Monday, May 4, 2015

Phatik Chand

Phatik Chand is a celebrated Bengali Novel, or children's novel to be precise, penned by Satyajit Ray and translated by Lila Ray. It has been translated into English by Lila Ray. It was filmed in the year 1983,the directorial debut of his only son Sandip Ray. Stills from the film are included in the book.

While I started reading, I was not much impressed, but when I read on, my dislike got quickly transformed into deep 'likes', and I became all for Bablu and Harun da.What a lovely relationship is it! It reminded me of Tagore's Kabulivala and Mini.

The book is widely read and reviewed , so I don't attempt to elaborate. However, let me jot down the  lines from the book, as is my practise:

"This earth is ours now.What's it but a ball? So are the planets all of them,Jupiter, Mars, Mercury,Venus, Saturn.They spin around the Sun and the moon spins around the earth. But they never bump into each other.Think of of it. Is there a bigger juggling act than that? Look at the night sky and you'll see what I mean.Remember this when you take these balls in your hands." Harun the juggler to Bablu.

" Do you think you can't be an artist living in a big house and going to school? It's balls I juggle.You can try juggling with words,colors, with tunes!Think of that!You'll have something worth juggling with and you'll know what kind of an artist you can become."Again Harun to Bablu.

I couldn't find who Lila Ray was. Initially I thought she is Satyajit Ray's wife, but his wife's name is Bijoya Ray  as per wiki.