'The oldest love story: A motherhood anthology': Personal experiences of being a mother

First things first. I’ve always admired the work of Maithili Rao as an insightful, informed and interesting film critic in a space where dwarfs are desperate to cast large shadows and end up as 7-star jokes! And Rinki Roy Bhattacharya (Rinki di) I’ve known for ages and found her to be a gifted writer, powerhouse curator of meaningful cinema/art/culture events and of course a tireless crusader and keeper of the legacy of the Bimal Roy flame, ensuring it keeps burning bright, reminding a hollowed-out generation, corrupted by consumerism and globalisation that Cinema is – in its truest form – Truth, twenty-four times a second!

When these two – dynamic duo – combine and collaborate to offer a celebration on Motherhood, inviting some of the most powerful voices to travel through their dusty alcoves of memory, go beyond the manicured, postured mourning or posting glittering Bargain Counters as the right place to hawk seductive, market-friendly, easy-to-digest thoughts and feelings, we are indeed in for an experience that threatens to blend the emotional with the cathartic in seamless fashion. Like the surgeon’s knife, 'The Oldest Love Story' will cut as it cures.

I will hesitate to ask readers to enjoy this amazing anthology – but do engage. It could force you to re-visit the classic line of Nayyirah Waheed – “My Mother was my first country, the first place I ever lived.”