নোট বই (Note Book) সুকুমার রায় Sukumar Ray, Recited by Anil K Bera অনিল কুমার বেরা, RC: Shaswata Ray

This was my introduction to Sukumar Ray’s AbolTabol (আবোল তাবোল) at the Bengali Students Organization (UIUC) Alaap 2023, Saturday Oct 7.

Shaswata Ray, Ph.D Student, Economics Department, UIUC, recorded this.

For my non-Bengali Friends:
Sukumar Ray (1887 – 1923) passed away on 10th September. Nine days after that, i.e., on 19th September, 1923 his first book Abol Tabol (The Weird and the Absurd) was published. Thus 2023 marks the 100-years of Abol Tabol. That time his son, the legendary film director, Satyajit Ray (1921 – 1992) was only two years old.

Sukumar Ray (SR) started a friendly Club called Monday, though he used to call it Monda (মণ্ডা)। Likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, Kali Das Nag, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (PCM), Atul Prasad Sen and Satyendra Nath Dutta were regulars in that Club.

PCM (with help from SR) wrote a book, কেন রবীন্দ্রনাথকে চাই Why do you need Rabindranath in 1921 . Here is a link to that Book from the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Library: http://library.isical.ac.in:8080/.../...

My introduction to the poem AbolTabol (আবোল তাবোল) was through a senior student Rahamat (রহমত) in our Paschimchak Primary School (PPS). That was 1963, Rahamat was in Class-IV, & I in III. He used to live in an one room hut with his mother. We never saw his father. Rahamat used to come to School once in while. Thus our Headmaster Girish Chandra Pradhan gave him a Honorary Title of Visiting Student. In spite of big age difference Rahamat and I were very close. He had this huge natural talent of acting, reciting & many other things. I think, from Rahamat I learnt the beauty of the hilarious poems and dramas of SR. Unfortunately, he didn't sit for the Class-IV Final Exams. Also didn't returned to PPS. One day he just vanished. Some said, he went to Calcutta to work as bricklayer. Anyway for me, even after more than sixty years Rahamat is very fresh in my mind & I am, ever grateful to him for unravelling the charms of SR's literary work to me.