A man lives forever … if not in person but through his work - he lives forever. Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay is one of my favorite Bengali writer …. though my bengali is poor (it takes me about 20 minutes to read a page) but still I try to read and enjoy his descriptive way of writing.

In his stories one can feel the real Bengal …. the essence of wet soil on the muddy curvy road - the sunset beyond the bamboo trees - the cool breeze after sunset on a summer night - the unknown floral plant half sunken from the river bank …. and so many more. One may not have been there or seen these places but still they can visualize it without fail.

As i’m a nature loving person …. i love all his stories but yes some are very sad (like “Mouri phool”) - the story indeed is very sad but his description of nature is so vivid and yet so simply that one gets involved in the story completely … and i guess that makes the story more sad as it seems that it’s all happening in front of you n you cannot do anything about it.

Recently from Kolkata … i bought 2 books of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. One is a novel (Path-er Pachali) and the other is a collection of short stories. Some of my favorite short stories are : “Pu-i Macha” - “Brijahom o tar badha” - “Nadi-r dar-e Bari” - “Tara nath tantrik ke golpo” … I definitely leave out all the sad stories after reading it once. “Mou-ri phool”, “Kinor Dol”, “Megh molhar” …. for me these are extremely sad stories.

People may say that “Pu-i macha” is sad too … but it has a touch of happiness. The girl may die around whom the story is written but the nice thing is that she was loved by her family esp. by her mother who seemed to be hard on her but by heart she loved her daughter … this really touched me n so it’s my most favorite.

Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay lived in Berakpur (at his father’s house) n at Ghatshila (he has his own house)…. On 1 November, 1950, he died of a heart attack while staying at Ghatshila …. May God bless his soul n rest in peace !!!

One of my favourite written is R. K. Narayan. I read some of his novels n liked them all. All his novels are execllent but among them my favourite are :

“The Swami & Friends”  (his 1st novel - 1935) , “The English Teacher”  (3rd novel - 1945) , “The Guide” - 1958, “The Man-Eater of Malgudi” - 1962 , “The Talkative Man” - 1986 , Last but not the least -  “My Days”  (his autobiography).

No one can ever imagine that the town “Malgudi” doesn’t exist. In every novels  - the description of the town is interliked.  Love his way of writing : Simple and very impressive. Descriptive but not boring. One can imagine the roads n the houses on it - the people n their activities - the river bank n their sourrounding.

His own life (as written in “My Days”) is as creative as his on writing. After reading that he could communicate with his dead wife - i got somehow reliefed. Hoping that i too can communicate with my loved ones when they are no more ….

“The Complete Adventures of Feluda” (vol.1) - I finished it last month and dying to buy its vol.2. Next time I go out - I’ll make sure that I buy it.

Originally its written by Satyajit Ray in Bengali. As my Bengali is very poor (which i am working on) - I prefer to read the translation of it by Gopa Mujumdar. She is good too and has done a real good job. I am looking forward towards her translation of Satyajit Ray’s cinematic writings.

“Feluda” is like a Indian version of Sherlock Holmes - but I guess “Feluda’s” adventure are more informative. By informative - I mean general knowledge. Knowledge about antique, sculpture of Ellora, monk of Ladhak. Knowledge of places like Rajasthan, Gangtok, Darjeeling, Bombay, Shimla and many more. We should keep in mind that the stories were written in 70s and 80s and for youngest. At that period of time many people were not able to travel to so many places. So this stories provide them a scenario of these places.

In many places in the stories - Satyajit Ray ji has hinted that simple description and writing in the best and so it is. Simple writing but creates the perfect picture.

I really enjoyed it. In Bengali, it must have been much better.

I just finished reading a book by Jhumpa Lahari -”Unaccustomed Earth”. Her language might be good but her narrating the story has something missing. It seems as if she is not involved in the story - she simply narrates what she sees.

Most of the stories were sad, unhappy ending - death and illness. Fine - the tittle suggest that life is not what you always want but it doesn’t mean it has to be deppressing. It can be unexpected but still pleasing.

First half had 5 stories - from which the first story (also the tittle story) and the second story “Hell Heaven” was good. The rest three were so-s0 ; even story wise they didn’t tell much. Some wise men said “short stories are difficult to write” - so true.

Second half was a sort of novalla - written in 3 parts. At first it seemed 3 different stories - but as i read the last part (story) - i realised its the same story. First part by a girl (Hema) and next narrated by a third person as from the view point of a young man - Kaushik. In the end part - they meet each other - spend some days together and seperate again. The story so far was good - even Hema gets married to some one else (to whom she was engaged) - that fine too. But ms. Lahari wasn’t satisfied - she wanted it to be the ultimate sad. Kaushik died in Thailand in Sunami - (he had the worse life one can imagine - in childhood mother died , father remarry, had a unsettled teenage and adulthood.) Hema is pregnant with his husband’s child. It seemed she was happy in life.

Her idea of writing a novella in this way was good - but why do people have to be so deppressing. May be she read to many of  Sarat chandra Chattopadhyay (but he was a legend). For me if the story is bad - there is no point of having her uncomman elegance and poise.

Her second book “The Namesake” was good. I have read another writer “Bharti Mukherjee” (Desireable Daughters) base in United States. I have not read a worse book than that.

I have come to a conclusion - the writers who are Indian by origin but settled in the States lack the ability to tell story or create a story. They lack the plot - creativeness, atmosphere, involvement in the story - something is missing. By reading the book it seems, they are simply narrating some incident or facts.

I would really prefer to read another book by Anita Nair - she seems to be far much better.