This is the 2nd volume Published by Ananda Publishers, Kolkata, India. First part is titled Sera Satyajit.

    Padma Nadir Majhi ( Bengali:,English title: Boatman of the River Padma or The Padma Boatman ) (1993) is an award-winning Indian Bengali feature film directed by Goutom Ghosh from novel,the same name Manik Banerjees Padma Nadir Majhi.Hossian Miya (Utpal Dutta),Bengali Muslim, a trader who offers to take this community to with an idealistic vision: he wants to establish a little utopia on an island (Moynadeep) in the Padma delta . and offer them a better life there. It is apparent that Hossian Miya has a flourishing business there, because he has recently purchased a huge boat because of expanding business.

    The novel is at once serious and light. With a deep understanding of human psychology combined with flashes of humour, with occasional barbs at religious bigots, skillfully woven with respect for women, Saratchandra has created a delightful story that cannot grow old in its appeal.

    Does it herald the apocalyptic departure of the gods or is there a more rational explanation? The Kahars, inhabitants of Hansuli Turn, belong to an untouchable "criminal tribe" soon to be epically transformed by the effects of World War II and India's independence movement. Their headman, Bonwari, upholds the ethics of an older time, but his fragile philosophy proves no match for the overpowering machines of war. As Bonwari and the village elders come to believe the gods have abandoned them, younger villagers led by the rebel Karali look for other meanings and a different way of life.As the two factions fight, codes of authority, religion, sex, and society begin to break down, and amid deadly conflict and natural disaster, Karali seizes his chance to change his people's future. Sympathetic to the desires of both older and younger generations, Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay depicts a difficult transition in which a marginal caste fragments and mutates under the pressure of local and global forces. The novel's handling of the language of this rural society sets it apart from other works of its time, while the village's struggles anticipate the dilemmas of rural development, ecological and economic exploitation, and dalit militancy that would occupy the center of India's post-Independence politics.Negotiating the colonial depredations of the 1939-45 war and the oppressions of an agrarian caste system, the Kahars both fear and desire the consequences of a revolutionized society and the loss of their culture within it. Lyrically rendered by one of India's great novelists, this story of one people's plight dramatizes the anxieties of a nation and the resistance of some to further marginalization.

    Set in early 19th century Bengal, their old rivalry now manifests itself as a historical clash between a landed aristocracy declining under the Permanent Settlement system introduced by the British, and the newly rising comprador bourgeosie patronized by these very colonial masters. Yogayog (1929) is remarkable for its astonishingly strong feminist sentiments, marked by Tagore's insight into the emotions and aspirations of women caged in domesticity and strapped by conventional morality.

    Tenida is the leader of a group of four young lads who lived in the neighbourhood of Potoldanga, Tenida was depicted as the local big-mouthed airhead with a heart of gold, who, although not blessed with academic capabilities, was admired and respected by the other three for his presence of mind, courage, honesty as well as his vociferous appetite. Descriptions of Tenida's nose also make frequent appearances in the text, being described as "a large nose resembling Mount Mainak". The narrator of the stories is Pyalaram, who seemed to share his leaders frailty in academic exertions. The other two characters who formed an integral part of the quartet were Habul Sen, who speaks with strong East Bengali accent (Dhakai) and Kyabla- the cleverest amongst the four. The stories of Tenida and his gang were usually one of comedy-adventure where the gang goes through a lot of pain- and humiliation- to solve a mystery which were mostly of comical solutions. The short stories were extensively based in Calcutta and it's suburbs, while some of the larger stories took the group to the Bengal countryside, and at times further away. It is said that Narayan Gangopadhyay created the character of Tenida on his landlord (who had the same name) - with whom he was a very good friend.

    The immaculately dressed Chowringhee, radiant in her youth, had just stepped on to the floor at the nightclub.’ Set in 1950s Calcutta, Chowringhee is a sprawling saga of the intimate lives of managers, employees and guests at one of Calcutta’s largest hotels, the Shahjahan. Shankar, the newest recruit, recounts the stories of several people whose lives come together in the suites, restaurants, bar and backrooms of the hotel. As both observer and participant in the events, he inadvertently peels off the layers of everyday existence to expose the seamy underbelly of unfulfilled desires, broken dreams, callous manipulation and unbidden tragedy. What unfolds is not just the story of individual lives but also the incredible chronicle of a metropolis. Written by best-selling Bengali author Sankar, Chowringhee was published as a novel in 1962. Predating Arthur Hailey’s Hotel by three years, it became an instant hit, spawning translations in major Indian languages, a film and a play. Its larger-than-life characters—the enigmatic manager Marco Polo, the debonair receptionist Sata Bose, the tragic hostess Karabi Guha, among others—soon attained cult status. With its thinly veiled accounts of the private lives of real-life celebrities, and its sympathetic narrative seamlessly weaving the past and the present, it immediately established itself as a popular classic. Available for the first time in English, Chowringhee is as much a dirge as it is a homage to a city and its people.An excerpt (Chapter 1) from the book :http://arunavasinha.in/2011/05/27/cho...

    Though it is written as detective story, like other books it has not overlooked the natural beauty. And here is the exceptions of Bibhutibhusan proven.

    Celebrated as one of the most popular and path-breaking novels of its time, it has received continual critical acclaim: the Rabindra Puraskar (the Tagore Prize) in 1966 and the Bharitiya Jnanpith, India’s highest literary award, in 1977. Spanning the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ashapurna tells the story of the struggles and efforts of women in nineteenth-century, colonial Bengal in a deceptively easy and conversational style. The charming eight-year old heroine, Satyabati is a child bride who leaves her husband’s village for Calcutta, the capital of British India where she is caught in the social dynamics of women’s education, social reform agendas, modern medicine and urban entertainment. As she makes her way through this complex maze, making sense of the rapidly changing world around her, Satyabati nurtures hopes and aspirations for her daughter. But the promises held out by modernity turn out to be empty, instigating Satyabati to break away from her inherited world and initiate a quest that takes her to the very heart of tradition.Indira Chowdhury’s confident translation, with its conscious choice of Indian English equivalents over British and American colloquialisms, carries across the language divide the flavour of Ashapurna’s unique idiomatic style. This edition also includes the translator’s reflections on the process of translation itself.

    The story reflects the social, political and religious scene in Bengal at the turn of the century. The forces that were operating in Bengal at that time were one of the intense nationalism and revival of ancient spiritual values and also that of liberal western thought. What makes Gora a great prose epic is not only its social content but also its brilliant story of self-searching, of resolution, of conflicts and of self discovery.

    Very poignantly written, this is arguably Zahir Raihan’s best novel and certainly one of the milestones of contemporary Bangla literature.

    As she grows from an impetuous; spirited child to a lonely young woman; Swati is witness to the upheavals and joys of the Mitra family even as the country slides towards the promise of independence and the inevitability of war.Anxious to ensure that his daughters find suitable husbands; Rajen-babu realizes it is only a matter of time before his favourite child too must leave home. While the boorish entrepreneur Prabir Majumdar decides that she will make him a fitting wife; Swati finds herself increasingly drawn to Satyen; the young professor who introduces her to a world of books and the heady poetry of Tagore and Coleridge.First published in Bengali as Tithidore in 1949; When the Time Is Right is a moving tale of a family and a nation.

    For nine months from March to December, the people of the country sacrificed their lives and all else that they had for their freedom in a way never before seen in the history of the world. This is the story of the Liberation War of Bangladesh, seen through the eyes of a child.A story of friendship.A story of sacrifice.A story of courage.A story of freedom.[This is the English translation of "Amar Bondhu Rashed" done by the author, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal's daughter Yeshim Iqbal.]

    This novel focuses on the trauma of a mother who awakens one morning to the shattering news that her son is lying dead in the police morgue, reduced to a mere numeral: Corpse No. 1084. Through her struggle to understand his revolutionary commitment as a Naxalite, she recognizes her own alienation—as a woman and a wife—from the complacent, hypocritical, and corrupt feudal society her son had so fiercely rebelled against.

    Also contains the stories by Buddhadeb Guha, Shyamal Gangopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Dibyendu Palit, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay, Baren Gangopadhyay, and Moti Nandi.