Day 30

Your favourite book of all time:

In the light of all that I've said earlier, I can't possibly answer this question without contradicting myself horribly. And thus, with a question I refuse to answer, I come to the end of this VERY demanding tag. I mean, do you people know how hard it is to write on books EVERYDAY when you have several deadlines to meet and bills to pay and dinners to cook and parties to attend and phones to make? Anyways, it's a been a good ride. I've re-read, remembered, and written more this past month than I've done in years. And that's all, folks.

Day 29

A book everybody hated, but you liked:

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. However, everyone hated can be translated to a couple of my friends hated. But they did have pretty strong opinions about the book. And me...well...I didn't agree. I'm generally rather fond of the period this book talks about, and I've always found Amitav Ghosh rather readable. Granted, it wasn't my favourite book by Ghosh (that would be Shadow Lines), but I wasn't overtly disappointed with it either. But then, this might just be the Amitav Ghosh fangirl in me speaking. Ah well.

Day 28

Favourite title:

And here I thought that I was done with naamkoroner sarthokota... after Madhyamik. Apparently not. Well, just so that this gets over quickly, here's my answer.Gorom Bhaat O Nichhok Bhooter Golpo by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Even though technically it's not a book, but a short story, the name is kick-ass, the story gives me goosebumps, and it led me to other brilliant stuff by the same author. Gorom bhaat. Don't these words conjure up a most beautiful image?

Day 27

A book with the most surprising plot twist or ending:

This question made me realize, with a shock, that Agatha Christie has not been mentioned even once in this long and rambling book tag. (THE BOOK TAG WHICH REFUSES TO END, BY THE WAY!) This is really strange, partly because I love her and have read almost everything she has ever written and partly because, much to the chagrin of a lot of people, I think Hercule Poirot beats Sherlock Holmes any day. Christie is superb in the way her long and rambling narrative of the typically idle, upper-class English life lulls one into a false sense of security, before BAM! the second cousin is dead, the valuable necklace is missing, and you have a dangerous lunatic on the run. To make up for not writing about her before, I will mention TWO of my favourite Christie books as an answer to today's question. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Curtain: Poirot's Last Case. The latter is actually my most favourite Christie book of all time. (I cried at the end of the book. Yes, embarrassing, I know.) The plot twists in both the books made me gasp out loud. And it takes a lot to do that.

Day 26

A Book That Changed Your Opinion About Something:

Buro Angla by Abanindranath Tagore. Because before that, my tiny brain thought it ludicrous that good painters could be good writers as well. In my defence, I wasn't more than nine at that time.

Day 25

A character who you identify with the most:

Agness Nitt, or Perdita X Dream from the Discworld books. I'm not half as sensible, nor can I sing in harmony with myself. However, there are at least three people living inside my head at any given point of time, I used to love (still do) the stage, and chocolate always makes everything better.



Look at how annoyed she looks that the vampire is trying to get her throat! Vampires manage to annoy me too! Yes dear Twilight series, I'm talking about you.

Day 24

A book you wish more people had read:

When Daddy was a Little Boy, or Baba Jokhon Chhoto by Alexander Raskin. Because it had beautiful illustrations, because it had a brilliant storyline, and because it inspired in me the life long habit of sneakily reading books in bed at night.

I will get to visit Moscow one day.

Day 23

A book that you have wanted to read for a long time, but still haven't:

Being really under read makes answering this question rather difficult. But because I haven't got that much time, I'll just mention The Outsider by Albert Camus and get away with it for now.In my defence, I started reading it and then the universe conspired against me and the book got misplaced when we were shifting houses. What makes not reading this doubly distressing, is the fact that I apparently hold a Master's degree in literature. * cringes in shame *

Day 22

Favourite book that you own:


My issue of Femina with Kunal Kapoor and Neil Nitin Mukesh on the cover. Because I think these men are hot. And because the pages of Femina are so glossy and colourful and the magazine is always filled with pictures of very expoensive but useless trinkets (e.g., a bottle of dark green eye shadow worth INR 2000). Glossy pages and useless things make me happy!


p.s. Here you go. A stupid answer to a phenomenally stupid question.

Day 21

Your favourite book as a child:

My childhood was more or less spent with, around, and lost in books. My mother was able to make me perform many an unwelcome task(noticeably, pages of hateful sums) with the promise of a good book at the end of it all. I devoured anything and everything that I came across. As a result, I had done stupid things like reading almost all of Sharatchandra by the time I was eight.Predictably, it wasn't a very good experience.
Probably because of the global communist brotherhood, my steady supply of books as a child included a lot of Russian literature, and I loved all of it. However, my favourite, till date, remains this obscure book called Chuk ar Gek by Arkady Gaidar. I read it in a Bengali translation and my copy had a cloth cover and was filled with delightful black and white water colour illustrations. The book tells the story of two young boys called Chuk and Gek, who, along with their mother, go to visit their father in the remote Taiga. It is a beautiful beautiful book.

Onek onek durer ekta shohor. Bodh hoy sei shohorer naam Moscow. Duniyay tar theke bhalo shohor ar kotthao nei...

Day 20

Your favourite romance book:

Sharadindur pray protyekta oitihasik uponyas. Kaaler Mondira. Gour-Mollar. Tungobhodrar Teere. Karon romance bolte shudhu toh hero-heroine er bhalobasha noy, romance maane ei deshtar ashchorjo itihaas, romance maane Kanasona, romance maane Atish Dipankar, romance maane boi er pata theke uthe asha jeebonto sob choritro. Romance maane bola, 'amar sokol diya tomake apon koria loilam...'

Romance maane gaaye knaata dewa. Protibaar.

Day 19

Your favourite book that was made into a movie:

Karon unkel kothata shunle ekhono amar ga chhom chhom kore, keu rattirbela bnadur bole ore o bhai sojaru... bole uthlei ami ekbar edik odik takiye niyi, durga thakur dekhlei mone hoy asurer gaa diye kirom gyal gyal kore rokto berochche, captain spark er boi ami ekhono porte chai, africar rajar kotha bhablei mone hoy mukher bhitor nishchoi chewing gum diye bohumulyo murti atkano. Karon je kono din, je kono somoye ei cinema ebong boi ta obyartho anti-depressant er kaaj kore.

p.s. Er lekhok/porichalok ke ekhono ami biye korte chai.

Day 18

A book that disappointed you:

Because I love the Mahabharata. Because Karna is my favourite character. Because the blurb excited me greatly. Because I bunked a few classes to stay home and finish this book. Because a few pages down the line, it morphed into a Mills n Boons story. Because my favourite epic with its breathtaking complexities was reduced to the following song - Hum judaa, ho gaye, raaste kho gaye, magar hum milenge, yeh yaad rakhna, meri raah takna... One knows that a book is a disaster when it can be summed up by a song sung by Amisha Patel in a tight red lehenga.

Day 17

Favourite quote:

"Its a poor sort of memory that only works backwards', the Queen remarked.
'What sort of things do you remember best?' Alice ventured to ask.
...'Oh, things that happened a week after next', the Queen replied in a careless tone.'For instance, now,' she went on...'there's the King's messenger. He's in prison now, being punished; and the trial doesn't even begin till next Wednesday: and of course, the crime comes last of all.'
'Suppose he never commits the crime?' asked Alice
'That would be all the better, wouldn't it?'the Queen said...
Alice felt there was no denying THAT.'Of course it would be all the better', she said:'but it wouldn't be all the better his being punished.'
'You're wrong THERE, at any rate', said the Queen:'were YOU ever punished?'
'Only for faults', said Alice.
'And you were all the better for it, I know!' the Queen said triumphantly.
'Yes, but then I HAD done things I was punished for', said Alice,' and that makes all the difference.'
'But if you HADN'T done them', the Queen said, 'that would have been better still;better and better and better!'

Self explanatory.

Day 16

Your favourite female character:

Delirium. From Sandman. Because she doesn't do perfection. Because she is kick-ass in her own way. Because even her eyes are mismatched. Because, according to me, she is the most powerful Endless after Dream. And because she thinks that twinkle is a nice word and so is viridian and she once met a lady who had a fish.

Day 15

Your favourite male character:

Him. Because ...grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

Day 14

Your favourite book by your favourite author:

My previous post makes this question null and void. Therefore, I get away with not writing anything today! Heehaw.

However, just for the greater good of humanity, I should possibly mention that I recently bought this book and everyone should basically do the same immediately. True decadence fascinates me like nothing else in this world. (I'm not kidding, people! One of these Maharajas had more than 600 dildos! And some of them were made of clay! And he married a penniless English porter's daughter within three weeks of meeting her! And...well I should probably stop now and you should probably go get your hands on this book.)

Day 13

Really? You sure I'm not eleven and this is not an Archies slam book I'm filling up? Who on earth thought that this would be an interesting question for a book tag? Exactly HOW am I supposed to pick my favourite writer? Do I pick Sharadindu, for his sheer lyrical confidence over the language, and leave out Shakti Chattopadhyay whose lines hit home like nothing else can? Do I pick Satyajit, if only because he gave me Bonkubabur Bondhu, and leave out Leela Majumder with her Bormibaksho, and Abanindranath Tagore with his Buro Angla and 'Kon thakur? Obin thakur. Chhobi lekhe...', and Poroshuram with his Goddolika Probaho and let me not even GET into Rabindranath. I ,also, cannot possibly leave out Terry Pratchett. If only because he gave me Lord Vetinari to crush upon. Nor can I ignore Neil Gaiman, with his dark, dark imagination and uncanny ability to balance delicately between the almost real and the almost unreal. Should I leave out Roald Dahl then and forego the countless hours of goosebumps as well as pleasure that his curiously intense works have given me? Do I exclude Somerset Maugham and the long school days reading 'Moon and Sixpence', sitting on the last bench? Should I leave out Pablo Neruda, even though some of his lines make me choke everytime I read it? Even J K Rowling jostles for attention. Her creation enthralled me for seven long years, and continues to do so.

This post can go on and on and I've not even mentioned one tenth of the writers I wanted to talk about.

Modda kotha holo je I refuse to answer this question.