Reflections - A Journey Through Life

There are two types of writers—potter kind and spider kind. The spider kind of writers can spin a web out of their own saliva so to say, while the potter kinds are more dependent on their earthly experiences. One can’t say who are superior. A potter writer can very well transform her own experiences into a timeless saga while a spider kind may lose her way into an infertile land of imagination devoid of the life-juice of reality. On the other hand, a spider writer with a fair amount of research, may bring alive a forgotten era with her fertile imagination whereas the potter writer would stand helpless. In any case, to write a successful piece of literature you don’t have any other way than to bring alive the characters forcefully. Interestingly, if a writer paints a bygone era in all its lively colours, in spite of being set in the long past, the creation may surpass the time barrier and continue enchanting readers through ages. I suppose the reason lies in the success of depi...

Don't doubt reality..it's him For decades I didn’t read any serious literature, for that matter I hardly read any literature. Most English and Bengali classics I finished by then (that was what I thought), encountered only thrillers near at hand and got disenchanted. I sampled the state-of-art Bengali literature religiously for a few years by going through the leading Bengali literary magazines. Ultimately I had to give up – no more, no more. The times must have changed terribly for the worse when no further worthwhile literature is being written anymore – I concluded. Many years later by sheer chance I chanced upon The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh. I had heard Amitav’s name as a renowned writer, that’s all. Casually I started reading again after a long long time. The beginning felt a little dull, but I carried on. At that moment I didn’t have any other compulsions. Slowly the storyline tightened up, the small chapters, interleaved events gradually hastened o...