Poet and children’s books writer Sunirmal Basu passed away on this day. His sparkling, lively verses keep delighting readers.
Basu, born in 1902, spent his childhood in Santhal Parganas. The beauty of nature around him there first inspired him into poetry. He wrote poetry from an early age. He enrolled at St Paul’s College, Calcutta, but did not complete his studies after joining Mahatma Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement. He was a painter, too. He had studied at the art college started by Abanindranath Tagore.
With poems, he wrote many stories, novels, and plays for children. His books include Haoar Dola, Chhanabora, Chhander Tung-Tang, Kipte Thakurda and Tuntunir Gaan.
His poetry was remarkable for his light touch, its rhymes and its springing rhythm.
In one of his well-known poems, featuring the stock Bengali characters Habuchandra the king and Gabuchandra his prime minister, Habuchandra orders Gabuchandra to declare that crying is banned in the kingdom; everyone must laugh all the time. The subjects learn to only laugh and forget how to cry. That disappoints the king, because another of his laws demands that at least one person is to be impaled to death every day for breaking the law, and he bursts into tears. Which compels him to offer himself up for the punishment.
