Baba’s books represent an amalgamation of varied interests. From key writings of Tolstoy, Gorky, modern Russian literature and politics to British literature on farming and horticulture; from the works of Dinkar, Benipuri and Renu to books of portraits; as a child, I was never able to see his literary interests in one light or shall I say to put him in a box.
It’s been almost two decades since I first grew curious about a locked cabinet in my parent’s dresser. Inside it, stacked horizontally, lay an intriguing collection of Bangla literature, almost all of them dated 1973 along with short handwritten notes on the title pages. The books ranged from Tagore’s seminal literary treatise, Sahityer Pathe, to Gour Kishore Ghosh’s 1969 revolutionary drama, Sagina Mahato.
This Russian Colouring book called The Red Poppy with drawings by N. Obrucheva, printed in the USSR, was published by the “Malysh” Publishing House. It was bought for me by my grandafther between the late 1980s- early 1990s in Asansol.
In January 2019, while rummaging through my mother’s collection, I found an old looking book belonging to Daddy. With “Hem C Mahindra. Oxford. 1928” handwritten in ink on the partly stained page inside.
Omar Khayyam composed this collection of four-line stanza poems, or rubai, as they are known in Farsi, sometime between the late eleventh century to early twelfth century, before he died in 1131. History further made itself known in a personal and intimate way as I read the Bengali inscription on the first page – “To Priti and Dilip Bandopadhyay – on their wedding, 6.6.66”.
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