BOOK:Waiting for rain
AUTHOR:Sirshendu Mukhopadhyaya An acclaimed novel translated from Bangla,Waiting For Rain is set in Calcutta of the Naxal period. The main protagonists of the novel, Somsundar and Manju are caught in the crossfire between the power and intrigue of the Naxalites and the repressive forceof the police. The novel sees Kolkata seen through the eyes of Somsundar, young, unemployed and despondent, a past-his-prime boxer who must wrestle with reality when his elder brother, suspected of being a Naxalite, disappears. It is also the Kolkata of Manju, who must break out of the cocoon of her wealthy family background and her engagement to the handsome and successful Adri when the tumult of the times catches up with her. Like thousands of other Kolkatans, Somsundar and Manju must make sense of their own lives before they can come to terms with the strange times they live in. Bureau Report