He is a Bengali and translates Marathi literature

Here is the twenty eighth unforgettable character in my life …

There is hardly any Bengali who does not fancy himself as another poet worthy of recognition, he is no exception. A writer in his own right – he writes poetry as well as short stories and essays but has made a name for himself in translating works of Marathi authors. He has recently completed a work for the Sahitya Academy and, in his spare time, both in office and home, he writes and writes – it is a hobby for him. He subscribes to umpteen small magazines and has seen his name in print several hundred times. This passion of his brought us together – he was the architect of printing Bengali magazines from Nashik, first it was cyclostyled and later printed.

When we decided to print the magazine, we had to generate funds – getting ads was the best way because, once you were able to convince the opposite side, you got more than your money’s worth. I have written elsewhere about the way we would get the matter into computer language and get the magazines printed- I will not dwell on that again, but the struggle to get ads was something that took its toll – we forgot all about our domestic lives.
Throughout the whole week we would take it in turns to do the data entry and setting of the pages, and the Sundays were reserved for ad drives. The industrial area was a good twenty five kilometers away and, on Sunday mornings, we would leave the house after breakfast – his scooter was the means of propulsion. He would drive and together we would go from one company to another – we would meet with success but failures were more.
Still, thanks to his determination, we did manage to generate adequate funds for as many as eight quarterly issues. We would have tea and snacks on roadside eateries and never faced any ill effects. However, when he was detected as being a patient of diabetes, we had to control our outdoor activities. Gradually, we had to close the project.
He is now a retired man and lives with his writings, his racks are overcrowded with complimentary copies – he gets these in abundance rather than honorariums. He travels to various destinations to participate in annual get together of writers and of literary associations and societies. He has not received any great recognition but is happy to contribute his bit towards Bengali literature with his translations of Marathi literature.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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