Cafe Dissensus Everyday

The Blog of Cafe Dissensus Magazine – we DISSENT

Posts from the ‘Life’ category

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy: Celebrating Life Through the Vision of Death

By Lopa Banerjee
Exuding a raw energy and supreme power of art, the entire Apu trilogy, on the surface level, traces the epic journey of the protagonist, Apu, from his impoverished rural boyhood to his years in Baranas and Calcutta and, finally, to his marriage and fatherhood. On a more metaphysical plane, the three films depict the unique life of the protagonist in various stages, repeatedly facing deep spiritual questions centered round the vision of death.

The alternative ending: Stepping over the line (Part-5)

By Achyut Dutt
Oblivious that the traffic had now started moving once again and some very angry folk were blaring their horns behind him, Arjun kept his foot jammed on the brake pedal and stared back at the lovely face of Nandini Shyamrao. She had known he was in Pune but hadn’t told him she, too, had connections with Pune. Far as he knew, her folk were spread over Bangalore and Chennai.

Shalik’s story: Stepping over the line (Part-3)

By Achyut Dutt
He had then taken her by the hand, up the grassy slope, onto the narrow walkers’ path that ringed the lake. Exactly ten years from that day, they were married. He had a few conditions that she had respected. That she’d walk into his home with only one suitcase filled with just the things dear to her.

The day after: Stepping over the line (Part-2)

By Achyut Dutt
In the beginning, she’d been reserved, hesitant about talking of herself. He was just an unknown strange man who wrote outrageously funny notes that made her burst into laughter. As the days went by, though, the levee she’d hurriedly constructed seemed to look like it was made with cotton candy.

Life on the Tracks

By Lopa Banerjee
The whistle blows. I find myself in the sweltering heat of a train compartment in suburban Kolkata, my tongue chained to numbness and austerity. I carry with me the rampant memories and succulent folklores of my childhood, my unruly hair running along with the houses, huts, trees, ponds, and creeks, as my life speeds along, swishing back and forth between pale faces and clumsy station platforms.

My India

By Elena Vinokurova
You have no future and all that awaits you is death from an overdose of sun, freedom, and chili peppers…and, then, you wake up in a gray city apartment in a gray concrete high-rise under a gray sky among people dressed in gray ties.

Short Story: Is that you darling? Are you home?

By Achyut Dutt
The years have flown fairly quickly after that. After moving to the west, Rani and you had one more child, a son, Arnav. He is going to Stanford since last August. Tina lives with her husband Dieter in Schwedt. They have a cottage by the Elbe. And Rani. It’s now a year since the very light of your life, your Rani, passed away, consumed by the cancer which had galloped unchecked through her thyroids.

Pages from a Mom’s Diary

By Prachi Priyanka
I felt a whirlpool of emotions. Thoughts wandered like shadowy strangers. My eyes were moist with tears as I slowly perched on the bed and sat beside my child. Ah! My heart ached to reach out to my baby. I bent down to kiss him.

Valentine’s Day: Arranged Love!

By Priyanka Banerjee
Sitting in two different continents with two different time zones, it was a challenge for us to make our love blossom depending entirely on technology. This long distance relationship sometimes appeared funny and sometimes unrealistic for the people around us. There was a big question mark on everyone’s face: how is it possible for two grown-up individuals to love each other in the virtual world?

Valentine’s Day: Celebrating Love

By Indranil Dey
Then about a month later, while having dinner with friends, he got a call. It was about a broken laptop. She called him since her tech-guy was out of town and, somehow, the computer engineers are supposed to know how to repair a laptop, so she thought. It was also a critical time of final submission for her course and she had to prepare a presentation on the damn laptop.