Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read, Groucho Marx had said. It is a dark, funny and clever observation, but it may not be true. If you a...

The margins do a lot. They can define the centre. Sameer Sen, the framer who has worked with the stalwarts of the art world, has made this the foundation of his work. Sameer, 62, runs Tara Glass Synd...

The first flush from Darjeeling comes in March. It is a light, bright aromatic tea, and the young leaves are delicately plucked. The second flush, from the second foliage, comes in May. It is mellow a...

Not always, but at times you are hurt, and what hurts you is not called anything, because what is being done to you remains invisible. In another place it would be called old-world racism, but in Calc...

As the metal clinks against the glass, and the buzz mixed with laughter rises from the low tables covered in maroon or yellow tablecloths, and the shaded lamps throw light on black- and-white old Calc...

Posterity will know how much was cooked in Bengali kitchens during lockdown, as every momo, biryani or phuchka that has been made has been posted on the social media. It’s a great thing to watch. Ex...

It all started for Raghu Jana on a not so fine day in January 2009. Jana, a private tutor by profession, was crossing Central Avenue on his bicycle to attend a little magazine fair at Presidency Colle...

As a young boy growing up in his uncle’s house in Behrampore in Murshidabad district in the sixties and seventies, Debashis Chaudhury could not help getting caught in a cross-current of ideas. His u...

The battle against invisibility is killing us. But we need vegetables. So it’s a great pleasure to see Jitendra Sau coming into the neighbourhood every morning, around 8am. Sau, about 40 — he is n...

V. Ramaswamy began to translate Subimal Misra by accident. If such things can be called accidents. .Misra is by no means an easy author. The stories of this avant-garde, reclusive Bengali writer can s...