Pratibha Basu

Pratibha Basu was born on March 13, 1915, in a village near Dhaka. Her father’s name is Asutosh Shome and her mother’s name is Sarajubala Shome.

She was also a singer of popular songs. She was a pupil of Ustad Gul Mohammad Khan. The poet Nazrul Islam, singer Dilip Kumar Roy, and Rabindranath Tagore admired her voice and taught her their own songs.

She has written 200 books, all of which have been commercially successful. Monolina was her first novel, published in 1940 Several of her novels have been made into successful movies. She was paralyzed from head to toe in 1972 because of an adverse reaction to an anti-rabies shot, which had become necessary as she was rescuing stray dogs who had rabies.

She was awarded the ‘Bhubonmohini’ gold medal from the University of Calcutta for her contribution to the Bengali language and literature. She was also awarded the Ananda Purashkar.

She died on 13 October 2006, in Kolkata from a “prolonged illness”.