Nabaneeta Dev Sen: A Celebration of Life!

A celebrated Bengali author, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, passed away on Thursday (Nov 7). She was 81. Debjani profiles her. A tribute to the litterateur from Different Truths. An exclusive.

Padmashree Nabaneeta Dev Sen (Jan 13, 1938 – Nov 7, 2019) – with the name I associate Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi – the centuries-old Japanese art of using gold to fix broken pottery. A lady of immense power, who could hide everything else and bloom into a scarlet rose!

The literary world celebrates her as a writer of prominence, who has published over 80 books in multiple genres

The literary world celebrates her as a writer of prominence, who has published over 80 books in multiple genres – political and personal issues, novels, poetry, essays, children’s literature, travelogues remarkable for easy wit and humour. Her first publication was a collection of poems ‘Pratham Pratyay’ – First Source of Confidence (1959).

In her choice of genre, Nabaneeta always went back to poetry. Her writings about gender and women’s rights were marked by pristine clarity. Her writings on Ramayana were based on the telling of the epic by Chandravati (a medieval Bengali poet from Mymensingh, widely considered as the first woman poet of Bengali language and known for her women-centered take on the epic).

She founded and headed the West Bengal Women Writers’ Association. She studied at Presidency College, Jadavpur University, Harvard and then Berkley, held post-doctoral posts at Indiana University, University of California at Berkley and Cambridge University but returned to teach Comparative Literature at her alma mater – Jadavpur University.

A Sahitya Academy award winner (2000), she was also the vice-president of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, the Bengali academy of literature. She founded and headed the West Bengal Women Writers’ Association. She studied at Presidency College, Jadavpur University, Harvard and then Berkley, held post-doctoral posts at Indiana University, University of California at Berkley and Cambridge University but returned to teach Comparative Literature at her alma mater – Jadavpur University.

Born to poets Radharani and Narendra Dev, she was named ‘Nabaneeta’ by none other than Rabindranath Tagore. She married Prof. Amartya Sen after a brief courtship during their Jadavpur days – where he was a young professor of Economics and she a student of Comparative Literature. The union was much celebrated as the elated mother, Radharani Devi went on distributing sweets to every home known, unknown to celebrate the big thing of her only child’s life.

Nabaneeta once had said that she belongs to a family of strong women – a legacy she inherited from her mother and transferred to her daughters Antara and Nandana.

Nabaneeta once had said that she belongs to a family of strong women – a legacy she inherited from her mother and transferred to her daughters Antara and Nandana. In life, there “are dark moments, but you can’t let that get you down, can you?”

Friends and acquaintances remember her as the ‘one with a radiant smile, eyes always alive and twinkling, always alert and passionate about everything.’

“When my marriage fell apart, I was 34. By then I had lived with my husband in the United States, England and India, had two lovely children, several degrees and never held a job. I thought I had a wonderful husband. To my great surprise I was told that he was not in love with me anymore. ‘Of course,’ he is! But he proved me wrong.” (From ‘The Wind Beneath my Wings’ by Nabaneeta Dev Sen).

Of her best-known writings is a series called Balobashar Baranda –Veranda of Love.

Of her best-known writings is a series called Balobashar Baranda –Veranda of Love. It’s ironic of the life of a woman – a woman of incredible warmth and generosity – to give away the man she loved!

With an unbelievable life force and an incredible passion for the world, she lived a life so grand that there is no room for lament!

Photo from the Internet