By IANS,

Agartala : Her writing "badly affected" since she left Kolkata and desperate to return, controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen said she would return there "as soon as possible". If not Kolkata, she would choose Agartala as her home when she returns to India in August.

"Outside the Bengali-dominated areas, I felt I was being buried alive. I want to come to Kolkata as soon as possible," Nasreen told Ajker Fariad, a leading Bengali daily in Agartala by phone from Sweden. The author left India in March for Europe after a period of forced confinement in a New Delhi safe house.

"My writing has been badly affected since the day I left Kolkata. I am anxiously waiting to be in Tripura capital Agartala if not Kolkata to resume my writings soon," she added.

According to the newspaper, Nasreen has expressed unhappiness over her "asylum" life in Sweden, the US and Germany. She said she was suffering from depression and sincerely trying to return to India.

The validity of her resident permit in Sweden would expire in August.

"Despite the huge crowds, the luxury around me in Sweden, I am feeling lonely here even though my friends over here are helping me a lot, but I miss Kolkata," Nasreen said, adding she would urge the West Bengal government to allow her to stay in Kolkata.

"I will request the West Bengal government to allow me to stay in my Park Street home in Kolkata. If the Bengal government refuses, I will approach the Tripura government," said Nasreen, who left India March 19.

"I still believe that the people of Bengal love my writings and those people who do not read my work and do not know me properly, they and also the fundamentalists have understood their mistake. I think they will not create any problem if I return to Kolkata," Nasreen said.

"I always write on humanity and evil practices in civilised society, but I am not against any religion or sect. I believe in socialism. When Muslims were attacked in Gujarat, I had written against the incident," she pointed out.

Earlier, several intellectuals, including Khushwant Singh, Arundhati Roy and Mahasweta Devi, in separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had requested that Nasreen be allowed to exercise "reasonable degree of freedom" and get adequate security in India.

"I will die if I continue to live like this. I am a secular humanist and a feminist, and I have to write and work for women. The society in Bengal needs me. I have to work on social projects in India in the most backward places," she said.

"Here I live in a hotel. But my home is in Kolkata. I have to pay a huge rent there. I only hope I would return there very soon," Taslima said.

Expressing admiration for Indian leaders, including External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee, Taslima said: "I have very cordial relations with them, but they might misunderstand me."

"I am not a politician, I have no leanings with any political party or any powerful group. I am a writer."