Bøger af Sunil Gangopadhyay

Porattam is the story of a young man in Calcutta whose father dies suddenly and as the oldest son, he suddenly finds himself burdened with the responsibility of not only helping his family cope emotionally with the loss but more importantly of the responsibility of providing for his family economically. Set during the period of the naxalite movement in Bengal, the story documents the struggles of an educated middle-class man caught within the turmoils of social unrest. Corruption and unemployment is rampant, and he cannot align himself with either his revolutionary activist brother, or career-oriented sister. This was a decade of a wide range of political turmoil in India. The huge influx of refugees during the partition of India and loss of economic activity in the hinterland of Calcutta resulted in the stagnation of the economy. The Naxalbari movement under Charu Majumdar saw the split in the Communist party and an uprising of the Naxalite movement inspired by the Maoist doctrine. The nepotism, corruption and dishonesty at all levels of the system is extremely frustrating to him. He is unable to marry the girl he loves, as her family is not willing to have her marry someone who does not have a job. This is an extremely touching tale of human resolve, grit and finding hope in the midst of an intense struggle for survival when all appears hopeless. This book was later made into a highly acclaimed Bengali movie called Pratidwandi by Satyajit Ray which won several national awards.

When the East India Company sells one of its village bungalows to a Bengali aristocrat, the erstwhile manager, Hamilton sahib, finds himself homeless in his adopted country. A mother leaves her house and her notions of chastity in order to feed her childr

"Winner of the Sahitya Akademi award"--Cover.

Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award An award-winning novel that uses both vast panoramic views and lovingly reconstructed detail to provide an unforgettable picture of nineteenth-century Bengal. The Bengal Renaissance and the 1857 uprising form the backdrop to Those Days, a saga of human frailties and strength. The story revolves around the immensely wealthy Singha and Mukherjee families, and the intimacy that grows between them. Ganganarayan Singha's love for Bindubasini, the widowed daughter of the Mukherjees, flounders on the rocks of orthodoxy even as his zamindar father, Ramkamal, finds happiness in the arms of the courtesan, Kamala Sundari. Bimbabati, Ramkamal's wife, is left to cope with her loneliness. A central theme of the novel is the manner in which the feudal aristocracy, sunk in ritual and pleasure, slowly awakens to its social obligations. Historical personae interact with fictional protagonists to enrich the narrative. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the reformer; Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the poet; the father and son duo of Dwarkanath and Debendranath Tagore; Harish Mukherjee, the journalist; Keshab Chandra Sen, the Brahmo Samaj radical; David Hare and John Bethune, the English educationists--these and a host of others walk the streets of Calcutta again, to bring alive a momentous time.