LIFE AS IT IS

  Not once in my life before the year 2020 had I thought of recording audiobooks, and that too in Bengali. Having been educated in the English-medium school system of Bangladesh, my exposure to Bengali literature was quite limited, limited to works of Humayun Ahmed and Satyajit Ray, Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Kakababu series, and Rakib Hasan’s Tin Goyenda books, I confess. And although I tried to blog in Bengali in the past, I could not carry on, because my vocabulary did not flow smoothly. I was a person who lacked confidence in her spoken and written Bengali; I was also under the impression that I could never undertake a Bengali-language project and become successful. But life had its own plans for me.  We do not know what life has in store for us. Like I never thought I would one day run a YouTube channel that targets a niche audience, I also never thought before 2020 that I would bear witness to a pandemic and live under a stay-at-home situation for more than a year. The COVID-19 pandemi

  If someone asks me what I have achieved in this long stay-at-home situation, I will say that I have relished the rich and exciting works of Bengali wordsmiths! During this time at home, I have explored and read works of Bengali writers, many of whose works I had not read earlier. Thanks to the internet, which brings Bengali books in the palm of my hand 8,000 miles away from my homeland.  The Daily Star link As someone who is a product of the English-medium education system of Bangladesh, my exposure to Bengali literature was rather limited, I admit. As a teen, I devoured works of Humayun Ahmed, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal and Satyajit Ray. I enjoyed Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Kakababu series, Rakib Hasan’s Tin Goyenda, and Sukumar Ray’s unique gibberish. However, my exploration of Bengali literature stopped short for reasons I cannot recall now. I did read Bengali novels, however, every now and then, but it was English paperbacks which kept me engrossed for two decades.  I am the kind of reader w