nonfiction review
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / (Re)visit to the alleys of contestation, narratives, and memories that the Partition left behind
The book discusses the lack of sensitivity among policymakers in acknowledging the distinct socio-cultural differences and linguistic and community identities of the refugees that often got merged. It explores how different categories of refugees received different treatments.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / A peripatetic poet’s pleasing musings
The title of this book suggests that it is based in Bengal but it really meanders deftly across time and space, more often than not in “mazy motion”.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / The ‘new oil’ transforming the world
Chip War, a highly praised book written by Chris Miller who teaches International history at Tuft University’s Fletcher School, USA, is a New York Times bestseller.
BOOK REVIEW: NON FICTION / Designing our past and for our future
The author, architect Tanwir Nawaz, besides expressing his thoughts, ideas, and artistic struggles within a body of professional works, has poured his emotions and nostalgic memories into Exploring the World of Architecture and Design.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Stories of survivorship, courage, and hope for a country that cares
A closer look into these stories reveal reasons why cancer continues to be dreaded—it is not just fear of the malady itself, but also the challenges of undergoing treatment through an overburdened healthcare system and its exorbitant costs.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Bangladesh beyond geopolitics in a new multipolar world: what’s new in foreign policy trajectory?
Both the China and India factors in Bangladesh’s foreign policy decisions, as identified in Li Jianjun and Deb Mukharji’s chapters, will be continuously evolving and contributing factors that would perhaps influence Bangladesh’s policies with other countries as well.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / A tale of forced displacement and uncertain futures
Review of ‘The Displaced Rohingyas: A Tale Of A Vulnerable Community’ (Routledge, 2024), edited by SK Tawfique M Haque, Bulbul Siddiqi, and Mahmudur Rahman Bhuiyan.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / Rehman Sobhan’s recollections of the road he took towards December 16, 1971
The title of the first of Professor Rehman Sobhan’s two-part memoir suggests that it is about his “years of fulfilment”; the subject matter of its sequel therefore would be about the “untranquil” years that followed.
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / An exploration of Hinduism and its honest interpretation
It’s been a while since I had been meaning to get my hands on a book by Shashi Tharoor, and when my sister asked me what she could get me from Kolkata, I immediately said I’d love to read a book by the renowned Indian author, politician, columnist, and critic.
Revisiting ‘Chobir Deshe, Kobitar Deshe’
The book captures all the enjoyable experiences of travelling, and the food they ate, and provides descriptions of France's seas.
‘Shohoj Kothai Orthoniti’ A localised flavour of economics
Flipping the pages of a textbook often makes me feel like I’m trapped in the US. We studied economics from an American lens, using American textbooks,
‘History and Heritage’: Reading Bengal in a series
Even at this moment when Google is under threat of being taken over by Artificial Intelligence and you may search for anything online,
Memoirs of our unsung heroes
Massacre, murder, torture, violence, bayonet, bloodshed, grenade, displacement, death—these words bring to mind a war scenario.
War still rages on
We might never know how it feels when your whole existence is denied or the loss of homeland, but we can get a little glimpse of their suffering.
Eyeball to eyeball at Lords: A Bangladeshi occasion in a very English setting
35000 spectators turned out amid the colourful shamianas and flags to watch the one (and only) unofficial Test in Dhaka in January, 1977.
What you call your own
As an Anglophone writer in Bangladesh, I’ve frequently faced the rather inane question of why I write in English.
A modern love story in translation
I became an ardent admirer of Amrita Pritam, the maverick Punjabi author, an outspoken critic of the Indian patriarchy and discriminating social practices, three decades back in New York when I was putting together an anthology of world feminist poems in Bangla translation.
The records of resilience
Much of the reminiscences in The Murti Boys encompass the grittiness of staving off the Pakistanis with little weaponry and a great deal of quick thinking.
A paean to storytelling
Following the trails of Imaginary Homelands (Penguin Books, 1992) and Step Across The Line (Modern Library, 2003), comprising essays written and lectures given by Salman Rushdie between 2003-2020, Languages of Truth is Rushdie’s third collection of nonfiction works and is as a delectable read as its predecessors if not more.
