An Evening By The River of Life

The 2^nd of August, 2025, shimmered with quiet significance—it marked the unveiling of By the River of Life: Random Musings of a Sensitive Soul, the eleventh literary offering by the inimitable Dr. Sabarna Roy. The evening, like the author himself, held a special place in our hearts—woven with warmth, memory, and meaning.

To us at Mahanagar, this evening was more than a celebration of a book. Dr. Roy, our beloved publisher, has been one of the rare few who believed in the very heartbeat of this magazine—nurturing it from dream to reality. And now, as he readies himself for his twelfth journey in words, we paused to honour the eleventh—a moment between milestones.

The panel gleamed with literary brilliance: Dr. Sabarna Roy, the voice behind the collection of meandering musings; Julie Banerjee Mehta, Indo-Canadian author and critic; Dr. Debanjan Chakrabarti, Director, British Council (East and North-East); Madhumanti Maitra, Professor of English at Jadavpur University and luminous media personality; Smita Roychowdhury, editor of t2, The Telegraph; and guiding this riverine conversation, the poet Ipsita Ganguly as moderator.

The evening unfolded like a carefully inked page turned by a breeze. The discussion drifted through the currents of the musings: its journal-style introspections, its layered inspirations, and the raw, human undercurrents that run through its prose.

The audience was no silent shore; it too flowed into the conversation—voices joined; questions rose like lanterns over water. Tales of childhood nostalgia, tender reflections on fatherhood, the tender ritual of a mother’s omelette—these memories from Dr. Roy’s life echoed within every listener. His musings on life’s inevitable ebbs and sudden flows invited not just contemplation, but companionship.

Then came laughter, gentle questions, and answers laced with affection, with the book singing by the author. The air hung with unsaid emotions—of gratitude, love, and a tinge of quiet loss.

And then, as if to seal the evening in delight, came the delights of a different kind. Dr. Roy, known not only for his profound words, but his heartfelt appreciation for all things delicious! ensured no one left with an untouched palate. The Q&A gently gave way to a spread of Hi Tea—fragrant, warm, and utterly soul-soothing.

To describe the evening in one single breath feels near impossible. Its beauty was not in grand declarations, but in its stillness, in the unspoken things it gave to each of us. As Anna Akhmatova once wrote—and perhaps this is the closest we come to a conclusion:
“Like a golden celebration,
And a consolation.”
 
So was the evening,
So is The River of Life