‘Ideas, Thoughts and Memories’: A rich anthology of literary essays by Bengal’s foremost writers

Ideas, Thoughts and Memories: Bengali Literary Essays: A Selection in Translation is collection of Bangla literary essays starting from Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay (1827–1894) to the contemporary Anita Agnihotri (b 1956) has been edited and compiled by Kalpana Bardhan who is a social scientist by training and a translator from Bangla by vocation. The anthology is a labour of love, showcasing 46 essays by 31 distinguished authors in the language. In subject matter too, the volume is significant as it showcases a great diversity of voices but more of that later.

Under one roof

In his Foreword to the volume, Ashis Nandy perspicaciously comments that this book is “Kalpana Bardhan’s reminder to a new generation of Bengalis…of a lost world, and perhaps even a lost skill” that the Bengali literary sphere once boasted of: a veritable crop of writers who used Bengali both for their creative work and serious nonfiction, in contrast to those who used English or Bangla alternately for one or the other. Professor Nandy asks another pertinent question towards the end of his piece: “Is this book then only a lovable but doomed venture?” because so few of our children, born and raised elsewhere other than in Bangla-speaking milieu, can access...

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