Review Time - Rains off a Smoky Sky by Pritam Mandal

Rains off a Smoky Sky

                      From Anurita’s Diary

                - Pritam Mandal

I always have a love for reading diary pages written by someone. If you are one of my kind, then surely go with ‘Rains off a Smoky Sky: from Anurita’s diary’ by Pritam Mandal. A person writes diary to express his feelings, to question himself, find answer to convince his mind, to reveal his emotions, especially he pens the stuffs which is known to none, but only to him. Every of these can be glimpsed in the pages of ‘Anurita’s Diary’.

Anurita’s writing onsets with her dad’s present of a diary and a pen on her 7^th birthday.  Neither the diary’s cover (a blue-green firefly against the night sky) nor her dad’s words,

“Be the change you want to see in the world.

Raise your voice against corruption” – Mahatma Gandhi

Has changed till the end. But all that has changed is Anurita’s inner self, which is revealed through the collected pages of her diary. She names her inner self as Rita, part of her name and later as Firefly.

The early pages of her diary are much about her life in her village ‘Apurbopur’. She pens about the beauty of her village, her childhood and school days, the people living around her, their behaviours, the festivals celebrated, the happy and sad moments that she has encountered.

Later she joins B.Tech and her life from home to hostel starts. Anu, who has never been out of her village yet, enjoys her college life, being in a hostel. Her friends make her college days colourful and she feels blessed to have such good friends. We can see the girly feelings and moment happiness she encounters when boys around her flirts, and when she gets proposals and few similar stuffs.

The last part of her diary holds much significance, her life in the Tulip Ship. It is not just about her physical change towards the world but also the change with her inner wisdom. The words of her father,

“Be a human being. Be watchful and if you can fly, fly from here to a safety zone”… she finds it rather meaningful. She understands life.

Anurita’s change can be encountered through the pages of her diary which has revealed with few incidents, the importance of our earth, the need to preserve our earth are certain things which have been imprinted then and there four us to understand.

On the whole, this book is a beautiful journey of a girl’s life with her inner wisdom. The author, Pritam Mandal, has chosen a unique way to express the inner feelings of a girl and her life. He has penned even the short occurrences holding some importance. A reader can enjoy every nook and corner of the page of it, and you will never want the end to come when you are actually waiting for something more to materialize.  But as its said, it is not really an end, but just the beginning. The end of the old and the start of a new beginning.

Rains off a Smoky Sky – A Step Ahead from just Living.