Fiction Reads: The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond

Reimagining or recalling teenage life has led to the realization of many literary gems. Roald Dahl’s Boy and Going Solo are sparkling examples of reflecting on a thrilling childhood and youth, in selective retelling, decades later.  The Room on the Roof  (1956) is unique, as Bond points out in the introduction – It’s a novel about adolescence, … Read more

Poetry Reads: The Gitanjali Album by Gitanjali Ghei

Gitanjali Ghei (1961-1977) The Gitanjali Album has been an aching, heartbreaking read. How does a child confront the stark truth that she is dying of cancer? I can’t begin to imagine.  Discovering Gitanjali I first heard of Gitanjali Ghei at the fag end of the last century from my ninth-grade teacher.  A curly-haired bespectacled woman … Read more