Pather Panchali [Song of the road] - Bibhutibhushan Banerjee

Pather Panchali

Genre: Classic
Story line: An account of childhood of two deprived yet happy children
Sum up: Masterpiece
Target readers: Serious/Mature
Number of pages: 360

Though it has been a long time since I had actually read this book, I felt like starting this blog with a "punch". Those who have read this book would know what I mean. I might be stoned at by fans of the great Ray [for those who don’t know what I am talking about, the book was made into a movie by Satyajit Ray, and arguably, considered to be his best work till date], but when I saw the movie after reading the book, the latter left me with little impact. The slow seduction of a book against the racing pace of a movie can always be quarreled about. To be clichéd, I would say that the whole build-up of characters in a book is left to the imagination of the readers, giving more scope for something close to an emotional attachment.

This was not the first time I had felt, if only I knew Bengali… With due respect to the translators [Thomas Welbourne Clark and Tarapada Mukhopadhyaya] it could have been a more enchanting experience to read the book in its original tongue. I would really appreciate it if someone who has read the book in Bengali would share his/her experience with me. In fact, it is said that the translators were struck translating the title itself, and could not decide whether the English version of the book should be called Story of the road, Bend of the road, or Song of the road! I believe this is the reason why the book covers flaunt the original name more than the translated one. But having said that, I should also add that in regional writing it is easier to bring out the land’s own rustic feel, as opposed to narrating a local tale in a foreign language. Hats off to the translators for that “extra” effort, which has been successful in retaining the crudeness of a local language to a large extent.

Being a school teacher himself, Bibhuthibhushan must have been apparently inspired by the variety of kids he taught. Also, a clear warning would be that this book is not anyway close to R.K.Narayan’s Malgudi days, which unfortunately, was the initial impression given to me by my friend. Though both the books deal with the childhood of kids in small villages in India, the similarity ends there. Pather Panchali is definitely not a “happy read” if I am allowed to say so. Even the silliest plight of the children searching for anything that passes as edible in the forest does not exactly tickle your funny bones.

Still, it is one of the very few books you not only laugh and cry with while reading, but also something which you live with in your memory forever.