BySukant Deepak

New Delhi, April 24 (IANS) Taslima Nasreen’s latest offering, ‘Shameless’, the sequel to her bestselling ‘Lajja’ is now out on Kindle by HarperCollins India. 

The book follows Suranjan, the principal character of ‘Lajja’ who moves to Kolkata with his family after facing persecution in native Bangladesh. But is life for a Hindu family from an Islamic nation any better in a country where a majority of the population happens to be Hindu? 

Leading poor, unmoored lives, exploited and frustrated at every step of the way, and always carrying with them the memories of a scarred communal history, Suranjan and so many others like him seem to lead incomplete lives.

The book is an uncompromising, heart-breaking look at ordinary people’s lives in our troubled times. Author Taslima Nasreen says that she wrote ‘Shameless’ in 2007 while being forced to live under house arrest in Kolkata. “Now, in 2020, to save humanity from the contagious and deadly Covid-19, we are placing ourselves in self-quarantine or social isolation. But humans are social animals, we cannot live totally alone. We need ways to imagine a world where these hindrances don’t hold us back.”

She adds that there is no better way to spend this time than read books. “When I was under house arrest, I spent my time writing and imagining the friends who could not come by.” 

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​​​​​​Sukant Deepak can be contacted at sukant.d@ians.in