Kolkata Memoirs: Two Short Stories on Kindle

Readers, some of you know that I have a deep interest in literature. I have, from time to time, written fiction and poetry but have not shared that much with you. Well, recently, I read about a young writer who has been using Kindle and e-books to share her work with her readers, and decided that I would like to experiment with the option of reaching a slightly different audience beyond my regular business/ technology/entrepreneurship enthusiast readers and get some feedback on my literary fiction.

So, for those of you who have an interest in literature, literary fiction, and in particular, old Calcutta or traditional India, I’d like to offer two short stories, Kajori and Urmila, both now available for download on Kindle.

Kajori is the story of a young woman in the mid-1950s hailing from an old, traditional Bengali family, as she pursues her dreams of becoming a physicist. A love story that faces challenges due to diverging aspirations.

And Urmila is the story of a little girl navigating through the dynamics of a sprawling extended family in 1960s Calcutta, as her parents’ marriage falls apart.

These stories emerge from my growing feeling of regret and loss at the disintegration of family, architecture and culture that Calcutta, India, and the developing world at large are facing – a subject I once addressed in an essay on this blog titled As India Builds. They spring from my own experience of growing up in an old, traditional extended family, one that is, unfortunately, suffering the same fate. It pains me to no end.