Lajja (Shame)
Taslima Nasrin
1995 at Eliane's House
Synopsis
The Duttas - Sudhamoy, Kironmoyee, and their two children,
Suranjan and Maya - have lived in Bangladesh all their lives.
Despite being part of the country's small Hindu community,
that is terrorized at every opportunity by Muslim fundamentalists,
they refuse to leave their country, as most of their friends
and relatives have done. Sudhamoy, an atheist, believes with
a naive mix of optimism and idealism that his motherland will
not let him down...
And then, on 6 December 1992, the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya
in India is demolished by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists.
The world condemns the incident but its fallout is felt most
acutely in Bangladesh, where Muslim mobs begin to seek out
and attack the Hindus... The nightmare inevitably arrives
at the Duttas' doorstep - and their world begins to fall apart.
First lines
Suranjan lay on his bed. Every now and again his sister
Nilanjana, whom they all called maya, would come into the
room and say 'Dada, aren't you going to wake up and do something
before it is too late.'
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