Sahitya Premir Asar
Minutes of Meeting
24 April 2009 8 p.m.
4 Baker Avenue, GlenWaverley

Present:
Tuku Bandopadhayay, Lutfar Khan, Dipankar Sengupta, Uma Acharya, Shyamali Larsen, Shonali Gupta, Kalyan Banerjee, Debasis Banerjee

Apologies:
Ramendra Bagchi, Kamruzzaman Balark,

Readings
Shonali Gupta read out a self composed article from a series called “Nari Asamanya”. The article is about Shonali’s maternal grandmother, who is an unknown person that history will not remember. But to her, Dida will always be the person who inspired her to write and will always be “Nari Asamana”.
Dipankar Sengupta read a very interesting and funny anecdote about bringing in a cat into the household without his fathers knowledge and approval. However, the young Dipankar could not keep it a secret after the cat gave birth to three kittens. Like all children the kittens had made a mess whilst eating and  the secret (cats/kittens) was out of the bag!
Tuku Bandopadhayay, reviewed highlights from a very interesting book called “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein. The book is written in the words of a dog Enzo, who is the pet of racing driver Denny Swift.  The highlights by Tuku, showed Enzo’s emotions as he went through with his master’s marriage, fatherhood and eventually loss of his wife Eve. Enzo’s attempts to stop Denny from losing custody of his daughter Zoe from her grand parents was specially touching. Will Enzo return as a human being to say hello to his master? 

Decisions made
Discussions were held about the suitability of a book or books for literary review and critical analysis. Two books- “Pather Panchali” and “Noshto Neerh” were chosen for this. The format, date and names of members who will be working on which of these books is to be discussed and decided at the next meeting. Asar members are requested to check on their accessibility of these books.

Some members are yet to send 6-7 lines about themselves in English and Bangla to Tuku for the website. Those members that haven’t already done so, please send these together with a photo of yourselves to Tuku.
Readings from meetings in 2008 and 2009 are also to be sent to Tuku. These will be inserted in the website. Please submit Bangla compositions in Bangla Word.

Next meeting
 29th May 2009, 8 pm will be held at Shyamoli’s residence.
130 Through Road
Camberwell VIC 3124
Melway 60 G3

Readings/discussions at the next meeting by:
Uma Acharya
Lutfar Khan
Debasis Banerjee