Author- Hemendra Kumar Roy
Translation- Rajat Chaudhuri
Publisher- Niyogi Books
Genre- Non-Fiction, Translation
Format- Flexibound
Length- 140 pages
ISBN- 978-9389136456
Rating- 5/5 stars
Hemendra Kumar Roy, a guiding star in the galaxy of Bangla Literature, is popularly known not only for his unmatched contribution in the field Bangla Children's Literature but also for his experiments in the genres of Crime-Fiction and Adventure with his well-known stories of " Jayanta-Manik" and "Bimal-Kumar". The book "Calcutta Nights" is a translation of his memoir "Raater Kolkata", which he wrote under the nom de plume of Meghnad Gupta (Gupta means hidden in bangla).
The memoir, published in 1923, covers the first two decades of 20th century which was a time of utter political mayhem. The author used to visit the dark and mysterious alleys of the city of Joy Kolkata alone at night to understand and explore the areas hidden from the public view. The momoir actually helps us to understand from where the author got the inspiration for the storylines of his crime fiction and adventure stories.
Divided in nine scenes, the book covers the various shades of Calcutta, the calcutta of daylight with it's hustle and bustle with the city at night with the darker shades of beauty that used to attract all the pleasure seeking people. Probably the best part of this memoir is the vast area it covers right from the Calcutta streets, chinatown, the famous and infamous hotels and restuarants to the prohibited quarters of prostitutes and beggers, the dangerous dens of druglords and thieves over the city.
Another thing that I loved the most about this book is the author's penchant for detail description coupled with his amazing writing style and narration which makes the reading far more interesting as we can actually visualize the places in our mind while reading it. I must confess that before reading this book I didn't have the slightest idea about the darker side of Calcutta.
As far as the translation of this work is concerned, author Rajat Choudhuri has done an equally commendable job.By keeping some of words in its original form he has artistically sustained the real essence of the work. It is not an easy task to translate a literary work, keeping in mind not only the beauty and gravity of the original work but also the translators are invested with the hidden responsibility of producing the translated version equally good and interesting. I must say author Rajat Choudhuri has left a mark of his own by the perfect choice of exact words and phrases to express the particular feeling.For readers who want to know in detail about some of the places and words used in the book, there is a separate section where one can find all the unknown words with the short description.
I have utterly enjoyed going through this amazing literary work and I encourage everyone to read it.
Caution: The book contains some descriptions which are not suitable for minors.
I give this book full 5 stars for the amazing content and writing style with the equally good translation by Rajat Choudhuri.
Happy Reading
Enjoyed Very Much...Great Review❤
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