Ekushe Pa by Bani Basu [Hardcover]

This is a story of Ujjaini, a story of Iman. This is a story of Mithu Chowdhury, a story of Rajeshwari. This is a story of Ritu, a story of Bishnupriya. This is a story of Tanmoy, a story of Venkatesh. This is a story of Gautam, a story of Anuka. This is a story of each one of them, and many more like them. It's not about a particular college but any college. It's about a group of boys and girls who come to study a three-year undergraduate course, arriving at the age of eighteen and spreading out into the wide world by the time they turn twenty-one. This novel is about the college life of some such boys and girls. Not just their college life, but also the personal and family life that runs parallel to it. The accomplished writer has woven together various snippets of these lives into a series of frames. These stories are as diverse as they are intriguing. Students from various social strata and backgrounds crowd the college campus. Each one has a different mindset, hopes, aspirations, joys, sorrows, dreams, expectations, tastes, and environments. Yet, the writer has skillfully captured the harmony of that collective life in this novel.