Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, also known as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, was a great poet, writer, and journalist. Born on June 27, 1838, in West Bengal’s Kantalpara village, he did his schooling from Midnapur. He graduated from Mohsin College at Hoogly. He is most famous for penning down Vande Mataram, which is later adapted to as India’s national song. Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was a voracious reader and was especially interested in Sanskrit literature. He got admission in [...]
Popular Indian author Vikram Chandra shot into the limelight with his novel Red Earth and Pouring Rain and a collection of short stories, Love & Longing in Bombay. Born in New Delhi in 1961, Vikram Chandra did his schooling in Ajmer, Rajasthan and his college education in Mumbai, before moving to the United States for his graduation. He went on to attend film school at the Columbia University. In the University library, he happened to [...]
Tulsidas (1532-1623) was a legendary Indian poet and philosopher Tulsidas is the author of the ‘Ramcharitmanas’, one of the greatest epics ever written. His full name was Goswami Tulsidas and he was born in 1532 A.D in Rajpur, in the Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, India, during the reign of Mughal Emperor, Akbar. Tulsidas was a Sarayuparina Brahmin by birth and is regarded as an incarnation of Valmiki, the sage who composed the Ramayana in [...]
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, the man who has woven magic with his words and some unputdownable series of writings, knew West Bengal thoroughly. A master whose lucid and unsanskritized vocabulary and simple style of writing appeared to be a welcome break for the readers, from the tradition of that time. He gave the rural Bengal a character in itself, a character of simplicity yet strength. Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15th September 1876, in Debanandapur, [...]
Born on June 19, 1947 in Mumbai, Salman Rushdie, heated up the headlines when his second novel Midnight’s Children (1981), won the coveted Booker Prize. However, Rushdie is more known for his novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), which provoked violent reactions from the Muslim community around the world. Educated in Mumbai and England, Rushdie joined an advertising firm initially. His first novel was Grimus which did not make any significant impact. However, his next novel, [...]
Romesh Chandra Dutt, a civil servant, a political and economic thinker and writer, a Bengali Literature personality, he is renowned for both his professional and literary careers. Better known as R.C. Dutt, he was born on 13th August, 1848, to Isan Chandra Das and Thakamani Das, in the renowned Dutt family of Ramnagar, Kolkata. He passed his entrance exam in the year 1864.Two years later he passed the first Arts Examination from Presidency College, Calcutta. [...]
Rohinton Mistry is an Indian-born Canadian writer. He is originally from India, but currently resides in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. He belongs to the minority Parsi community and practices Zoroastrianism. Rohinton Mistry was born on July 3, 1952 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He graduated from the University of Mumbai with a degree in BA in Mathematics and Economics. In 1975, he immigrated to Canada with his wife Freny Elavia, and settled in Toronto where he studied [...]
Mirabai (1498-1547) is a mystical poetess, singer and saint of the sixteenth century. Her compositions are popular allover India. She was a disciple of Shri Guru Ravidas and composed between 200 to 1300 devotional songs called bhajans. Her bhajans are in the bhakti tradition, and passionately praised Lord Krishna. Mirabai (1498-1547) is a mystical poetess, singer and saint of the sixteenth century. Her compositions are popular allover India. She was a disciple of Shri Guru [...]
Michael Madhusudan Dutt, the pioneer or Bengali literature, was the popular and important poet and playwright of his times. Bengali literature flourished with his innovations and experimentations of blank verses, sonnet forms and western literary elements in Bengali poetry. He wrote the first epic in Bengali literature. Born in the year 1824, in an aristocratic family, with a strong financial background, in Jessore, Bangladesh, Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s intellectual self, made him rebel as he challenged [...]
Manik Bandopadhyay, one of the most important and influential novelists in Bengali literature, had his own way of presenting the Bengal rural life. Contrary to his contemporary authors, who only wrote about the scenic beauty and the simplicity of village life, Manik Bandopadhyay, delved deep into the complicated human psyche and the truth of existence in the villages. His works also dealt with complicated human psychology, a mind without guard. Even today, the simplest of [...]
