3 generations of illuminating Rays

Amitabha Bhattacharya

3 Rays: Stories From Satyajit Ray

Edited by Sandip Ray

Penguin Random House.

Pages 474.

Rs799

A keen primordial lunar chill,

The nightmare’s nest with bunchy frill –

My drowsy brain such glimpses steep,

And all my singing ends in sleep.

These were the last lines of a poem by Sukumar Ray about which his son Satyajit observes, “I do not know of any other humorist who could jest in this spirit at the meeting-point of life and death.”

Much of the richness of modern Bengali literature, especially for children and young adults, or children of all ages, is attributable to three generations of a single family — Upendrakishore (1863-1915), Sukumar (1887-1923) and Satyajit (1921-1992). Upendrakishore is better known for folk tales, Sukumar for nonsense rhymes and Satyajit for science and detective fiction and stories of fantasy and macabre, sometimes bordering on the supernatural. All of them were also gifted illustrators and contributed substantially to printing and typography. Understandably, they continue to be very popular among Bengali readers.

Outside the Bengali world, however, Satyajit’s renown as a film-maker has eclipsed his major achievements in literature and other fields. This book of stories and rhymes by the three Rays, translated by Satyajit, would serve to correct that perspective, acting as a bridge between the authors and the vast hitherto unreached book lovers. It provides a fair glimpse of their writings, illustrations and cover designs, and is a comprehensive text in English of representative outputs of the three legends.

Fortunately, Satyajit, with his command over both Bengali and English, was also a grand translator. He translated in rhyme his father’s poetry, conveying the sense of fun and the absurd. According to Satyajit’s son Sandip, “Baba started translating Sukumar’s nonsense rhymes quite unexpectedly, while waiting at an airport lounge due to a long flight delay…” and “during the post-recovery period from his heart ailment, Baba turned to translation once again because he was stuck for original story ideas, and thus there was a phase when he translated quite a few of his own stories at one stretch”.

This book is more than a compilation of some well-known works of the three Rays, though mainly of Satyajit. For example, it has Satyajit’s film treatment of his grandfather’s story published in 1915 in the children’s magazine ‘Sandesh’ (founded by Upendrakishore and later revived by Satyajit). Based on it, Satyajit made the fantasy-musical film ‘Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne’ (Goopy The Singer, Bagha The Drummer, 1969), which turned out to be a blockbuster.

The story ‘Bonkubabu’s Friend’, originally published in 1962, about a benign alien creature descending on a bamboo orchard in a Bengal village and establishing friendly contact with a primary schoolteacher, the humble Bonkubabu, is a precursor to Ray’s proposed film ‘The Alien’, with Peter Sellers in lead. The film never got made, but this idea of a loveable alien was influential. Satyajit’s stories are full of original ideas. Why Ashamanjababu’s Dog laughed? Was Bipin Choudhury’s Lapse of Memory real? Why was Patolbabu, Film Star disappointed? The intriguing Life and Death of Aryashekhar!

Arousing the curiosity and sustaining readers’ interest till the end are hallmarks of good literature. When Einstein was a child, his father presented him with a magnetic compass that ignited his imagination. This veritable treasure trove from one of India’s most creative families, produced brilliantly with style and imagination, would surely enthuse the readership it is intended for. A companion for unalloyed delight.

The book can perhaps have a sequel that would comprise translations by other notables, such as Sukanta Chaudhuri, who did so for the poem quoted earlier. The National Translation Mission may well use this volume to get some of the writings translated into various Indian languages. That would be a fitting gesture during the birth centenary celebration of Satyajit Ray.