Books in Brief
Malati Mukherjee
THE TRUTH DIGGER: THE BEST OF SHOVON CHOWDHURY by Urmila Chowdhury Aleph Book Company, 2022, 255 pp., 499.00
THE SURAJPUR CONNECTION by Prabhu Dayal Zorba Books, 2018, 154 pp., 199.00
December 2022, volume 46, No 12

Warriors come in many shapes and forms: artists, writers, humourists; a democracy needs them all, and Shovon Chowdhury is each of these. Today when the fourth pillar of democracy has all but crumbled, we need these truth sayers. The journalism fraternity lost a rare human being when he passed away in February 2020.

The Truth Digger is a compilation of various short articles from Shovon’s multiple columns, a set of poems, and generous excerpts from his hugely successful books. Compiled and edited by wife Urmila Chowdhury and IIM classmate and friend Sandipan Deb, they show his keen, razor-sharp wit combined with a deep understanding of the socio-political circus around us. One of the funniest writers of our time, his Wodehousian humour, keeps us in splits. ‘I know of several men who started doing gymnastics at 40. It’s because they ditched their wives and are now dating much younger women…. I love watching them at buffets. When they spot the lachha parathas, a variety of expressions flash across their faces in rapid succession. Sometimes they have to bite their lower lip to keep it from trembling…’

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