|Politicians & Literature|
Somnath Chatterjee | 83 | West Bengal
Former Lok Sabha Speaker
Somnath Chatterjee Photo: Ishan Tankha
MOST OF MY early reading was in Bengali. My favourites then were Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Then I took to a few English writers, particularly Charles Dickens. Once I entered public life, there wasn’t much time to read. Now, of course, I read much more. It was a somewhat emotional experience reading one of my favourite writers, Sunil Ganguly, who passed away last puja.
I recently read Kuldip Nayar’s autobiography Beyond the Lines, and found it quite interesting. I have also been reading Jeffrey Archer. Not too long ago, I discovered Ramachandra Guha. His India After Gandhi was a very useful read for its brevity of analysis. I’m now looking forward to reading Guha’s new book Patriots and Partisans.
My most rewarding read last year was My Days With Ramkinkar Baij by Somendranath Bandyopadhyay. It’s a fascinating biography of the great sculptor. The book offers insights into so many brilliant minds at Tagore’s Shantiniketan. It is also about Bolpur (where I live now) in a different era.
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