Chirasakha by Nabakumar Basu [Hardcover]

The present and the recent past, a bygone era, and the districts of North 24 Parganas and Kolkata city, respectively, form the time and backdrop of this long narrative. With unknown talent and extraordinary courage, a dream-seeking young man, Bibhask, embarked on a journey through the uncharted and difficult path of art from nothing, during the pre-partition period. Facing inevitable poverty, social barriers, and the tug of politics, he becomes directionless and, to preserve his own existence, has to find a refuge for his heart, a support. Who provides him that refuge? Aparna? Itu? His children? Or someone else? The answer to this scattered question is simple: the one who loves is the one who provides shelter. The one who loves becomes impoverished, is wounded, yet never deviates from their own beliefs and perceptions. Like a solitary distant star, a faint light shines in Bibhask’s life. The novel Chirashaakha is about reaching out to that person who offers love from nothing. It is also a grounded, light-and-shade exploration of life’s practices. The novel features a range of characters - well-known and unknown, familiar and unfamiliar, inside and outside the home, from both the past and present. Through the ongoing events and narrative, it attempts to explore the success and failure, gain and loss, guilt, and the anguished cries of those entangled in this journey. Set against a classical context of life and art, Chirashaakha is a much-discussed novel of the time.