NYMPHIA'S PAGE

A whistle tore through my eardrum as I walked along, I could see a teenaged boy through the corner of my eye. He was standing beside the tea stall and making the noise with his hand in his mouth. I was returning home through the street with my grocery. apacket od salt which I ran out of last night, some flour and some candles in case we have powercut later the day. I didn’t need a rickshaw as the shop was just around the corner. The boy whistling must be someone from the neighbourhood. I didn’t turn to look at him. It didn’t really matter. After all what else can one expect where eve teasing is considered as a norm of the society! It’s not only pretty girls who get harassed everyday.But any woman with a vulnerable age (meaning less than 40) will be facing this kind of assault. Now it’d be different if it were a girl who wears the attitude “I mean business” with a tomboyish look then, perhaps, no one would bother her. After climbing four flights I let sigh out of relief as I put the ...

I read the book Nohonnote as a young girl and was pleased with myself as I had read one of the most well regarded books of any time. But little did I know that I would appreciate it much more when I read it as an adult. The book is about a forgotten love that shook the whole world of Amrita, a 16 year old girl. One has to metaphorically devour every page as you go through the book. The literary quality of the language is brilliant. The emotions come out alive as the writer describes the past that was, until then, suppressed inside her. It is also a document of a time when Bengali girls got little or no exposure. Yet Amrita managed to steal the heart of a young foreigner who later became a famous writer in his own country. The word Nohonnote is a Sanskrit word meaning - not of body; but of soul, of spirit. The novel is written by Maitreyi Devi, a disciple of Rabindranath Tagore. She was a famous writer in her own right. The story is set in 1972. It is Amrita’s birthday. She is an elder...