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| Sunday, March 21, 2004 |
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| Sunday, March 21, 2004 |
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Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne: The Magical World of
Upendrakishore Roychoudhury
The present book is a selection of the best of his stories and the most fascinating of his characters. The stories were originally written in Bengali and have been impeccably translated in a by Delhi-based physicist, Swagata Deb. The 18 tales contained in the book have been aptly divided into tales of men, grandmothers, birds, foxes and cat. The action of the title story, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (gyne means singer and bagha byne means a tiger-like drummer), takes place in an imaginary land. Goopy and Bagha are musicians (sans talent) whose music draws ridicule from the villagers and their own family members. Subsequently, they are thrown out of the village to display their talents in a jungle where the only audience they are able to charm are the ghosts. Equipped with the magical gifts — instant food and clothing, instant travel and musical talent that can spellbind audience — given by the ghosts, they arrive in the kingdom of Halla where they are able to please the ruler with their music. In the course of events, their music saves the annexure of the kingdom of Halla by the king of Shundi. As a reward, they are married to the two daughters of the king of Halla and also given half of Shundi to rule. The book also contains tales of other fascinating characters like Kenaram Becharam, granny hunchback, Tuntuni, the little bird, Majantali Sarkar, the clever fox, and many others. The stories have all the ingredients found in children’s literature — talking animals, magical shoes, dancing ghosts and fantastic settings. The language is simple, witty and meant to entertain. The language in the book is mostly appropriate to the location and plot. However, some of the original flavour is understandably lost in translation. While translating texts, the translator has to decide whether to go in for direct translations that maintain the flavour of the original, or translate colloquial regional language (in this case Bengali) into colloquial English. In this book the translator has adopted the latter course with a fair amount of success. The translation of the original Bengali into English definitely ensures that the stories get a wider audience but the book still lacks a cosmopolitan flavour. It may be taken into account that even the movie made by Satyajit Ray did not do well abroad, though it did catch the fancy of the local audience. About six months after its release in Bengal, Ray wrote to Maria Seton, "It is extraordinary how quickly it became part of the popular culture. Really, there isn’t a single child in the city who doesn’t know and sing the songs (from the film)." Andrew Robinson, Ray’s biographer, says that the film owes its failure abroad to the fact that its legends, wit and lyrics cannot be translated effectively. All in all, the book is highly recommended for children of all ages. The stories are still a pleasure to read decades after they were written. They are sure to grip the imagination of the young and shape a world of possibilities in their minds. |
GRANDFATHER of legendary film director and writer
Satyajit Ray, Upendrakishore Roychoudhury was a remarkably gifted man
— writer, illustrator, musician and amateur astronomer. His stories
for children, which were written a century ago, included stories of the Mahabharata
and Ramayana. These gave a great impetus to children’s
writing in Bengal. His most lasting contribution was establishing Sandesh,
the immensely popular Bengali magazine for children. Goopy Gyne Bagha
Byne has become one of his most popular works, courtesy the very
popular film (of the same name) made by his grandson, Satyajit Ray, in
1968.
