Early Bird
Sarbojanin Durgotsab Committee, BE (West)
Why: The souvenir landed on our desk the day before Mahalaya, reflecting their discipline even in the middle of a pandemic.
Best Editorial
Winner: Kakoli Pal, convenor, souvenir committee, and editor, souvenir, Salt Lake FE Block Residents’ Association
Why: Like most other editorials in these challenging times, the article talks of the horrors of and the losses incurred in the two blighted years gone by. But while talking of the changes that the pandemic has writ upon the world, it elaborates also on the positive developments, be it the regeneration of nature due to reduced pollution or the role of the valiant Covid volunteers who emerged as angels in every neighbourhood, protecting the community at doorsteps just as doctors and nurses did in hospitals. The Goddess, a daughter of the land, comes home amid this mileu, bringing hope. The article also offers an overview of the contents of the souvenir.
Special mention: Arunava Das, president, Salt Lake BA Block Residents Association, and Ramen Roy, president, Durga puja committee, New Town CE Block Cultural Association Durga Puja Committee
Best Fiction
Winner: Kakoli Bhattacharya of New Town CE Block Cultural Association for Lockdown-er Diary
Why: This is the first time that a play has made it to the honours list in this competition. Complete in two acts and five scenes, the play puts the spotlight on how people spent the lockdown days, which in turn puts up a mirror to the kind of people they were. The first act features three middle-aged couples, all crippled by the absence of domestic helps and struggling with chores. In some households, the division of labour is more equitable than in the others. The conversations also subtly portray the differing chemistries between the husband and the wife. In the second act, a septuagenarian couple takes it upon themselves to serve hot meals to labourers, presumably rendered jobless by the lockdown, which in turn galvanises neighbours into joining the mission. Every scene is a true-to-life slice of what happened behind closed doors during the lockdown.
Special mention: Godhuli Chattopadhyay of Uttara Housing Complex, Prathama & Dwitiya, New Town for Vokatta and Saikat Pakrashi of BA Block for Dohai - Koruna korona Corona
Best Essay
Winner: Kumkum Samaddar of FE Block for Obantar Katha.
Why: A thoroughly entertaining read on how garrulous speakers can spin a yarn if only to kill time but sometimes the trait can be a social necessity as well. Reference has been made to such verbose characters in film and literature as well. Remember Basanti in Sholay?
Special mention: Arunabha Dutta of Uttara Housing Complex Prathama & Dwitiya for Mukh O Mukhosh — Corona fashion and Fuljhuri Chakraborty of East Enclave Housing Complex for Uttarer Janala
Best Memoir
Winner: Rita Das of Animikha Apartments, New Town for Muktijuddho
Why: A rivetting account of the on-ground situation before and during the time of the Bangladesh liberation war. The author describes through the eyes of her friend how their lives took a dramatic turn as the family got uprooted from a settled and serene life of harmony in Cox’s Bazar in East Pakistan. Once the male members of the family left in different directions, she, her sister and her mother were initially sheltered by their Muslim neighbour but had to flee once the Pakistani army invaded the town. The horrors of Partition and subsequent reconciliation with life as refugees after settling in Kolkata come out tellingly and touchingly through this piece of personal history.
Special mention: Soumya Roy of CB Block for Phire Dekha
Best Travelogue
Winner: Kaushik Chandra of BA Block for Aday Knachkolay
Why: This is not an account of a journey to a single place. Rather the author has innovatively picked a theme of two parties being at loggerheads with each other or being of contrasting characters, like the English and the French, and illustrated it through a bouquet of his experiences in various parts of the world.
Special mention: Saptarshi Chowdhury of CD Block, New Town for Tumio hnete dyakho Kolkata, and Subhajit Basu of CE Block, New Town for Modhureno Samapayet.
Best Poetry
Winner: Sarbani Banerjee of East Enclave Housing Complex, New Town for Noditir Nam Sukhi, O Aro Nadikatha
Why: The poet uses the technique of ‘shape poetry’ but subtly, to suggest merely, the flow, checks and essential unpredictability of riverine movement while also glancing at ecological and sociological references. But it remains poetry in essence, not degenerating into activism. Hence it is a praiseworthy feat.
Special mention: Sabina Yasmin of East Enclave Housing Complex, New Town for Kholamkuchi and Purba Kar of CD Block, New Town for Mon Kuthuri
CLICK YOUR TOWNSHIP
Like every year, we have selected the three best pictures among those published in the Click Your Township column in the months since last year’s result. The snaps are a testimony to the wealth of photographic talent in the neighbourhood.
