdles and aspired to lead a new life - like a Phoenix. This is a story of his - and his generation’s - unflinching determination to move ahead. This is the story of the real people who did not curse their fate and sit idle shedding tears. It covers a child’s - and his generations - torturous journey from refugee camps and colonies to the world above the sky. The story covers a span of seven decades of time and space - people and events, politics and economics, corporates and their leaders and above all the kaleidoscopic panorama across the journey through Bengal and India. The book opens up several untraveled terrains - personal experiences, a person’s struggle, sufferings, tears, joys and smiles. It documents people’s perception about critical contemporary events, which conventional history does not cover. The author writes from the ringside, for example on how it was to work for the most reputed corporate of the country and, what happened in the business and economy when the ‘Tiger’ was ‘Uncaged.’ Sure, readers would like to run through the author’s experiences. The author has poured his heart and soul out into writing this story.




The Khasis


Book Description







ADDA!


Book Description

The College Street Coffee House is still a much-revered institution in Kolkata. Its mystique lingers, despite its dilapidated appearance that evokes another era. Intellectuals from a range of disciplines met to discuss compelling ideas in a free-flowing style – the quintessential Bengali adda, punctuated with many cups of coffee. Twenty-six intellectual, political, and cultural icons including Rabin Mandal, Soumitra Chatterjee, Usha Ganguly, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, and Ashim Chatterjee share their memories of Coffee House. Their portrait photos and absorbing reminiscences capture the tumultuous and changing intellectual, political, and cultural currents that surged through Bengal from the 1950s to the 1990s. “Such a pleasure to have this account of a great unofficial institution from a disarming multiplicity of perspectives - photographic, personal, and intellectual - and to listen in on its hubbub.”Amit Chaudhuri




Sing Without Shame


Book Description

This study of literary themes, linguistic practice and cultural traditions analyzes the oral traditions of Indo-Portugese creole verse, as a synthesis from European, African and Asian sources. This musical, dramatic and textual syncretism defines tradition within the group and maintains the identity of the creole community. References are primarily to Indian and Sri Lankan materials collected in the late nineteenth century and to data in the H. Nevill collection, an extensive manuscript of Sri Lankan Creole texts from the 1870s or 1880s, housed in the British Museum. The importance of these texts is linguistic, anthropological and sociological. They are persistent in their ability to give definition to creole culture, surviving in South Asia from the seventeenth century to the present.




The Cinema of Satyajit Ray


Book Description

About the Book AN ESSENTIAL BOOK FOR EVERY CINEPHILE’S LIBRARY Satyajit Ray is the tallest Indian figure in world cinema. Retrospectives across the globe, perhaps even more than at home, have kept his legacy alive. But how do we understand his cinema in the context of a vastly different world? What keeps great cinema from becoming dated? What are the particularities of Ray’s movies that cause them to endure? Bhaskar Chattopadhyay’s literary engagement with Ray’s cinema spans years. In this book, he revisits each one of Satyajit Ray’s thirty-nine feature films, shorts and documentaries to investigate their cinematic and social context. He also speaks to a number of the master’s collaborators as well as other directors and critics to truly understand Ray and his work. Packed with delightful anecdotes and fresh insights, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray is an essential book for every cinephile’s library.




Footprint


Book Description

The only journey is the one within. The four batchmates of Presidency College, born at different places and times, were destined to meet at some point, and their got intermingled till the fag end of their life. They were lost in their respective dreams during the turbulent period of the 1970s; their college days. Those days, life was very close to living in paradise, till one of them was caught in the web of the Naxal Movement and left them forever. After graduation the other three headed in different directions and during their journey, they struggled to cope with realities and crises; each in their own way, and ultimately found the common path to live a meaningful life. After many years their paths crossed again as they got involved in a noble cause