Aranyak

Its written by my favourite Bengali author, bibhutibhushan bandhopadhyay. The writer of the novel “Pather panchali” story of  Satyajit Ray ‘s legendary movie of the same name.

 

Aranyak means “of forest”. It’s a fabulous story of few years spent by a man in a remote forest covered land of Bihar. A fashionable young man of Kolkata, who had to go to Bihar for livelihood,.  How he fell in love with forest and its people. The innocent people of rural Bihar,. Who were so poor that they used to throng his Kachhari (office) to eat the leftover rice.  

 

First he was sick of that desolate land, without any companionship with kindred souls. Then he slowly fell in love with the nature. It unraveled its virgin beauty to his mesmerized eyes. In the nights he spent on horse back traveling from one place to other, while miles of land lay in front of him, miles behind him and above him the moon shined in a magical glory.

 

The acute poverty of local people, their pain, innocence, exploitations. The  cruelty of those who had the power.

 

How he tried to fill up a local pond with different types of flowers with the help of a person who was equally in love with the place. Then the sad part starts and he had to chop down the forests and every thing to distribute the lands, mostly to the corrupt and powerful people. Finally his return to Kolkata with ever-lasting memory of that beautiful place, virgin nature and human beings.