Hiranmoy Lahiri. Kaleidoscope of Life: Selected Short Stories. New Delhi and Kolkata: Hawakal, 2024. ISBN-10: ‎ 8119858042 and 13:978-8119858040

Mili Das

Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay (1894-1950), a renowned Bengali author, is known outside Bengal chiefly for his novel Pather Panchali (1928). Satyajit Ray’s film adaptation of the novel in 1955 and its English translation Pather Panchali: Song of the Road by W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji in1968, brought Bandyopadhyay international acclaim. Song of the Road was part of the Indian Series of the Translations Collection of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). However, Bandyopadhyay’s short stories are equally captivating. Hiranmoy Lahiri’s translation of sixteen of Bandyopadhyay’s short fictions in Kaleidoscope of Life: Selected Short Stories partially addresses the gap in the publication market.

 

Lahiri’s collection of stories reflects the diverse lives of ordinary people. Most of these narratives focus on human relationships but there are also tales of adventure and supernatural experiences. Lahiri notes that thirteen of these stories have been translated for the first time in this volume.

 

Kaleidoscope of Life appropriately opens with the semi-autobiographical narrative “How I Began Writing” (Aamar Lekha) which records how the narrator made his debut as a short story writer at the insistence of Panchugopal, an amateur writer in the village where he worked as a school teacher. His story was published in a magazine in Calcutta. Interestingly, this debut story – “The Disregarded” (Upekshita) – appears next in Lahiri’s volume, thereby linking events in both Bandyopadhyay’s professional life and early writing career. The ‘disregarded’ in the story is a married woman in the village with whom he gradually develops a brother-sister relationship. As the story unfolds, the lady reveals that she lost her own brother early in life and thus accepts this new-found brother with intense emotion. As their relationship deepens, the narrator abruptly leaves the village without informing her. Much later, the memory of the neglected ‘elder sister’ returns to haunt him. “Discrimination” (Parthokyo) evokes images of hunger and distress during the Bengal famine of the 1940s, with the narrator reflecting on how the class-based social structure works against the poor. “The Suitcase Swap” (Baksho Bodol) is a romantic tale of a young Bengali doctor working in a tea garden in Assam who mistakenly exchanges a suitcase with a young lady on a train. The story narrates how this mix-up leads to an exchange of hearts and ultimately results in their marriage.  “Theatre Tickets” (Theaterer Ticket) captures the disappointment and sadness of a poor young couple who, after an entire day’s preparation and eager waiting, are not able to enjoy the theatre show. The show would have provided them some relaxation and a brief respite from the drudgery of their poverty-stricken lives. Through the story “The Manifestation” (Abirbhab) Bandyopadhyay reveals the poverty and helplessness of the villagers through the seemingly insignificant event of catching shoals of fish in a flooded field. “Unbelievable” (Obishyashyo) recounts the unexpected meeting of two schoolmates, reviving lost memories of their school days. However, the tragic death of the friend neutralises the new-found joy and plunges the narrator into deep mourning.

 

The volume also includes some supernatural stories. “Archaeology” (Pratnotatto) tells the story of an archaeologist who, after his discovery of a statue, is visited in his dream by the spirit of a Buddhist monk. The spirit introduces himself as Dipankar Srigyan and reveals his own story to the archaeologist. In “Gangadhar’s Peril” (Gangadharer Bipod), the main character who wants to make a quick profit, encounters the ghost of a smuggler and manages to return home safely. “Jawaharlal and God” (Jawaharlal O God) narrates how two visits to Calcutta by two ‘dignitaries’ – one the Indian Premier Jawaharlal Nehru and the other God in human form – evoke two different public receptions. While the Premier is greeted by an enthusiastic crowd, there is practically nobody to receive the God at Howrah Station. God is clearly disenchanted by humanity’s near-total lack of respect for the divine.  In “Motion Picture” (Chayachobi) the narrator recounts a story told by a well-travelled friend. It is the tale of the friend witnessing a beautiful young woman swinging on a swing without ropes tied to the branch of a tree during the last last hour of a full moon night in a forest in Kohala, a mountainous region close to Kashmir. “Taranath, the Tantrik” (Taranath Tantriker Golpo) explores the supernatural experiences of an astrologer determined to acquire knowledge of tantra from an eccentric tantric woman.

 

The volume includes four stories which manifest Bandyopadhyay’s interest in adventure and travel. In “Chyalaram’s Adventure” (Chayalaram), the eponymous protagonist, a young man from Punjab, travels during World War II to various parts of the globe and ultimately arrives in Kabul. There, he finds himself caught in the maelstrom of a civil war and helps the king escape from the strife-torn Afghanistan. In “Grandpa’s Tale” (Thakurdar Golpo), a young man, the speaker’s grandfather, was trapped decades ago in a dacoit’s house in a remote Bengal village. The speaker learns that his grandmother came from the dacoit’s family. “The Web” (Jaal) describes an old man’s passion for founding a small settlement in a forest. The narrator feels increasingly drawn to the old man’s affection but realises that he needs to make his exit.  In “Not a Story” (Golpo Noi), the narrator recounts a story he heard from a fellow traveller, a Brahmin, on a train. The Brahmin tells the narrator how he encountered and transformed Lathiyal Satish, a dacoit, while on his way to a disciple’s house in a remote village.

 

One admires the dexterity and sincerity with which Lahiri translates the stories. The translation is so effortless that one immediately gets immersed in the lives of the ordinary people the stories depict.

 

Most of the stories capture the sights and sounds of pristine villages in early twentieth-century Bengal. They offer an intimate picture of a caste- and class-divided Bengali society where women’s lives were mostly cloistered. The stories also demonstrate how the spirit of empathy transcended artificially drawn boundaries.  The narratives reflect Bandyopadhyay’s deep interest in human emotions such as hope and despair, friendship and enmity, inquisitiveness and the spirit of adventure. Readers gain insight not only into the geo-cultural reality of Bengal and beyond but also into the emotional landscape of human beings. Lahiri’s comprehensive and critical introduction will familiarise global readers with Bandyopadhyay’s creative career. The contextualisation of individual stories and the glossary at the end will also prove useful. This book will serve as an effective resource for courses on South Asian Literature, World Literature or Translation Studies.