In 400-year-old Dhaka, a few educational institutes have stood the test of time. These century-old schools have played a significant role in shaping the education and culture of the city and beyond and have produced notable individuals who have left their mark on the national and world stages.
Writing at a time of imperial Britain’s preoccupation with downtrodden Indian and Muslim women, she was not particularly impressed with the Western model of women’s emancipation or the efforts of some Indian male reformers to usher in modernity simply by unveiling women.
paterfamilias of modern Bengali literature but I have felt a particular kinship with you.
Perhaps this was because I was deeply attracted to your work at a time when you were living. Somehow that made you a more intimate presence.
Of course, there is so much to like about you. A world-class filmmaker, juvenile story-teller, composer, typographer, illustrator, graphic artist, you had a keen intellect and an avid curiosity, with a formidable command of both English and Bengali you were a true renaissance man.
There was another parochial reason. I took particular delight in the fact that your ancestral home was in East Bengal. Your grandfather Upendrakishore Roychowdhury, juvenile storyteller extraordinaire, was from Mymensingh, the land of the storied folk treasury of