Lifestyle

Birds remain an important part of our lives. Whether we carefully watch them or not, a flash of glittering colours sometimes accompanied by a charming musical note of an unknown bird brightens our day. This book is meant to be on the desks of such people who would cherish a collection of pretty pictures and interesting facts of the birds of Bangladesh. It is not designed to serve the serious birdwatchers, although they may find it interesting to leaf through. The short captions with the pictures will nudge the readers to discover interesting facts in the text.

Fire of Bengal plunges us into the midst of life in Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan during the late 1920s. Rozsa Hajnoczy, wife of a Hungarian professor, kept a journal of her impression during their three years stay at the ashram. After her death in 1942 this was published in Budapest and became one of the classics of modern Hungarian literature.

More than just a book of recipes, Bosha Bhat to Biryani, traces the many culinary strands that have gone into the making of what is Bangladeshi cuisine today. From the indigenous bosha bhat to the rich biryani, from the humble kechki fish cooked in banana leaf to the hilsa musallam, from the Portuguese vindaloo to the English caramel custard, the book provides a variety of everyday dishes as well as special dishes for special occasions.

The Baromashi Tapes takes the well-known folk genre of the baromashi the twelve-month song, to tell the contemporary story of Sakina and Khokon. Like the merchants or sailors of old, Khokon has left his wife behind in the village and gone to seek his fortunes abroad. Sakina misses her husband and reminisces about their short conjugal life together but also describes the everyday events that take place around her. Though much of rural Bangladesh seems unchanging, Sakina witnesses the mechanization, migration, education that impact upon village life.