City Beloved

Humayun Ahmed's Tomader Ei Nagar-e projects Dhaka--our beloved city!--with all her beauties, flaws, eccentricities, and mysteries delightfully. This novella is the tenth one in Ahmed's immensely popular Himu series and is set in Dhaka in monsoonal torrents. In his signature style, Humayun Ahmed treats his readers  through this book with an ensemble of out-of-the-box characters--the "hermit" Himu, naïve, the hopelessly romantic teenage heroine Aasha, overbearing Mazeda khala, Himu's bunch of eccentric mess-mates, and of course the quintessential Bengali police officers. The plot begins with Aasha's arrival in Bangladesh in the hope of photographing it and chronicling her journey here in Bangladesh in a book called "Discovering Bangla"! In this process, she travels around Dhaka with Himu, and the readers get glimpses of many of lovely little things e.g. Kadam phool and little parks which make Dhaka so very unique. The language is fluid and humourous; the plot line dreamy albeit a little predictable; and the ending with one of the Barsha songs by Tagore is a treat for all music connoisseurs. If it is a lazy rainy weekend at home, or you are stuck somewhere in one of those Dhaka downpours, this novella will surely prove to be the perfect companion for you.

T.S. Marin loves Dhaka (particularly on bright sunny days), reading, and music of almost any kind. She is also a Lecturer of Primeasia University and Sub Editor of Lit and Review pages of The Daily Star.