Indrasish Banerjee

https://open.substack.com/pub/inban/p/career-notes-how-a-chance-encounter?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

I have been interested in East Asian literature for some time. It started with Geisha by Arthur Golden and then through Haruki Murakami’s short stories and Kazuo Ishigero’ novels, it arrived at Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. The heft of Pachinko was of course a deterrent, but once I embarked on the journey, before I could realize, the tome on the right side steadily kept thinning, bulking up the left…

Whatever Richard Dawkins does – speeches, writings, interviews – it carries a dual purpose – informing about science and attacking unreason. He is committed to the cause of science as a scientist and as a crusader of scientific truth, he is constantly at war with voices of those against science. The Magic of Reality does both but with an approach that makes the book fit for all age groups. Sorry,…

How do you define a community – by its history, culture, idiosyncrasies’, geography, cuisine or language, most common characteristics, famous people from the community, what they stand for? Sudeep Chakraborty, in his Bengalis, has dwelled on all these aspects to define Bengalis as a people. But there are two problems. It’s not easy and the canvas can become so big as to be unmanageable. There is…

It’s been so many years now. So much so that my memory of that period has become rather fuzzy. We had barely spent a few years in our society. There was a sudden spike in crimes. Chat groups were abuzz with forwarded messages on thefts and break-ins happening in various apartments, particularly the villas. (People then still felt the need to speak to each other, share concerns.) We were worried.…

Do you know what’s great literature? I have been reading for several decades and every time I think about this topic, I cannot arrive at anything concrete. But yes, of course, many authors have given me the feeling, when I read their work, that I was in touch with greatness.But whenever I have tried to give words to that feeling, several attributes have come to me – texture, beauty of sentences,…

When it comes to Indian breads, most will tell you about the big three: roti, puri and parantha (R.P.P). If our concept of bread is something to dip in your curry or to wrap your sabji with, unlike the role of bread in Western cuisine where it forms the base or is an independent go-along, then there are multiple regional variants we overlook. And not only do we overlook but we also frown upon…

The memory of every place you visit invokes a unique feeling. Tours meant for pure pleasure leave you with a “it was so good when it lasted” afterthought.Adventure tours, which may also be for pleasure but which are primarily for elevated purposes like exploration, curiosity – evoke a mix of fear and thrill. It’s been two months we went to Sundorbon – a mangrove forest in Bengal famous for Royal…

It’s been six months I have not ventured out of my house. And in the six months before that I had stepped out only once. Slowly my connection with the outside world has come to an end. Not that I have anything against it, but there is really no necessity to be in touch with it.I stay all alone. Oh sorry, not really alone. Helena, my robot, stays with me. Helen takes care of all my needs. She is…

It started something like this. The sofa was lying in a corner of the drawing room, savaged by the effects of time. The springs of its cushion had sunk and lost their traction and whenever one sat on the sofa, the cushion sank touching the floor. Getting up took a special effort. We had stopped sitting on it. Only guests visiting us the first time and therefore oblivious to the idiosyncrasies of…

When it comes to Indian history, the furthest we go is the Mughal period. Anything further back is generally hazy and lacks a singular narrative. We know about some great kings and empires from ancient India, but are not sure about their timelines or what did they do which can be defined as greatness today. History students and historians are exceptions; they are also in minority.  For the…

Tea has a strong element of parochiality in India. In eastern states of India, mostly in West Bengal and Assam but also in other parts of east, tea is more about flavour of leaves. A person used to drinking Darjeeling tea, for example, will be put off by use of milk in tea. (Darjeeling tea is made without milk to retain the taste of its long, elegant leaves.) Those who like to sip the somewhat…

When a place develops from a rural setting to an urbanized landscape, its quite corners – a shop, building or rickety bridge – remnants from a fast-vanishing past, slowly become invisible. And they cause a pleasant surprise when you suddenly discover them. I had to visit the property tax office of Sarjapur to sort out some long pending tax issues. I had been told where the office was –…

The German election result is another confirmation that unconventional politics has found traction with people.This throws up some obvious questions. Many observers wonder why apolitical or moderate people are getting drawn towards leaders representing extreme views. Do they not see through their demagoguery? Don’t the decent ideas about coexistence, accommodation, understanding, reasonableness…

Anita Desai’s Rosarita is about suddenly discovering something about your past and the discovery opening up a world about your own past which you never knew existed. A girl is in Mexico to learn art. She is sitting in a park when she is approached by a woman who says her mother was also an art student in Mexico many years ago. The girl is taken by surprise. She never knew her mother was  in…

Recently we celebrated our five years at the apartment I had purchased in 2019 at Ittangur, Sarjapura, Bangalore. I wouldn’t say the area has unrecognizably changed, but certainly noticeable changes have come in the intervening years. The place has become much busier. Public transport connectivity has improved but not substantially. New shops have mushroomed almost everywhere. Until a few years…

Economic considerations shape what we do, how we fashion our lives, the choices we make. This is the premise of long-short stories in Neel Mukherjee’s Choice. All his works are assaults on neo liberalism and Choice is no exception. The accusations are not political, rather a look at how economy and economic choices form the gridwork of our lives.   The sweep of the narrative is breathtakingly…