A group of middle-aged women — school friends of the 1981 Madhyamik batch — reunited over Facebook and WhatsApp and have now started a literary website. Many of the 20-odd contributors are scattered around the country but the three core committee members hail from Salt Lake and New Town.

“We are all former students of Sunity Academy in Cooch Behar,” says Dolanchampa Dutta, a homemaker from EE Block and one of the editors of batayan.in. “It so turned out that instead of forwarding jokes on our WhatsApp group many members were sharing their write-ups. So we thought of taking it further.”

Batayan has sections on poetry, short stories, travelogues…. Those who do not have a knack for literature have contributed recipes, paintings and body care tips. “We also have a section for our children, called Sabuj. This is the only section where we allow English articles as most children these days are not comfortable writing in Bengali,” says Sumita Majumder, a homemaker from New Town’s Shaporji Palonji complex. “These days the youths are hardly inclined towards literature but I’m happy that my college-going son and working daughter have sent articles for us too.”

The e-magazine was launched on Mahalaya and will be quarterly. “We shall soon accept articles from outsiders too and if we are able to get some ads then shall pay contributors,” says Manjushree Ray, another member, from Purbachal, Cluster X.

The women say launching an e-magazine has been much simpler than running a print one. “We would have to find a publisher, distributor and post copies to members scattered all over India,” says Ray. “Instead an IT professional-friend from BL Block — Sumit Sarkar — built us this website and made things very simple. And we forward the link ourselves to friends and relatives as a way of marketing and we are delighted that we got 600 visitors to come read our works.”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Brinda Sarkar / December 01st, 2017