Taslima wants to return to Kolkata

KOLKATA: 25 Nov 2007

Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Sunday night said she missed the love and affection of the people of Kolkata and wished to return "home".

"I am a Bengali and Bengal is my home and feel at home in Kolkata, I know I am loved by the people there," Taslima said over phone from New Delhi.

"What are the people of Kolkata saying? What are the intellectuals saying?" she asked on the demand for cancellation of her visa by certain Muslim groups.

"I am not a political person. I am an ordinary human being who writes for equal rights. I don't write about religion, I write about human rights, women rights and secular humanism,"

she said. She said she wanted to spend the rest of her life at Kolkata among her own people and continue her literary pursuits.

By Shamsheer