Biryani Tales and Life Lessons from Kerala, Review essay, The Wire (September 2018)
Back on the Bus: The world of a daily passenger, Personal essay, Sunday Eye, Indian Express (August 2018)
What Manto’s ‘Das Rupay’ Tells Us About Sexual Violence Against Girls Today , Review essay, The Wire (July 2018)
A People Ravaged: Peeling off the Many Layers of Partition Trauma, Book review, The Wire (May 2018)
Love and the Turning Seasons – India’s Poetry of Spiritual & Erotic Longing , Book review, Kitaab, (April 2018)
The Whore as Metaphor for a City, Review essay, The Beacon (February 2018)
Wet Radio and other poems, Book review, Kitaab (December 2017)
Rooting in Snow, Personal essay, Cargo Literary Magazine, (November 2017)
House of Song, Book review, Cafe Dissensus (October 2017)
The Restless Brilliance of Hassan Blasim, Author profile/Book review, Kitaab (October 2017)
On Durga’s Migrant Trails, Personal essay, Cafe Dissensus Everyday (September 2017)
Satirical Films Have a Lot to Say About India’s ‘Baba’ Culture, Essay, The Wire (September 2017)
The Historian’s Daughter , Book review in Cafe Dissensus (August 2017)
Cutting Through Mountains to Build a Statue Translation in The Wire (August 2017)
Who is Abani, at whose house, and why is he even there? Translation in Parabaas (August 2017)
Bangladesh Now, Through the Lens of Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, film review in The Wire (June 2017)
Book Review: Sumana Roy’s ‘How I Became a Tree’, book review in Cafe Dissensus Everyday (April 2017)
Singing in Dark Times—a Manual for Encoding Dissent, poem in The Maynard (April 2017)
Beheji, poem, in Stonecoast Review (December 2016)
London Relived: The precise affections of a sometimes lover, personal essay in Coldnoon Travel Poetics (August 2016)
Asavari, poem in Open Road Review (August 2016)
Balancing Yin and Yang in Coyoacan, personal essay in Cafe Dissensus Everyday (April 2016)
Nirmala Boudi and the Bureaucracy, fiction translation in Humanities Underground (November 2015)
Parama Park Street, prose translation in The Sunflower Collective (September 2015)
Fall, poem in Words, Pauses, Noise (September 2015)
Thirsty, poem in Open Road Review (June 2016)
Togetherness Formulae, poem in AntiSerious (June 2015)
Review of Rivers Run Back in Cafe Dissensus (May 2015)
Living Abroad is Making Do and Make Believe, poem in Words, Pauses, Noises (March 2015)
An anti-national friendship, translated into Bengali in Friendships Across Borders (February 2015)
When I had the Plague, humour essay in Anti Serious (December 2014)
Patch of sky for hopes to fly, review essay in DNA (September 2014)
Between the Map and the Memory/book review in Cafe Dissensus (August 2014)
Marrying the Road, essay/book review in DNA (July 2014)
Winter Outside a Grocery Store, poem in Two Cities Review (P 33) (June 2014)
Ocean of Consciousness, essay in DNA (May 2014)
Letters from a Foreign Shore, translated letters in Cafe Dissensus (May 2014)
Aranyalipi, translated essay in Muse India (May 2014)
Kabir in the time of elections, essay in DNA (April 2014)
The Curse of the Missing, column in Cafe Dissensus Everyday (April 2014)
The fabled crop of winter, essay in DNA (March 2014)
Summer at Victoria Park, poem in The Boston Coffee house (March 2014)
Two Weeks in Delhi, personal essay in Pithead Chapel (March 2014)
Flickering Embers in Verse, essay in DNA (February 2014)
Book review: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage in DNA (January 2014)
Book review: Corona in TFQM (December 2013)
The Bulldozer in Warscapes (November 2013)
His Masterly Voice: Manna Dey, in Sahapedia (October 2013)
Alice Munro: Marathons in Sprint in IBN Live (October 2013)
‘Where a line is a circle: Toronto’ in Earthen Lamp Journal (September 2013)
Shakti’s Singing in Parabaas (April 2013)
On Durga’s Migrant Trails Personal essay in The Four Quarters Magazine (December 2012)
The Crater Doesn’t Move in Open Road Review (November 2012)
Ramkinkar’s People Live Again in Indian Express (September 2012)
A restless but calming mind (May 2012)
When art meets publishing world (April 2012)
Mention in BCLT Alumni News (March 2012)
Still in Translation (March 2012)
I just read The Kite Runner. Very impressive. The humanity of the story was almost overwhelming, and it gave me an appreciation of the complexities of Afghanistan.
I couldn’t list ten books, because my tastes are changing daily. I loved Lonesome Dove, but I can’t seem to read McMurtry any more. I’m listening to Tobias Wolff on audio right now, and I am very impressed with his insight and style.
On the subject of books, I have just one too many loves, Bhas. Far more than 10 that I would simply feel with which to whittle down, would be to do the other books that have loved me unmeasurably in return, a great injustice. But I admire anyone who can condense their thoughts in such a clever manner with fortitude and focus, as you and Lotus. It would have started when I was very small…the memories and the passions..each book that opened a door to the then very near future. And I have faced interesting ‘futures’ because of my reads. Possibly a few of these would be The Land of Grren Ginger by Winifred Holby, The Shell-Seekers & September by Rosamund Pilcher, the entire works of Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell and the entire works of fiction by Britain’s the late Dame Iris Murdoch. Particularly in her case, my favourites being The Black Prince & The Philosopher’s Pupil. Oh my God, I could go on forever, Bhas. Sorry for the ramble.
Hi, Bhaswati! That is a truly lovely list and I love the picture of all the books together. See, I told you you had a talented family! 🙂 I would love to read your grandmother’s book some day. I’m glad to see you list Roddy Doyle’s book as a favourite. I had it sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time and when my daughter’s school had a book sale recently, I donated it to them. Now I so wish I had read it first! Ahhh, how did I forget to include “Angela’s Ashes” ? It’s been a favourite of mine for a long,long time.
I really liked The Kite Runner. 🙂
I have a huge “50 years of Playboy” special edition which a friend gave me. It has lot of pictures. Would it count as a book?:-p
That’s a pretty tough question. Ten? I would take my copy of Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I’d take my antique copy of Hamlet. I would probably burn to death trying to save them all.
“Bhaswati,” she said in anquish, “the last time we estimated, years ago, we had then about 5,000 books – and you want me to choose?”
Jason, you put it across so well. I would be surprised if The Kite Runner didn’t leave a strong impression on any reader. Scott, I know what you mean. The list I presented is true as of now; two years down the line, I may have a completely different list. I just did this as a casual exercise. Susan, thanks for the ramble. I completely understand what you mean. It’s difficult to pick books randomly like that. There are many more treasures, not in that list, that are equally precious to me. However, like I said to Scott, I saw this more as a fun exercise than anything else. Lotus, thanks for the kind words! Let’s hope I can translate my grandma’s book for you to read :)Do read Paddy Clarke…if you get the chance. I am certain you will like it. Jeff, isn’t it a lovely book? It will always be dear to my heart, I suppose. Yoda, I can expect that from you. LOL. Calling it a book? Umm, not sure. Let’s just say it’s a collectible you wouldn’t want to part with ;)Matt, interesting choices there!”Bernita dear,” she replied gently, “no need to choose; you can keep all 5,000. We shall depute a permanent enforcement of the fire department to guard your massive treasure at all times.”
Hi Homey(TeeHee):I’ve read #6 and saw the movie for #10. Here’s my ‘Books to Read’ list.And here’s a cute SHORT STORY I wrote. Keep Writing Homey(TeeHee AGAIN)your humble servant,Ancient Clown
One: a pocket size translation of Odyssey, in Polish, dog-eared, stained, ripped and misshapen, which I have caried with me everywhere since the age of 16. Everything else in life can be replaced. This — no.
Ancient Clown, thanks for dropping by. I visited your blog and found it interesting. ‘Will read the short story soon. Keep checking in :)Sir G, thanks for stopping over at my blog. Now, that does seem like an indispensable treasure. I am very curious to know what it looks like. Do you have a picture posted somewhere in your blog?
After all these comments about The Kite Runner – I’m going to have to go get it and read it. :)Which 10 would I try to save? That is such a tough question. My library has hundreds of books…maybe I should put my favorites together so that I can grab them easily — though, I think the only books I would save are the ones that are irreplaceable — a couple of photo albums and several volumes (binders) of my stories that I wrote while in high school and college.:)
That sounds like a terrific collection, Esther. I am envious. The volumes of your early stories has to be a prized possession. Do read The Kite Runner. You won’t be disappointed.