In the West Bengal election of 2021, the longest state election in the history of India, Mamata Banerjee won the khela, and the BJP lost the plot. How did this happen?
The author, Jayanta Ghosal, travelled to all the districts of West Bengal and unearthed certain key factors that helped the Trinamool win the state. For instance, there was a massive gap in the BJP's understanding of Bengali identity, which Mamata was able to exploit. An 'overdose' of central intervention, ranging from paramilitary forces to intelligence agencies to target key TMC leaders, added to the BJP's disconnect with voters. Increasingly, the state felt the divide between New Delhi and Bengal grow.
The book details how Mamata was successfully able to portray herself as the 'daughter of Bengal' who worked tirelessly for the state's poor and disadvantaged. It also asks the question: with the state elections under her belt, what will be Mamata's path to the general elections of 2024? Does she consider herself a candidate for the prime minister's post?
'Tagore picks up the flotsam of a love story from the Ganga and narrates it like only he can. An eternal human story.'- Gulzar After a boat-wreck overturns his life, Rameshchandra Chowdhury mistakes young Kamala for his newly wedded bride. They move away from Calcutta to start a domestic life together, even as Ramesh is unable to forget Hemnalini, whom he was always in love with, but could not marry. Meanwhile, Hemnalini must steel her heart, while her hypochondriac father and hot-headed brother seek grooms for her. When Nalinaksha, a serene and influential doctor, enters the scene, fate decides to rock the boats again. Initially serialized in Bangadarshan magazine between 1903 and 1904, and then published as a novel in 1906, Noukadoobi was Tagore's exercise in psychoanalytical probing of an ensemble cast of characters, to reveal not just their individual pains and passions, but also the collective consciousness of the society of the period. Narrated in warm tones that reveal the tenderness of everyday life, and translated gracefully by Arunava Sinha, here is a story about love and sacrifice, faith and resilience that is timeless.
