Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal

Sandip Roy is a writer, columnist, and podcaster currently living in Kolkata. He is a columnist for Mint Lounge, The Hindu, and the host of the Sandip Roy Show on Indian Express. His work has appeared in The New York Times, BBC, The San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, Huffington Post, Conde Nast Traveller, among other publications. For over a decade, Roy was editor of Trikone, the world’s oldest magazine on LGBTQ+ South Asian issues. He is the author of the novel Don’t Let Him Know.

• 1.Introduction2.Chapter 1: Childhood3.In Imagination: The Chorus Girl4.Chapter 2: The Railways5.In Imagination: The Niece6.Chapter 3: The Amateur7.In Imagination: The Ghost of Putulbari8.Chapter 4: The Queen9.An Excerpt from Sultana Riziya by Brajendra Kumar Dey10.Chapter 5: The Natta Years11.In Imagination: The Other Rani12.Chapter 6: The Post Natta Years13.In Imagination: The Hero14.Chapter 7: A Woman in a Man’s World (and Vice Versa)15.In Imagination: The Heroine16.Chapter 8: Love17.In Imagination: The Admirer18.Chapter 9: The Wilderness Years19.In Imagination: The Cook20.Chapter 10: Performing the Goddess21.In Imagination: The Sitala Performer22.Chapter 11: Rebirth and Resurrection23.In Imagination: The Drag Queen24.Chapter 12: Silver Screen25.In Imagination: The Designer26.Chapter 13: The Old-Age Home27.In Imagination: This Old House

"This first person-narrative…contains endless, entertaining, piquant and revealing anecdotes and digressions about Calcutta’s life, high and low, holding up a mirror to India since independence. Sandip Roy interjects fictional chapters, imagined incidents with ghosts or interviews with people long deceased. The unusual approach to writing biography works. Books about showbusiness are often predictable. This one is magical."