Since my childhood I have been a lover of literature, music, films and art, which is perhaps natural since I was born and raised in the highly literary and political city of Calcutta.

I am particularly drawn to Bengali literature, my favorite authors being Rabindranath Tagore, Sharadindu Bandopadyay, Bimal Kar, Shirshendu Mukhopadyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Bani Basu and Dibyendu Palit. I am also very much a fan of the Indo-Anglican literature, and love the works of Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Amit Choudhury and Jhumpa Lahiri. My other favorite authors are Somerset Maugham, D.H.Lawrence and Agatha Christie. I also enjoy certain European comics such as Tintin and Asterix, as well as certain American comic strips such as Doonesbury, Boonedocks, Calvin and Hobbes and Mutts.

I am passionately fond of cinema, and enjoy different genres of films such as art, foreign, noir, and science fiction. My favorite director is Satyajit Ray, and I am also fond of the films by Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Roman Polansky, Ang Lee, Robert Altman, and Stanley Kubrick. I am also a claymation fan and love the Wallace and Gromit films by Nick Park.

I have a pretty eclectic taste in music and enjoy Jazz, Blues, Rabindra sangeet, Indian classical music, Hindi and Bengali popular music and music of the sixties (I am a huge fan of the Beatles).

In art, I favor the impressionists and post-impressionists and am particularly drawn to the art of Van Gogh. My other hobbies include cooking (particularly Indian food), trying out cuisines from different cultures (especially Japanese, Thai, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine) and traveling. I enjoy hiking, lifting and walking.

I am an ardent animal lover and am owned by my cats Shona and Piku, and love to get involved in anything concerning animal rights or environmental protection.

Most of all, I enjoy spending time with my husband Scott and other friends, having long addas (fun conversations), punctuated with cups of good tea!