Nilotpal Dutta Books

In the aftermath of the Noakhali riots, a young Damyanti flees her beloved Bengal to take shelter in an emerging India after partition. Her dreams of a home and flourishing life in Dacca shattered, she strives to forget her past and build anew for herself and her family. Her life blooms with her children and the community she builds around her in Patna, until the Emergency, the Khalistan Movement and Mandal Commission threaten to disturb it all and once again take away what Damyanti has so lovingly nurtured. The Ram Mandir agitation is the last straw. Determined to not succumb to the pressures of a hostile communal environment, Damyanti decides to combat her overwhelming guilt for the lack of strength and a failed sense of judgement and redeem all past wrongs by helping right her grandson's life. Damyanti, who has blamed outsiders her entire life for discord and division, is finally forced to accept that her own people could just as easily be the outsiders. A heartwarming story of love and redemption, Nilotpal's Everything and Nothing is a tribute to a generation that found the strength over and over again to rebuild on the foundation of ruins. A generation that loved, lost and loved again, but never lost hope...

Smart and confident Balli has a deep connection with Bagdih, a coal mine in a fairly remote part of Bihar where his father works and where his Nana had chosen to work after the partition of India. Bagdih, which nurtures everyone who comes to earn livelihood and still holds no grudge when they never return, has a special relationship with Balli, whom she finds so much like herself. Growing up in a small colony, Balli builds his beautiful world with Samar and lovely Samaira, whom he loves and feels fiercely protective about. As he helplessly watches his world slowly disintegrate due to misunderstandings and unmet expectations, he only has his promise of joining the Indian Army made to Nana and affection of a much older Shambhu to keep him moving. Balli leaves the place that gave him everything to pursue his goals only to return years later on a rescue mission. As he encounters several emotions on his return and goes through upheavals, he finds solace only in Bagdih's serene lap. Set in the later part of twentieth century, 'Balli of Bagdih' is a depiction of how the characteristics of a place can build the character of a person born and brought up there.