Curses in Ivory
Anjana Basu
HarperCollins
Pages: 422
Price: Rs 295
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That they occupy parochial space in contemporary society can be taken as a given, but few doubt that the Bengali also has the felicity of spinning a fine yarn, usually from a copybook blotted by various cousins and stray ancestors who were Englishified by the British sahibs.
On the one hand, this extended to them the unusual ability of combining acute orthodoxy with pan-handed progressiveness, on the other, a kedgree that resulted in a multitude of stories, most of which have resulted in the preferred Bengali nuance of spending an idyllic evening: a glass of rum in hand, laced with nostalgia, and superimposed with the hilarity of hindsight.
Anjana Basu is one of few who has moved from the telling of shared memories to its writing, and the result is as delightful as an offering of sandesh. The milieu is Kolkata as seen from a probashi