Shrikant, a novel by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, is one literary piece that I think has portrayed a very true picture of India of that period. Any indigenous literary work always gives you more contentment than a foreign piece and that is why when we were growing up, my mother made us read Hindi or translations of other Indian languages.
Chatterjee fascinated me the most. He had this impeccable ability of describing the milieu of his era. Despite the poverty and backbreaking struggle of the family, the various characters that Chatterjee has mentioned in his novel Shrikant touched me deeply.
In Shrikant, he paints the picture of a man who goes through a relationship and various other experiences across 20 years. The protagonist has so many layers to his persona that it seems you are discovering a whole new world with every other chapter.
The book is thought to be semi-autobiographical and that is why it speaks even more about the times. Bengal, then, was going through a stage when some swore by traditional Bengali culture, while others were progressing into a modern lifestyle. Movements like Brahmo Samaj were gaining pace but the Brown Sahib culture existed too. So, there was a dilemma in everyone’s life and that was evident in Chatterjee’s characters. The beauty in his books also lay in the little intricate details that he mentions — like a little child hankering for rasogullas or a kid running after a firefly or a boatman singing a song while rowing.
Another interesting element in his novels was the portrayal of the Devdas syndrome. I remember my father mentioning how his friends didn’t marry their entire life because they were not allowed to marry the girl they loved. Such a condition really existed during those times and was beautifully portrayed by Chatterjee.
Alka Raghuvanshi is an art curator
As told to Priyanka Bhadani