“Ma got totally exasperated with the fights, which had become ritual, she would have with me over who got to read Desh first.” Part II of Chitralekha Basu’s literary childhood.
“I had an insatiable appetite for stories and would badger my parents to read from the books I had accumulated.” Chitralekha Basu reflects on the literature that shaped her writing.
“We all lived in a hostel on Green Avenue in Bed-Stuy. My days were spent cleaning the rooms and making.” Michael E. Wilson Jr. writes of life and love at an international hostel in New York City.
“He never smiles. This is true of all later photographs. With autobiographical writings, they suggest a serious, even brooding temperament.” Robert Boucheron’s short biography of his grandfather’s life as an early telegraph operator.
“I have always felt a kinship with trees; in truth, most of my proclivities come down on the side of nature. I set this down to a combination of temperament and a childhood spent on a Caribbean island”. Summer Edward remembers her constant companions, the trees.
“I was envious of this open and free culture, this nonchalant attitude toward the body and sex. I wished I was not born and raised in such a straight-laced society.” Rudy Ravindra remembers his escape from an arranged marriage in India and his first love in the United States.