u/ankitdey80

I'll be honest; I entered this quest as a skeptic. After the first 100 pages, I assumed I knew that I've signed up for a disappointing, sloppy read of an author who is indeed in his 'eleventh hour'.

I've been — to my immense joy and pleasure — been proved wrong.

Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote boasts an influence on world literature as large and all-encompassing as Karamazov, War & Peace, or Ulysses (not considering the great Greek epics). To stand upon its shoulders and construct a world that seeks to look further, examine deeper, and ask harsher questions is challenging — to put simply.

But Rushdie has taken upon the challenge and come out victorious. There aren't many authors who are looking at the new, ever-changing world so closely and with such concern. His penchant for the 'magic real' puts us face-to-face with a world that is declining, becoming more extremist and uninhabitable.

As always, his literary genius binds together a tale as old as time with a world that is hyperfixated on social media, apathy, and extremism, and asks fundamental questions about the soul, the self. This, with the recurring theme of a father and a son (having read Midnight's and Haroun before).

Is there a simple synopsis that I can roll out (like a carpet, not flying for now) for the fellow review-reader? No. Go in blind. See if it works for you. It worked for me, but only after I was patient and surrendered to the text. Do I speak like the Don? Has he hopped out of the pages and inhabited my mind? We'll never know.

I'll be honest; I entered this quest as a skeptic. After the first 100 pages, I assumed I knew that I've signed up for a disappointing, sloppy read of an author who is indeed in his 'eleventh hour'.

I've been — to my immense joy and pleasure — been proved wrong.

Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote boasts an influence on world literature as large and all-encompassing as Karamazov, War & Peace, or Ulysses (not considering the great Greek epics). To stand upon its shoulders and construct a world that seeks to look further, examine deeper, and ask harsher questions is challenging — to put simply.

But Rushdie has taken upon the challenge and come out victorious. There aren't many authors who are looking at the new, ever-changing world so closely and with such concern. His penchant for the 'magic real' puts us face-to-face with a world that is declining, becoming more extremist and uninhabitable.

As always, his literary genius binds together a tale as old as time with a world that is hyperfixated on social media, apathy, and extremism, and asks fundamental questions about the soul, the self. This, with the recurring theme of a father and a son (having read Midnight's and Haroun before).

Is there a simple synopsis that I can roll out (like a carpet, not flying for now) for the fellow review-reader? No. Go in blind. See if it works for you. It worked for me, but only after I was patient and surrendered to the text. Do I speak like the Don? Has he hopped out of the pages and inhabited my mind? We'll never know.

স্বাধীনতা দিবসের প্রাককালে এই গুরুত্বপূর্ণ লেখাটির প্রতি আলোকপাত করা প্রয়োজনীয় মনে হলো।

১৩১২ বঙ্গাব্দে বঙ্গদর্শন পত্রিকায় প্রকাশিত এই প্রবন্ধটি কবি বঙ্গীয় সাহিত্য পরিষদ আয়োজিত একটি সভায় পাঠ করেছিলেন।

একশো বছরেরও আগে লেখা এই প্রবন্ধটি আজও, অত্যন্ত দুঃখজনকভাবে, প্রাসঙ্গিক। পুরো প্রবন্ধটি দেওয়া সম্ভব নয়, তাই শুধু এই অংশটা তুলে দিলাম। সম্ভব হলে সময় নিয়ে পুরো প্রবন্ধটি পড়বেন।

What a brilliant, brilliant book!

Really makes us wonder about the times we're living in, as citizens of the largest "democracy" (yes, in quotes).

This isn't just a compilation of comics, but an acute understanding of everything that has gone wrong, and that is still going wrong in the country.

Some raise voices, some pick up their pen — to doodle stick figures that cut through the skin.

Everybody — and I cannot emphasise this enough — everybody should read this book, to know about the place and times we're going through, to raise a voice of dissent by the simple act of reading, and to hope together for a better tomorrow.