Can't I be allowed to stay in Kolkata?: Taslima

KOLKATA: Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on Friday said she would prefer to stay in Kolkata or Delhi, a day after she was quoted as saying that she wished to shift to Tripura if she was not allowed to stay in Kolkata.

"Kolkata is where I had set up my home. Can't I be allowed by the West Bengal government to return to my city?" Taslima told media in an e-mail from Sweden.

Responding to a question about her reported wish to stay in Tripura, Taslima said her comments were quoted out of context.

"One of my friends called up from Agartala and said if I could not stay in Kolkata then I could consider Tripura where the majority of people were Bengali. All I said was that I could consider it," the writer said.

"I have no home in Europe. I stay with friends. Bangladesh has turned its back on me. Where I can turn to?" she asked.

She said in case it was not possible to return to Kolkata, she would prefer to stay in Delhi, though yesterday she had been quoted as saying that this (staying in Delhi) was 'impossible'.

On further extension of her Indian visa which would expire in August, Taslima said she had written to the authorities and was hopeful.

She would visit France this month end to personally receive the Simone de Beauvoir award which was conferred on her in January.

Articles she had written while she was staying in Delhi for three and half months before leaving India on March 19 would also be published in book form in French then, she said.

Taslima, who had suffered from cardiac and eye ailments while staying in a safe house in Delhi after she was hounded out of Kolkata on November 22 last year, said she has recovered fully.