Banu Mushtaq

Mrinal Chatterjee

Window Seat

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, has won International Booker prize 2025 for translated fiction, becoming the first short story collection to take the award. The stories were originally written in Kannada.

Described by the chair of judges Max Porter as “something genuinely new for English readers: a radical translation” of “beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories”, Heart Lamp’s 12 tales chronicle the lives of women in patriarchal communities in southern India. They were selected as well as translated by Bhasthi, the first Indian translator to win the award. She chose them from around 50 stories in six collections written by Mushtaq over a 30-year-period. Many of its stories were inspired by individuals who sought her help as an activist and lawyer.

Born into a Muslim family in Hassan, Karnataka, Banu Mushtaq (born 1948) was enrolled in a Kannada-language missionary school in Shivamogga, on the condition that she learned "to read and write Kannada in six months". She was 8 then. She exceeded expectations by beginning to write after a few days of schooling.

In contrast to community expectations, she attended university and married for love at age 26.

She worked as a reporter for the newspaper Lankesh Patrike. She also worked for All India Radio in Bengaluru for some months.

Banu was interested in writing from a young age, but didn't become a writer until age 29, as a new mother suffering from postpartum depression. She turned to writing to explore her feelings and experiences. Much of her writing looks at women's issues.

She began writing within the progressive protest literary circles in south-western India in the 1970s and 1980s: critical of the caste and class system, the Bandaya Sahitya movement gave rise to influential Dalit and Muslim writers, of whom Mushtaq was one of the few women.

She has published six volumes of short stories, a novel, a collection of essays and a collection of poetry. Her story "Kari Nagaragalu" was adapted into a Kannada film, Hasina, in 2003.

She has won major awards for her literary works, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards.

Previously translated into Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam, Heart Lamp: Selected Stories was her first book to be translated into English.

Jayant Narlikar

Jayant Narlikar, internationally renowned for his alternative cosmological theories that challenged the popular Big Bang model passed away on 20 May morning. He was 86.

He worked on gravity, Mach's Principle, quantum cosmology, and action-at-a-distance physics.

He is also recognized for his science communication efforts through books, articles, and media programs. Narlikar's science fiction, including "The Adventure," often blends scientific concepts with imaginative storytelling.

Tribute caricature by Jayaraj Vellur.

College Street, Kolkata

Recently I went to Kolkata and went to College Street to buy some books. In the days of Amazon and Flipkart I still like to browse the books in physical shops before buying.

College street, less than a kilometre stretch in Central Kolkata has hundreds of book shops, large and small – overflowing from the pavement right onto the street. College Street is the largest book market in Asia and the largest second hand book market in the world.

Minus the modern cars and people carrying mobile phones Kolkata’s College Street gives you a feel of bygone era.

College Street Coffee House

The British raj era Indian Coffee House, which functions from historic Albert Hall adds to the old world charm of the College Street.

It is far more than a café—it is a living monument to the intellectual and cultural life of the city. Stepping into its worn-out interiors, one is transported into a world where revolutionary thoughts once brewed stronger than the coffee itself. From poets and artists to political thinkers and student activists, generations have gathered under its high ceilings to debate, dream, and dissent. The clatter of cups mingles with echoes of history—of the Bengal Renaissance, the Naxalite movement, and the evolution of Indian art and literature. Its unchanged waiters in white uniforms, faded walls, and wooden chairs are not signs of neglect but symbols of endurance.

In an era of fast food and faster lives, the Coffee House remains a rare oasis where time slows down, and conversations matter. It is nostalgia, resistance, and a reminder that culture, like coffee, needs time to percolate.

English!

“All together” is written separately. “Separately” is written all together.