Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay (1894–1950)

In the 1920s, as an educated young man of small means, Banerji had the luck to get a job of property manager for some rich friends who owned forest land in Bihar, a province north of Banerji's home city of Calcutta. His job was to find tenants who would clear the forest and cultivate the land so that the owners could tax them.

Unexpectedly and as passionately as in any romance, Banerji falls in love with the forest itself, discovering unique beauty in pristine wilderness. He who doubted that show more he could last a few days outside the big city now can't tear himself from the majestic jungle and the freedom of this new life, riding on horseback all around the country, being enthralled by vegetation and animals he hardly knew existed.

And then there are people. Some are wealthy, but the mass of the people he encounters are the poorest on earth, most having no possessions but the rags they wear. And yet this extreme poverty does not prevent the emergence of all kinds of character and whimsy, gift and desire. There is Dhaturiya, a boy who would be dancer and travels miles to learn dances and find the rare people who would pay to see them performed. No one ever lived for one's art like Dhaturiya. There's Yugalprasad, poor as a beetle, who loves flowers so much he seeds them around the forest and again travels miles to find seeds of the rare varieties. There's old Matuknath with a passion for teaching, who lectures in an empty hut. There is wild girl Manchi, too young second wife of an old man, who gets duped out of precious kilos of mustard seed for trifles that make her happy, a necklace of glass beads, a comb...

There is a family of herder kings of ancient lineage but as poor as anyone else, Rajgond people who were almost annihilated by the Aryas. Banerji learns to respect and admire them, contrary to the prejudice that sees them as savage.

But there is a fatal clash between Banerji's humanism and newly discovered love for nature, and his job. Once it's over, the forest is gone, the land parcelled out to people who will try to squeeze out of it wild millet and lentils to live on, the whole landscape slumified because the owners don't care what dismal hovels the tenants live in, whether they have schools and clinics--just beat out the tax due. I tried to find pictures of Bihar forests that would fit Banerji's description but it seems the actual places he knew are truly unrecognisable today. show less

Absolutely beautiful tale of a young boy and his older sister growing up in a poor Bengali household. While they have certain "luxuries" - some schooling, a few books (their Brahmin father has some education but doesn't earn much), life is basic and often a struggle.
Much of the story concerns the rural world around them: "Childen make their own Toys" is the title of the larger part of the book, and Durga and her brother prowl the forest, scrump fruit, participate in festivals and invent show more games. Young Apu becomes increasingly keen on books and writing.
But life is harsh too: nasty neighbours, poverty...and death.
The final part was just so beautifully written. How many unremarkable peasant children have lived and died, forgotten? This autobiographical tale brings such ones to life... show less

Though his name may be unfamiliar, this Bengali writer (died 1950) wrote the book that inspired one of the great classics of world cinema: Pather Panchali. He is one of my favorite authors and I have read many of his novels and many of his stories; this is yet another story collection. This selection of eight (out of several hundred) stories is generally well-translated and is a good introduction to the writer. The brilliance of his stories lies at once in his focus on people discovering show more their destinies amid their own complicated circumstances as well as for the feeling of intimacy he evokes even his manner of telling the stories is familiar, comfortable, and perhaps even a little rambling. Bandyopadhyay has a gift for expressing the landscape as well as an empathy for his characters even as he wrote about both rural and urban subjects. His narrative is notable for its ability to express the views of different characters honestly and sympathetically, and there is a pervading gentle-ness about his language. There is, too, among them, a persistence, a recalcitrance — a stubborn humanity — that makes them all recognizable. They are not all likeable, they are not all good people, but they are all deeply human in a way that seems all too rare in literature. show less

This Bengali classic, basis for the famous movie of the same name, is the portrayal of the day-to-day life in an impoverished village at the turn of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of a young boy, Opu, and his adored older sister Durga.

In the forward to the edition I read, the translator states:

"Tagore... Presents village life nostalgically as an ideal condition which the modern age is fast losing. In Pather Panchali the village is not idealized; it is not explained or commented show more on; it is presented as it is, objectively at times, but more often subjectively, by the people who live in it, and more particularly by the two children. There is little formal description. It is not necessary to describe the things one lives with every day; one knows them, as the reader comes to know the village of Nishchindipur, through familiarity."

The novel is episodic; sometimes just an hour has elapsed between chapters, sometimes years. I was fascinated to learn, reading between the lines, what it meant to be of the Brahmin caste in India at that time. Opu's family is Brahmin, but very poor. Their father is a scholar, and earns small amounts infrequently providing his services at religious or other ceremonial events. Most of the time, the family is hungry, and their ramshackle dwelling is falling apart around them. Nevertheless, their Brahmin status gives them certain privileges and status. Again, the poverty and circumstances of Opu's life are just givens--this is not a social document, just the life of one small boy.

Here's a taste of the tone of the book. Opu has been reading in one of his father's ancient volumes a description of the properties of mercury:

"If you put some Mercury in a vulture's egg and leave it in the sun for a few days, and then hold it in the mouth, you can fly high in the sky.
"Opu could not believe his eyes. He read the passage again and again.....
"Astonishing! It was so easy to fly and yet nobody knew about it. Perhaps nobody had a copy of this book except his father. Or it might be that all this time nobody's eye except his own had lighted on this particular place in the book.
"He thrust his nose in the book again and smelt it. That same old smell. It never occurred to him to question the truth of what was written in such a book."

Highly recommended. 5 stars show less