books

Well, I am one of those blessed creatures who was born in a family of bookworms.. who was surrounded by books instead of toys and expensive clothes.

 

A family where money was spent on books and true education, not on material luxury.

 

I have read all types of books .. actually devoured them. starting from cheap thrillers to writers like maxim gorky. No, I don’t read any thing but fiction.. I am not a serious reader. I have read non fiction only in school, college and other spheres of study.

 

Books are the best friend any human being can have, all he/she will have to do is select the type of book which will help him or her to reach his destination.

 

I will simply love to share some of the writers and books I have been touched by. I cant put my finger on a particular writer and say he/she is my favourite.. actually I cant even pin point half a dozen of them as my favourites..

Bibhutibhushan

This is another author my mother taught to love. She was a big fan of bibhutibhushan bandhopadhyay, so am I, just like most of the bengalis, I first read his pather panchali and cried like a river. I first came across this book when I was studying in raisina bengali school, delhi and instantly started to dote after durga. And that girl still holds a piece of my heart, and always will. With time I started to pity sarbajaya, love indir thakrun, feel ranu’s pain. But my first affection was for durga. I have read this book atleast fifty times and can read it again with great pleasure.

 

A simple story written by a fantastic writer, in gist, so simple a story, just like of human bondage by somerset maugham.. struggles of a clubfooted, ordinary boy. Pather panchali is struggle of a village boy, his entire life. Yet the magic touch of the master sculptor made the entire difference. Its one of my hot favourite books.

 

Just a little more adored is another masterpiece by him, aranyak, not very popular, even though I don’t know why, may be because most of the people don’t feel strong bonding with nature. The bonding which is reflected in every line of this book. Now, as I am writing this a piece of me is asking me to get up and get the book and start reading it. it’s a fantastic, divine story of a surveyor appointed by a landlord to chop off a forest and sell that land, how he fell in love with that forest and how it broke his heart when he had to order his people to chop it off. I will never forget those descriptions of simple life of rural people and tribals. The gorgeous beauty of virgin forest.

 

He was one of his kind writers, one of those who has left a priceless heritage for coming generations, books which can be relished again and again with same love.

Save me not from dangers

Save me not from dangers

give me the courage to face them.

I don’t want your consolation

for my aching heart, grieving soul

give me the power to overcome grief.

Don’t provide me shelter against problem

give me the strength of facing problems.

Even if I am deprived everywhere, lose all

let my soul never accept it as loss.

 

Don’t rescue me when I am in trouble

give me the power to overcome it.

Don’t carry my loads for me

give me the strength to carry it myself.

When I am happy let your face shine

in my humble, loving heart.

When the entire world turns my foe

let me not suspect your glory for a second.

Rabindranath Tagore. 

Bengali: bipode more roksha koro e nohe mor prarthana

Bow my head

Bow my head

down under your feet

drown all my arrogance

in the drops of tears.

To glorify myself

I invite insults to myself,

I waste my time flittering

around my very self.

Drown all my arrogance

in the drops of tears.

 

May I never glorify myself

in any thing I do.

Let your desires fulfill

through the life of me.

All I yearn for is

your endless peace,

your divine presence

in my very soul.

Hide my ego reveal yourself

in the lotus of my heart.

Drown all my arrogance

in the drops of tears.

 

 

 

Rabindranath Tagore.

 

Bengali: amaar matha noto kore dao

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.