{"id":348416,"date":"2024-04-16T00:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T05:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=348416"},"modified":"2024-04-17T01:11:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T06:41:00","slug":"heres-how-autobiographies-ought-to-be-written","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/heres-how-autobiographies-ought-to-be-written\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how autobiographies ought to be written!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fifty Year Road\u2019 is one of those very well written autobiographies, where Bhaskar Roy, a Delhi based journalist-writer, has deftly webbed and  inter-webbed, political and also the not-so-political  realities he witnessed and observed and  experienced, right from the mid-60s, when  he was young  boy. There\u2019s that great flow and with that the narration just flows along, along the dastangoi \/story telling format. A book review by Humra Quraishi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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BOOK REVIEW<\/strong> : Title of the book \u2013 FIFTY YEAR  ROAD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author \u2013 Bhaskar Roy , Publisher –  Jaico Publishing  House<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pages \u2013 295 ,  Price-Rs 599<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Book Review by – Humra  Quraishi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Delhi based journalist-writer, Bhaskar Roy, comes across as a quiet, soft-spoken person who doesn\u2019t flaunt his knowledge of the ground realities of the recent and the not-so recent major happenings or turning points in the history of the country. But as one reads his recently launched memoir \u2013 \u2018Fifty Year Road\u2019 – one realizes how very observant he\u2019s been. One is left impressed by his in-depth detailing and the also by the informal way of putting together all the significant aspects to those major turns together with the backgrounders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s  one of those very well written autobiographies, where Roy has deftly webbed and  inter-webbed, political and also the not- so-political  realities he witnessed and observed and  experienced, right from the mid-60s, when  he was young  boy\u2026I simply loved the way  he starts his autobiography by focusing on his mother and  her personality. Bringing to the  fore the  fact that his mother played a significant role in building his personality, introducing  him to the significant personalities of Bengal, of the mid-60s\u2026There\u2019s that offbeat touch to the way Roy  has put together details to his meetings and interactions with the various prominent personalities and also the ordinary characters. There\u2019s that great flow and with that the narration just flows along, along the dastangoi \/story telling format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To quote Paul  Pickering , the London-based academic and poet, from the Foreword he has  written to this  book \u2013 \u201cThe writer and editor Bhaskar Roy\u2019s book is so refreshing because he looks at the events after Independence in his own life, his intimate family relationships, that map out a  strange and bewitching  world that is  not chained to the  past, but in which that  past  jumps through the future, on every  page. This is a country where a  journey to the  moon or a twenty-trillion-dollar economy by 2040 is talked of  one minute, and the TV shows minority women  being  paraded through the streets next and gangraped. Bhaskar Roy knows this country and its fatal contradictions as the difficult birth of a superpower does not leave the killings and  violence behind with  Partition…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space constraints come in way of detailing much more from this autobiography but one aspect cannot be overlooked: Roy sure does show the way how events and happenings ought to be documented. Also, how autobiographies ought to be written! This book ought to be introduced  to students of  Journalism and  Media Studies and perhaps also to upcoming writers.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty Year Road\u2019 is one of those very well written autobiographies, where Bhaskar Roy, a Delhi based journalist-writer, has deftly webbed and  inter-webbed, political and also the not-so-political  realities he witnessed and observed and  experienced, right from the mid-60s, when  he was young  boy. There\u2019s that great flow and with that the narration just flows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2205],"tags":[18113,18112,17128,18111,17127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348416"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348421,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348416\/revisions\/348421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/348417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}