JUNGLE NAMA
A Story of the Sundarban by Amitav Ghosh, illustrated by Salman Toor
FOURTH ESTATE ₹699; 88 pages
Amitav Ghosh has been visiting the Sundarban forest ever since he was a child. “It’s one of the places where you can see that the earth is alive, that the earth is really Gaia, a living entity. You see erosion. You see deposits being laid in front of your very eyes,” he says. This vividness that Ghosh describes is true of both the landscape and his writing of it. After two novels—The Hungry Tide (2004) and Gun Island (2019)—the author again returns to the mangrove forest for his new book, Jungle Nama. Written entirely in verse, it proves Ghosh’s talent, but it also signals to the forest’s abundance. If you’re looking for stories, the Sundarban has a prodigious capacity. It is the kind of gift that keeps on giving.
Reading Ghosh’s 24-syllable couplets, one is forced to ask if he has secretly dabbled in poetry all along. “I last wrote poetry as a boy,” he laughs. “But poetry, in the modern sense, helps you express your innermost feelings in verse. This is more a form of narrative. The meter carries the narrative on its own. You can say that Jungle Nama is about many things, but it’s also about the magic of meter.”
This story is from the February 15, 2021 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 15, 2021 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
AAMCHI ENGLISH
You'd think its history of language politics would have nixed such a possibility.
SULTANS OF AASMAN
It's harvest season for India's charter flight operators, as eager candidates hop on to rented choppers and small aircraft with sky-high ambitions.
Music to OUR EARS
After signing a record deal with Warner Music Group, Nora Fatehi sets her sights on being a global pop star
Rebel with a CAUSE
A retrospective of revolutionary artist Gobardhan Ash showcases four decades of his practice at the Kolkata Centre for Creativity
HYBRID FORMS
Mythic Femininities at DAG Delhi brings together a well-chosen crosssection of the late GOGI SAROJ PAL'S large body of work
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
JAI MEHTA makes his directorial debut with Disney+ Hotstar's web series Lootere
MAN OF MANY PARTS
Pratik Gandhi's transition from theatre and Gujarati cinema to mainstream Bollywood is an inspirational tale
THE DUNKI REPUBLIC
Rivers flowing down from the Himalayan massifs are known to have fickle habits-they curl about, meander and, if they stray far enough, get captured by bigger river systems.
A SENSE OF DEPRIVATION
As the Uddhav Sena gets a lion's share in the MVA seat-sharing deal, discontent brews within Congress ranks over the leadership conceding three key seats
Kshatriyas Declare War on Rupala
The minister's appeasement of Dalits has upset the warrior class, who want his candidature withdrawn or they will stir trouble for the BJP in all 26 seats