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Nilanjana S Roy

@nilanjanasroy

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Otter of books.
Black River. The Wildings. The Hundred Names of Darkness. The Girl Who Ate Books. And coming soon...

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#Elephants and #Kilimanjaro. Could you wish for a better backdrop than this. #amboselinationalpark Is what it is partly because of the mountain. It provides the backdrop to photographers but for the animals it provides cover in its foothills for them to rest for the night. Morning sees them come into the grasslands to feed and evenings see them retreating back to the mountain. A great visual.

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A book can mean something different once we know the person who wrote it. Literary critic Nilanjana Roy reflects on how learning about Pablo Neruda gradually changed her relationship with his work.

Full conversation on YouTube. Link in bio

#PabloNeruda #LiteraryCriticism #BooksAndReading #LiteraryCulture #ReadersAndWriters

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It’s not always the big and colourful birds that should hold your attention. The Thick-billed seedeater peeling away an unripe berry to reach the seeds, the colourful Kenya Rufous sparrow on a lawn, the cheery notes of the dawn chorister the Cape Robin Chat and the elegant minimalism of the Slender-billed Greenbul were all admired @mkwc_ke

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We often think of books as things that save us. But, as literary critic Nilanjana Roy suggests, a book can also confront us, hold us to account and force us to face what we would rather not see in ourselves.

Not every transformative reading experience is a comforting one.

Full conversation on YouTube. Link in bio

#BooksAndReading #ReadingCulture #LiteraryCriticism

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Because when the world feels too heavy, these furballs remind us that kindness, comfort, and hope still exist❤️.

📚Chaos in a Coupe- a heartwarming travelogue that crisscrosses India aboard Indian railways, with indie dogs as adorable companions. A journey filled with adventure, affection, and a gentle yet powerful message to adopt these lovable, often-despised creatures and give them a loving home they deserve.

📚The Wildings- a wildly imaginative tale of the cats of Nizamuddin, where feline lives, friendships, and often-dangerous territorial adventures unfold into a gripping story of survival and existence.

📚Cat People- an enjoyable anthology by cat parents, for the love of all things feline.

Go, read them.

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The Hartlaub’s Turaco is a dream like bird and you hear it before you see it as it merges with the green canopy despite its size. Seeing one in Mount Kenya was a particular highlight that I managed with @noelmenon The black and white turacos are unimaginatively called Go-away
-birds but the colourful members of the family are Turacos, a name originating from a west African word for the birds.

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A reader’s intellectual life is shaped not only by the books they remember, but also by those that disappear from memory.

As literary critic Nilanjana Roy explains how forgetting may itself be a form of reading.

Full conversation on YouTube. Link in bio

#BooksAndReading #ReadingCulture #LiteraryCriticism #IndianLiterature #ReadersAndWriters

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The Hooded Vulture is a relatively small and fine billed vulture found in sub sharan Africa. Critically endangered according to the Red List of @IUCN but sometimes can be quite common such as in Mount Kenya Safari Lodge where they were coming to the lawns looking for scraps.

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I met three stately old gentlemen on the lawns of @mkwc_ke Safari lodge in the middle of the conservancy. The Marabou in Africa is like the Adjutants of Asia, large, bald, cloaked, old storks that have a certain deliberate nature about them and a baleful eye that looks at the world with a seemingly jaundiced eye. #birds

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Why have autocrats and dictators always distrusted reading? Because stories carry ideas that are difficult to police. They unsettle certainties, disrupt tidy narratives and resist obedience.

As writer & literary critic Nilanjana Roy puts it, reading is intrinsically disobedient.

Full conversation on YouTube. Link in bio

#Reading #FreedomOfThought #Censorship #Literature #NilanjanaRoy

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The Mantled Guereza, a subspecies of the Black and White Colobus were plentiful in the grounds of @mkwc_ke Safari lodge where we had the @iucnssc Steering Committee. We could have watched their antics all day if it were not for the meets! Luckily one of the primates that are least threatened in the @iucnred_list !

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The "Chosen One" trope is exhausting. Give me a ragtag group of outcasts, mercenaries, and morally grey misfits who would burn the world down for each other. 🗡️🩸

If you love the lethal squad dynamics of Six of Crows but want them drenched in gritty Indian settings, these three masterpieces are required reading. From heavily armed post-apocalyptic survivors in New Delhi to ancient historical heists and fierce, telepathic turf wars, these found families do not ask for permission—they just execute.

💬 So, don't forget to tell me below, Who is your favorite fictional squad or mercenary band?
📌 Save this post for when you need a high-action weekend read.
✨ Follow @RestInStories to unlock a new dark world with every post.

#RestInStories #FoundFamily #Fantasy #AliceInDeadland #TheTreasureOfKafur #TheWildings #BookTok #fantasysquad

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