The Kolkata connection- Part 1

Dear Pouring Rain,

Hope you are well. I need you. It’s really very difficult to stay in this humidity. Don’t know how long, I need to wait for you. Well, hope to see you soon.

Well, I always wanted to move on. With this word -move on- I suddenly remember something. During my last visit to Delhi, I met one of my old friends, a senior journalist. By the way, she puzzled me, asking - What are you doing in the most “sadist” city. Sadist- the word strikes. She was clear on her point, saying Kolkata was moving back with the time and there was no scope for anything. I replied, it might be her prejudice, but she cleared - stories about Kolkata always fascinated her in a great way and that was the reason she wanted to be in the city. Once she arrived, it was a nightmare.

There must be sprawling parks all along the park street, she kept thinking, but unfortunately, there was nothing like that. Once again she threw a question, why do people talk about Park Street? What is special there? I remain silent. I never wanted to fell myself into a debate; wanted to be a witness only. That was the reason of my silence.

I’m a little bit introvert too. I wanted to tell her, Bimal Mitra’s Kolkata always lured me. I was born and brought up, in a remote village of North Bihar. I did my schooling and college from there only. It was my childhood days, when I developed penchant for Mitra’s writings. That was the time when I started to read Russian Masters also. Well, while reading Bimal Mitra’s litrerature, I decided it was Kolkata only, where I wanted to live in.

I had in mind a vivid picture of Bengal, thanks to the Hindi translations of Mitra’s novels. I had conjured up a vision of a state full of handsome bhadraloks in spotless white, well-starched dhotis and kurtas, roaming neatly paved streets, mouthing words of wisdom. I had also dreamt that the streets of Kolkata would be like that of Visva-Bharati as described by Kumaran Asan, the famous Malayalam poet. Well, finally when I was in Kolkata, I fell in love with the mysterious lanes of the city.

Dear friend, you loved books, but always kept distance from literatures. Reading engineering and management books would never be helpful, when we talk about society. You need to be in literature. I wanted to tell you about Bimal Mitra. He was a genius writer, who made Bangla and Bengali proud, all over the world. Mitra emerged as one of the foremost Bangla novelist of the post Second World War period. Extremely popular, Bimal Mitra was too prolific, with over five hundred short stories and a hundred novels to his credit.

Bimal Mitra was a common man; he understood the common dilemmas with life and living conditions. I remember a story “Raag Bhairvi” by Mitra. It was written in 70’s. Naxal movement was on rise and it was well portrayed in this story. The story starts with clash of thoughts, between two generations. The protagonist is a lady in early 20’s, working as a school teacher as well as she’s the leader of the Naxal group. Her father is a retired teacher. Discussion about the changing social life was a regular affair. One day he comes to know that his daughter is the chief of Naxal movement the area. Finally he tries to move to the police station, but before reaching there he’s killed.

Now coming to the point, in fact; it was Mitra only, who brought modern Bengali literature to the masses. His piercing analysis of human love, faith and frailties is unparallel. His intimate understanding of the social goings-on and the sympathetic albeit affirmative way he portrayed the unprivileged and the women in his stories testify his paramount love and affection for the deprived. His lovingly and masterfully crafted words, used by ordinary people of the street, and immaculate writing style made him easily one of the world's best loved novelists.

Well, I would love to write something more about Bimal Mitra and his works in my next mail. Hope to see you soon.

Love
The Desert!