Bridge to Global Literature
₹249.00
Meet Achintya, Pabitra, Nripen, Asfakul, and Hyder— five seventh-grade boys in a sleepy town in Bengal with too much imagination and far too little supervision. When their classmate Ananda moves to the big city, the gang finds themselves aimless—until inspiration strikes. In a grand tribute to their absent friend (and to escape the tedium of small-town school life), they decide to open a public library. What begins as a sincere idea soon spirals into a riot of fibs, thefts, and fabricated tales. From stealing books to swindling unsuspecting patrons, the boys’ makeshift library becomes a hilarious stage for childhood cunning, schoolyard justice, and the eternal quest for adventure. Shyamal Gangopadhyay’s beloved story crackles with wit, nostalgia, and the bittersweet honesty of growing up. Translated into English for the first time, Mister Blake of Standard VII is a comic coming-of-age tale with a heart—reminding us of the joy and chaos of youthful idealism and how a little mischief can sometimes make great literature.
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Shyamal Gangopadhyay was born on March 25, 1933, in Khulna, present-day Bangladesh. He received his primary education at Khulna Zilla School. After Partition, he came to Kolkata and completed his undergraduate degree with Honours. During his student years, Shyamal Gangopadhyay became involved in politics. He also worked for two and a half years at a steel plant in Belur, where he melted steel, before returning to Kolkata, where he taught for about a year and a half. Finally, in 1956, after completing his graduation, he joined Sahapur Mathuranath Vidyapith, a school in South Kolkata, as a teacher. Soon after, he joined Anandabazar Patrika, and later moved to Jugantar. While at Jugantar, he was entrusted with the responsibility of editing the weekly Amrit. From 1990 until his death, he was associated with Aajkal. He also wrote under the pen name Balaram in the “Bhumilakshmi” section of Anandabazar, and under the pseudonym Baikuntha Pathak in the weekly Amrit. His first novel, Brihannala, was later published under the title Arjuner Agnyatabas. In total, he wrote around eighty books. Among his works for young readers, Sadhu Kalachand is a notable novel. In 1993, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Shahajada Darashuko. He was also honoured with the Bibhutibhushan, Tarashankar, Bhuwalka, Shiromani, Motilal, and Sarvabharatiya Katha awards.
Tapas Kumar Sen attended the Metropolitan Institution (Main), a school established by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in 1864. He later graduated with honors in English from Scottish Church College and completed his Master’s in English at Calcutta University via Presidency College (now known as Presidency University). He developed a particular passion for poetry during this time. While at university, he began translating poems between English and Bengali. Eventually, two of his translations were published in some obscure magazines, though he no longer remembers their names. While searching for a job, he found work in the banking sector, an area that was entirely new for him. Despite this unfamiliarity, he completed a full term of service in a state-owned bank. It was much later that he started translating Bengali stories and novels into English, purely for the love of the craft and the excitement it brought him. Mister Blake of Standard VII is his first complete work of translation.
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| ISBN | 9789349207899 |
| Pages | 108 |
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