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In pursuit of Chandrabati: the 16th century Bengali poet

Chandrabati, the poet who composed Ramayana from Sita’s point of view. She attempted such a tacsk in as early as the sixteenth century, which has earned the right to be termed canonical texts from a women's perspective. We started our journey at 8am from Mohammodpur, took a break at Egaro Shindur in Pakundia in Kishoreganj district to see the place where Isha khan, the chief of Baro Bhuiyan fought Maan Singh. As we climbed up high on a hill like structure on foot, and came down on the other side, we were informed by a villager that this was a tomb of some saint who lived here many years ago. We we taken over by guilty feelings for having tread over some unknown saint’s eternal resting place. By us, I mean the group of writers who came out on an expedition to find out more about the sixteenth century poet Chandrabati. What was discovered beyond the hill was a series of modern village houses with brick walls and tinned roof tops. A young villager led us to an enclosure beyond the hou
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‘YOU know I heard someone passing by my room wearing anklets. The noise came from the veranda, taking down the four steps and crossing my room, and went towards the back of our house.’ Suman looked at me with a mouthful of food with a quizzical look in his eyes. He kept grinding his chapatti as he spoke with a smile, ‘You are so imaginative! Why don’t you write some fiction? Seriously you could do well in the field.’ ‘What? You don’t believe me?’ ‘Well, wish I had time to sort that out? I have an office to attend, so please pass me my tea. Don’t want to be late.’ So we quietly had our tea. After he left I sat outside on the veranda. It was green everywhere I looked. I was quite excited about coming to stay in this teagarden when he got his job; it had been two weeks since I got here. It was a beautiful bungalow, made in the British era when tea plantation was in vogue. There were three bedrooms and a guestroom in the house. The sitting room was very big; it took up almost half of the