Everything and Nothing by Nilotpal Dutta

In the aftermath of the Noakhali riots, a young Damyanti flees her beloved Bengal to take shelter in an emerging India after partition. Her dreams of a home and flourishing life in Dacca shattered, she strives to forget her past and build anew for herself and her family. Her life blooms with her children and the community she builds around her in Patna, until the Emergency, the Khalistan Movement and Mandal Commission threaten to disturb it all and once again take away what Damyanti has so lovingly nurtured. The Ram Mandir agitation is the last straw. Determined to not succumb to the pressures of a hostile communal environment, Damyanti decides to combat her overwhelming guilt for the lack of strength and a failed sense of judgement and redeem all past wrongs by helping right her grandson’s life. Damyanti, who has blamed outsiders her entire life for discord and division, is finally forced to accept that her own people could just as easily be the outsiders. A heartwarming story of love and redemption, Nilotpal’s Everything and Nothing is a tribute to a generation that found the strength over and over again to rebuild on the foundation of ruins. A generation that loved, lost and loved again, but never lost hope…