Best Editorial

Winner: Subhasish Mondal, souvenir editor, Salt Lake BF Block Residents’ Association

Why: This year, the editorial column was bound to be distinct from any other year’s, given the circumstances under which the souvenir had to be brought out. This article, titled Hobe Joy, is a mix of the acknowledgement of the reality of pandemic-hit life and the mental effect of being house-bound on one side and on the other the promise of help and unity in hours of need from fellow residents and the dawning of hope beyond the darkness that Durga puja stands for in our emotional life.

Special mention: Iswar Mukherjee, secretary, Purba Co-operative Housing Society, Cluster XIII, Purbachal and Kumkum Chattopadhyay, editor, Pushpanjali, of East Enclave Residents Welfare Association, New Town

Best Fiction

Winner: Asim Das of East Enclave Residents Welfare Association, New Town, for Alps Othoba Adi Ganga

Why: The story holds up a mirror to the stark reality of human relationships where even a close friend can stab one in the back if there is a clash of interest at stake. The language is crisp and lucid, the length is just right and the conclusion aptly left devoid of sentimentality.

Special mention: Rita Das of Animikha Apartment Owners Association, New Town, for Suicide Note and Susmita Bhaduri of Sanjeeva Town The Bungalow Estate, New Town, for Ogo Bodhu Sundari.

Best Non Fiction

Winner: Monika Mitra of Animikha (C&D) Durgotsav Committee, New Town for Pakhider Ananda Niketan

Why: The close study of birds in one’s own backyard speaks of an endearingly close bond with feathered creatures. The description is homely. The appeal to plant more fruit-bearing trees and allow the consumption of their crop by birds gains import as the author has set an example for the same herself. In a world beset by global warming and a pandemic, allowing Nature and all other creatures to be is a lesson to be learnt for all of us.

Special mention: Diptendu Banerjee of CB Block Welfare Association for Nam-kirtan

Best Poetry

Winner: Asim Das of East Enclave Residents Welfare Association, New Town, for Stitadhi Sundar Satata Ajeya

Why: The poem uses epic and mythopoeic imagery and references to posit the existence of hiatus in human history and existence. This is an obvious and relevant observation on human condition frozen when in a moment of crisis such as the world is in now. The only possible hope of redemption is in the unchangeable and incorruptible truth.

Special mention: Sarbani Banerjee for Nistaran-adhyan and Gopal Lahiri for Konodin Jodi. Both are residents of East Enclave Residents Welfare Association, New Town.

Best Cover

Winner: CB Block Welfare Association

Why: Women in masks in front of the goddess, come possibly for baran on Vijaya Dashami, is what last autumn’s Durga puja was about — continuity of tradition while conforming to Covid protocol. The use of an illustration by a young local talent (Pracheta Basu, a student of Class IV) sends a message of the puja and the puja souvenir being by the community and for the community.

Special mention: Salt Lake BE (East) Puja committee and Animikha (C&D) Durgotsav Committee, New Town.

Pick of township clicks

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.

Shriya Basu, AF Block

Baisakhi Chakraborty, Sunrise Symphony, New Town

Nilanjan Pathak, CA Block