A Life Long Ago
| Author | : Sunanda Sikdar |
| Publisher | : Zubaan |
| Total Pages | : 155 |
| Release | : 2014-03-04 |
| ISBN-10 | : 9789383074198 |
| ISBN-13 | : 9383074191 |
| Rating | : 4/5 (98 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: A stirring memoir that opens the floodgates of one woman’s memories of a land, and a life, previously forgotten. In the 1950s, ten-year-old Dayamoyee watches with bewilderment and curiosity as her whole world changes before her eyes. The people she knows and loves start to pack their belongings and move away. India has been partitioned, and her village of Dighpait has now become part of a new country, (East) Pakistan. Forced to leave her beloved home, her friends, and especially the family retainer, Majam, whom she loves like a father, Dayamoyee resolves, on her journey from Pakistan to Hindustan, never to mention the home she left behind. And so, from childhood all the way through middle age, Dayamoyee never speaks of Dighpait. And then, in the early 1990s, she hears of Majam’s death and all of her memories come rushing back, begging to once and for all be told. Sunanda Sikdar’s beautiful and moving memoir was awarded the Lila Puraskar by Calcutta University in 2008, and the Ananda Puraskar in 2010. Published by Zubaan.
