Essays from my own life. Musings on history in Dhaka. Book reviews. And discussions about writing.

Essays and articles:

• Flaneuring around Calcutta,
  published in The Daily Star, January 3, 2009.

  When I noticed signs for lodging, I knew I was nearing Sealdah. I made my way to the north-south drag, confirming from a shop sign that I was now on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, APC Road for short. It used to be called Upper Circular Road. Seven years ago on my first visit to Dhaka after my father died, my brother had handed me a notebook. My father had hired a young man to record pieces of his life story. In one place he had written: “After I passed my BA, I applied for the post of Sub-Inspector at the Calcutta Police. I took six months training at the Alipore police training school. Then I started my working life at the Amherst Street Thana. After this posting I was transferred to Entally Thana. At that time I used to reside at 85 Upper Circular Road.”

  He was speaking of 1928. Did this place still exist?

• Brushes with Faith, Sin and the Weird,
  published in The Daily Star, May 17, 2008.

  I’m in my car, driving. The cell phone pressed against my ear, I’m listening to a funny story about Muslim speed dating in Houston. The next minute, my eyes take over. Just ahead, to my right, is the tallest cross I’ve ever seen, its metal body gleaming in the morning sun.

• Looking Backwards: 1947 and After,
  published in The Daily Star, September 8, 2007.

  When the white crescent on green flag was hoisted in Dhaka, as the Raj took leave, I was yet to be born. The only family story I have heard of that day is that my Dada — really my Nana, my mother’s father — lit a cigarette.

• Remains of an industrial day,
  published in The Daily Star, June 16, 2007.

  5:00 a.m. Wipe the shleep out of your eyes; shave and shower. And shove that weary body out the door.

• Waterlogged Dhaka: Will it go the way of Bengal’s old capital Gaur?,
  published in Star Weekend Magazine, June 15, 2007.

  The city of Gaur, across the border today, was the capital of Bengal from around 1450 to 1565 AD. It is reported to have been one of the largest medieval cities in the Indian subcontinent, a densely populated, prosperous settlement. Today its remains have long been strangled by vegetation.

• A mythical place called Bangla Motors,
  published in New Age Eid Special 2006.

  If you spend time around Dhaka, you may come across a place called “Bangla Motors.” Do not, however, go there looking for the business by the name of “Bangla Motors” that lent this neighborhood its name. There isn’t one. There never was.

• Will we ever know our fathers?,
  published in Star Literature Eid Special Issue, October 2008 and Alhamra Literary Review, Spring 2007.

  I can still taste my first sip of coffee.It was sometime in the late 1950s on a river on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.
  Read the full story.

About books:

• Yaba Sundori: real life clobbers fiction,
  published in The Daily Star, July 26, 2008.
• Agunpakhi by Hasan Azizul Huq,
  published in The Daily Star, June 14, 2008.
• A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam.
  published in Biblio: A Review of Books, September-October 2007. (The article is free to download, but you’ll have to register at the Biblio website.
• My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru
  published in The Daily Star, September 29, 2007.
• Noor by Sorayya Khan: a novel of recovered memory
  published in SAWNET.
• London through a Bengali immigrant woman’s eyes: a review of Brick Lane by Monica Ali
  published in SAWNET.
• Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake: a comment
  published in SAWNET.
• Masud Rana: super spy of transplant fiction
  published in The Daily Star, March 10, 2007.
• Narrative strategy in postcolonial ‘return home’ novels
  paper written for an independent study class. Read the pdf.
• A migrant writer returns home: Ernest Gaines in Catherine Carmier and A Lesson Before Dying
  paper written for a course on the structure of the novel. Read the pdf.