A man lives forever … if not in person but through his work – he lives forever. Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay is one of my favorite Bengali writer …. though my bengali is poor (it takes me about 20 minutes to read a page) but still I try to read and enjoy his descriptive way of writing.

In his stories one can feel the real Bengal …. the essence of wet soil on the muddy curvy road – the sunset beyond the bamboo trees – the cool breeze after sunset on a summer night – the unknown floral plant half sunken from the river bank …. and so many more. One may not have been there or seen these places but still they can visualize it without fail.

As i’m a nature loving person …. i love all his stories but yes some are very sad (like “Mouri phool”) – the story indeed is very sad but his description of nature is so vivid and yet so simply that one gets involved in the story completely … and i guess that makes the story more sad as it seems that it’s all happening in front of you n you cannot do anything about it.

Recently from Kolkata … i bought 2 books of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay. One is a novel (Path-er Pachali) and the other is a collection of short stories. Some of my favorite short stories are : “Pu-i Macha” – “Brijahom o tar badha” – “Nadi-r dar-e Bari” – “Tara nath tantrik ke golpo” … I definitely leave out all the sad stories after reading it once. “Mou-ri phool”, “Kinor Dol”, “Megh molhar” …. for me these are extremely sad stories.

People may say that “Pu-i macha” is sad too … but it has a touch of happiness. The girl may die around whom the story is written but the nice thing is that she was loved by her family esp. by her mother who seemed to be hard on her but by heart she loved her daughter … this really touched me n so it’s my most favorite.

Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay lived in Berakpur (at his father’s house) n at Ghatshila (he has his own house)…. On 1 November, 1950, he died of a heart attack while staying at Ghatshila …. May God bless his soul n rest in peace !!!