Kalyani

by Taslima Nasrin

The soil of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, becomes a graveyard for Kalyani's dreams. The solitary Jamun tree in the garden recognises her. Clinging to the tree, Kalyani weeps inconsolably. Kalyani is a symbol of humanity that loses its way due to the artificial divisions caused by politics and religion. This story is not about the Indian sub-continent alone. It is a story of conflict-ridden Middle East Asia, tribally-divided Africa and racially-riven Europe. Kalyani as presented by Taslima Nasreen is a symbol of global life today.

94 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2014

About the author

Taslima Nasrin (Bengali: তসলিমা নাসরিন) is an award-winning Bangladeshi writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. Early in her literary career, she wrote mainly poetry, and published half a dozen collections of poetry between 1982 and 1993, often with female oppression as a theme. She started publishing prose in the early 1990s, and produced three collections of essays and four novels before the publication of her 1993 novel Lajja (Bengali: লজ্জা Lôjja), or Shame. Because of her thoughts and ideas she has been banned, blacklisted and banished from Bengal, both from Bangladesh and West Bengal part of India. Since fleeing Bangladesh in 1994, she has lived in many countries, and lives in United States as of July 2016. Nasrin has written 40 books in Bengali, which includes poetry, essays, novels and autobiography series. Her works have been translated in thirty different languages. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh.'