 |
Suri, July 25: A shopkeeper in Birbhum has volunteered to hand over to the government over 100 letters written to him by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, one of Bengal’s greatest novelists whose short story Jalsaghar Satyajit Ray turned into a film.
Birendra Kumar Dutta, whose shop Bandopadhyay visited regularly and invariably forgot his cigarettes there, now wants to hand over the letters to the district administration of Birbhum, the author’s home district.
Dutta also wants to convert a part of his home in Labhpur — Bandopadhyay also lived in the same village — into a museum to showcase the author’s memorabilia.
Birendra’s son Tapas today met the district magistrate of Birbhum, Saumitra Mohan, and made the request. Some of the famous works of Bandopadhyay are Ganadevata, Dhatridevata, Hansuli Baner Upakatha and Kabi.
His house, now maintained by the local panchayat samiti, has a bed, clothes and other items used by the author. It is out of bounds for the general public.
“According to the Bengali calendar, today is Tarashankar’s birth anniversary (eighth day of Shravan). My father wishes to hand over the letters written to him by the author to the district administration for preservation. He also wants to give a room in his house to set up a museum. The letters can be put up for viewing along with the author’s belongings that are now in his house,” Tapas said.
“My father wants to increase people’s awareness about Tarashankar. He wants them to read the author’s letters. These letters bring his personality alive,” Tapas said.
Tapas said Birendra, in his mid-seventies, also had newspaper cuttings on Tarashankar dating back at least 50 years. “The letters and newspaper cuttings can be of immense help to researchers,” he added.
Birendra, who owned a small shop of construction materials, used to write for little magazines. “Tarashankar often came to my shop for adda. We discussed various topics. He used to sit for a while whenever he came and smoked Gold Flake cigarettes,” Birendra said.
“Almost every time, he used to forget to take back his cigarette packet. When I would tell him about this, he woul joke that he left behind the cigarettes for my customers,” Birendra said. “I have closed that shop and now opened a garments store beside it,” he added.
DM Mohan said a committee had been set up to facilitate the proper preservation of Bandyopadhyay’s manuscripts and his personal belongings. “I will send Birendra’s application to the committee.”