Abhijit Sen was born in 1945 at a village named Keora in the Barishal district of what is now Bangladesh. He moved to Kolkata in the beginning of the 1950s. He finished his studies.... (more)

Alokeranjan Dasgupta was born on October 6, 1933 at Calcutta (now called Kolkata). He studied at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, and then at St. Xavier's College, the Presidency College, and finally at .... (more)

Anjan Bandopadhyay (b. 1951) has been contributing short stories and novels to Bengali little magazines since 1970. He has also written for magazines such as Desh, Anandabazar Patrika, and Ajkaal. His first collection of short stories, Hananmeru (হননমেরু), was published by Karuna Prokashoni. His novels include Dahanbela (দহনবেলা) (Ananda Publishers) and Mayaparabash (মায়াপরবেশ) (Karuna Prokashoni).

Born to a conservative Bengali family of North Kolkata on 8 January 1909, Ashapurna Debi was one of the first female writers who stood out against all odds and claimed her justified place among the Indian authors..... (more)

Begum Rokeya (1880 - 1932) : One of the earliest champions of women’s liberation, born in Payrananda village in Rangpur district now in Bangladesh. She was lucky to be born into a family atmosphere which was favourable to education and culture. At about the age of sixteen she got married to Said Sakhawat Hossain of Bhagalpur but became a widow when she was twenty-nine. She started a school, the first Sakhawat Memorial School in Bhagalpur, with only five students. The school was later shifted to Calcutta and is now one of the foremost girls’ schools. Among her publications are Motichur, Padmarag, Abarodh-Basini, Sultana’s Dream.

Bonophul (literally meaning The wild flower) was the pen-name of Bolai Chand Mukhopadhyay (1899-1979), a major literary figure in twentieth century Bengali literature. He was born in Purnia in Bihar, got his medical degree from ... (more)

Buddhadeva Bose (1908 - 1974) is a major Bengali writer of the twentieth century, the most multi-talented amongst those belonging to what is for convenience termed the 'post-Tagore' period. (more). Please also see the Buddhadeva Bose Section of Parabaas for many interesting articles.

Gautam Sengupta (b.1960) studied at the Ballygunge Government School and at the St. Xaviers' College, Kolkata. From 1982 till 1995 he worked in the Sales Deptartment of the Hindustan Lever Co. Writing career started with poetry. Started writing short stories in 1994. First short story Lokta appeared in Pratikshan in 1996. Has written about ten short stories in last 5 years. Won the Katha Award in 1999. His only published book of stories is Sahaj Path.

Girindrasekhar Bose (1887 - 1953), the youngest son of Chandrasekhar and Lakshimoni, began his schooling at Darbhanga, where his father ... (more)

Jharna Rahman is a teacher of Bangla at the Rifles Public College. Her literary career began in the 1980s. She has published four collections of short stories. Her novel Chheleta (The Boy) won first prize in the 1980 Ekushey February Literary Contest.

Jibanananda Das was born in 1899 in the district-town Barishal, in what is now Bangladesh. His father Satyananda Das was an eminent member of the Brahma Samaj, and his mother Kusumkumari Devi was a well-known poet. He matriculated in 1915 from ... (more)

Joy Goswami (b.1954)In one of his recent interviews Joy Goswami describes himself as a searching soul. He strongly feels that he could not quite find his language or style to date and hence continues approaching the same horizon from different paths. However, his search opens up new windows of surprises and,... (more)

Kabita Singha (aka Sinha) (b.1931) was born in Calcutta. She enrolled at the Presidency College to study Botany, However her studies were interrupted when she got married (to Bimal Roychowdhury, a writer), but finally she completed her degree from the Jogmaya College. She also held a degree in Library Science. She often wrote under the pseudonym, 'Sultana Choudhury'. She was the producer of 'Spoken Word', All India Radio, Kolkata and was awarded Calcutta University's Lila Prize. Her publications are many, e.g., Sahaj Sundari, Saptadash Aswarohi, Sona Rupar Kathi, Pap Punya Periye, Char Jon Ragi Juboti, Kabita Parameshwari. Though she is more familiar as a poet, her novels and short stories also deserve equal attention.

Kaliprasanna Sinha was born in a rich zemindar family in Jorasanko, Kolkata, in 1840. In a short lifespan of only thirty years, he left lasting contributions in both Bengali literature and also on the society of that time. He attended the ... (more)

Khaled Hossain (b.1964) is considered a leading poet by his contemporaries. He loves to travel – but would rather stay at home, storming it up with friends over a hot cup of tea. This apparent ambiguity in his nature also emerges in his poetry: the deep, almost lyrical, romanticism of his words are counterpoised ...(more)

Ketaki Kushari Dyson was born in Calcutta in 1940 and educated at Calcutta and Oxford. She has been based in England since her marriage to an Englishman in 1964. She writes in both Bengali and English, and in a diversity of genres, including... (more)

Mohammad Rafiq (b.1943) was born in Bagerhat in East Bengal in 1943. He grew up in the turbulent days of the anti-autocratic movement of the ’50s and ’60s. The essence of his attachment to the student movement ... (more)

Noted litterateur and renowned professor/academician, Narayan Gangopadhyay (real name: Taraknath) was born in Baliadanga in Dinajpur, East Bengal, on February 7, 1919. His ancestral home was in Basudebpur, Barishal. ... (more)

Narendranath Mitra was born on January 30, 1916 at Sadardi, in the district of Faridpur in what is now Bangladesh. His own mother Birajbala died when Narendranath was only four, and he was brought up by his step-mother. His father Mahendranath was a ... (more)

Parashuram, or Rajsekhar Basu (1880 - 1960), was one of the most venerated figures of 20th century Bengal. A leading light of Bengali literature, Rajsekhar was a remarkable personality. He was a chemist by profession, but ... (more)

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 - 1941), Nobel prize winning poet, writer, painter, thinker, maverick educational reformer and perhaps the greatest song writer of all times - remains a revered figure in both Bangladesh and India. Please see the Rabindranath Section of Parabaas for many interesting articles.

Ramprasad Sen (1720 - 1781) Kabira~njan belonged to Kumarhatta, a place about 25 miles from Calcutta up the Hooghly. His Vidyasundar was written sometime in the ... (more)

Samaresh Basu was born on December 11, 1924 (1331 in the Bengali calendar) and spent his early childhood in Dhaka, Bikrampur in what is today Bangladesh. He would in later days recall the deep impressions that the Brata-kathas (fantastic folk-tales recited by women while performing certain religious rites) narrated by his mother left on him as a child. His adolescent years were spent in .... (more)

Sankha Ghosh (b.1932) was born at Chandpur of what is now Bangladesh. He got his BA in Bengali from the Presidency College, Calcutta, in ... (more)

Satyajit Ray (1921-1992), film director extraordinary, writer, Bengali cultural icon and scion of a clan noted for the contributions of several of its members to literature and art, was probably the most widely known creative artiste of India in the second half of the 20th century. Please see the Satyajit Ray Section of Parabaas for many interesting articles.

Selina Hossain (b.1947) was born on June 14, 1947 at Rajshahi, in what is now Bangladesh. One of the foremost writers of Bengali fiction today, she is also ... (more)

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay (b.1935) was born on 2nd November 1935 in the Mymensingh district of what is now Bangladesh. His father used to work in the railways, and Shirshendu ... (more)

Sudhindranath Dutta (1901 - 1960) was born at Calcutta on 30th October, 1901. He was one of the important important post-Tagore modern poet and essayist. ... (more)

Sukumar Ray (1887 - 1923) was born on October 30, 1887 in the illustrious Raychaudhuri family of Calcutta. His father Upendrakisor was an author of children's literature, a musician, artist, and a pioneer of ... (more)

Sunil Gangopadhyay (b.1934)was born on september 7, 1934 at Faridpur in what is now Bangladesh. He got his Master's degree in Economics from the Calcutta University in 1954. Sunil is currently ... (more)

Sunil Kumar Nandi(b.1930) was born in Jessore (now in Bangladesh) in 1930, and has lived and worked in Kolkata since 1945. His first poem was published in 1949, in the Bangasree. It was not long before he was included in the Sahitya Akademi’s collection of “Indian Poetry:1954-55”. His poetry has been translated into many languages, within the country and abroad. For many years he has edited the publication Anukta.

Swapnamoy Chakravarty is Producer, Science Section, All India Radio, Calcutta. He has a number of volumes of short stories and novels to his credit, e.g. Video-Vagaban Nakuldana, (Anustup,1993); Satarkatamulak Rupkatha, (Anustup, 1999), Ashta Charan Sholo Hantu, (Anustup, 2000), Chatushpathi (Dey's), Jersey Gorur Ulto Bachcha (Anandadhara), Bhumisutra (Proma), Swapnamoy Chakravarty's Chhoto-golpo (Pratikshan), Nabam Parva, Bastukatha.

Tilottama Majumdar was born in North Bengal on 11th January 1966. Her childhood was spent in the tea plantations of Kalachini, where she completed her early educations. In 1985 she came to Kolkata and did her undergraduate work in Scottish Church College. She started writing since ... (more)

Udayan Ghosh was born on 27th February, 1935 in Bikrampur, Dhaka, now in Bangladesh. He taught at a College at Asansol, West Bengal. His published work includes short stories, Kanaklata (কনকলতা), Bonduker Nol theke Ekoda (বন্দুকের নল থেকে একদা). Many of his stories are still not collected in books. SinRi ebong Asansol-er Lokkhi (সিঁড়ি এবং আসানসোলের লক্ষ্মী) is a major novel of his.

Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri (1863 - 1915) was born on 10th May, 1863 in a little village called Moshua in the Mymensingh district in Eastern Bengal, which is now a part of Bangladesh. The lush green fields and forests ... (more)

Click here to send your feedback

©Parabaas 2014