PAYING HOMAGE TO BIBHUTIBHUSHAN BANDYOPADHYAY

  

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay - 12 September 1894 – 1 November 1950) was an Indian writer in the Bengali language.

His childhood home was at Barrackpore village, near Gopalnagar, Banagram (now Bangaon), North 24 Parganas of West Bengal. From the fifth grade, Bandyopadhyay studied at Bongaon High School, one of the oldest institutions in British India, and was considered a talented student.

Bibhutibhushan had a spectacular narrative style, he was adept in touching upon intricate details of every corner of rural Bengal along with the minute emotions that humans suffer from –death, separation, desolation, or birth.

His best-known works are the autobiographical novels Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (Undefeated), Chander Pahar (Mountain of the Moon), and Aranyak (of the forest).

He wrote with empathy and insight about the challenges of urban life, especially during the war and in its aftermath, in novels like Anubartan, which was set among a community of teachers in a school in war-ridden Calcutta (now Kolkata).

Pather Panchali is a 1929 novel written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay and was later adapted into a 1955 film of the same name by Satyajit Ray.

PatherPanchali (Song of the Road) is a vivid, moving and authentic portrayal of the life of a Brahmin house hold seen through the eyes of the two young children of the family, Opu and his elder sister Durga. Few authors in any literature can rival Bandopadhyay's understanding of the child mind.

 Pather Panchali deals with the life of the Roy family, both in their ancestral village in rural Bengal and later when they move to Varanasi in search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels.

One of the most recurring themes in the novel is how poor people being thronged by every hardship do not give up the spirit to live and even in the most adverse circumstances never shy away from cherishing the little pleasures of life and the thing that gives them hope and keeps them bonded and combats the poverty from life.

Thus, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay is considered one of the most iconic writers of modern Bengali literature and also one of the most prominent writers in the post-Tagore era.