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Blood Brothers is M. J. Akbar`s amazing story of three generations of a Muslim family - based on his own - and how they deal with the fluctuating contours of Hindu-Muslim relations. Telinipara, a small jute mill town some 30 miles north of Kolkata along the Hooghly, is a complex Rubik`s Cube of migrant Bihari workers, Hindus and Muslims; Bengalis poor and `bhadralok`; and Sahibs who live in the safe, `foreign` world of Victoria Jute Mill. Into this scattered inhabitation enters a child on the verge of starvation, Prayaag, who is saved and adopted by a Muslim family, converts to Islam and takes on the name of Rahmatullah. As Rahmatullah knits Telinipara into a community, friendship, love trust and faith are continually tested by the cancer of riots. Incidents - conversion, circumcision, the arrival of plague of electricity - and a fascinating array of characters - the ultimate Brahmin, Rahmatullah`s friend Girija Maharaj, the worker`s leader, Bauna Sardar, the storyteller, Talat Mian, the poet- teacher, Syed Ashfaque, the smiling mendicant, Burha Deewana, the sincere Sahib, Simon Hogg, and then the questioning, demanding third generation of the author and his friend Kamala - interlink into a narrative of social history as well as a powerful memoir. Blood Brothers is a chronicle of its age, its canvas as enchanting as its narrative, a personal journey through change as tensions build, stretching the bonds of a lifetime to breaking point the demanding, in the end, the greatest sacrifice. Its last chapters, written in a bare-bones, unemotional style, are the most moving as the author searches for hope amid raw wounds with a surgeon`s scalpel.
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ISBN : 9788174366153
Pages : 346
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