Shankar's real name is Mani Shankar Mukherjee. Sankar is a very popular writer in the Bengali language. He grew up in Howrah district of West Bengal, India. Shankar's father died while Shankar was still a teenager, as a result of which Shankar became a clerk to the last British barrister of the Calcutta High Court, Noel Frederick Barwell. The experience of working under Mr. Barwell provided the material for his first book Koto Ojanare (唳曕Δ 唳呧唳距Θ唳距Π唰�), translated as The Great Unknown. During 1962, Shankar conceived the idea of writing the novel Chowringhee on a rainy day at the waterlogged crossing of Central Avenue and Dalhousie - a busy business district in the heart of Kolkata. Many of Shankar's works have been made into films. Some notable ones are - Chowringhee, Jana Aranya (唳溹Θ-唳呧Π唳`唳�, translated as The Middleman) and Seemabaddha (唳膏唳唳Ζ唰嵿Η, out of which the last two were directed by Satyajit Ray.
唳呧Θ唳苦Θ唰嵿Ζ唰嵿Ο 唳膏唳ㄠ唳︵Π 唳忇唳熰 唳啷� It encouraged me to work hard and help people. 唳多唳曕Π 唳忇Π 唳侧唳栢唳� 唳оΠ唳� 唳呧Ω唳距Η唳距Π唳`イ 唳唳班 唳唳熰唳� 唳唳� 唳曕Σ唳膏 唳唳澿唳� 唳唳灌Π啷� Will read it again and again.
The Great Unknown - Sankar Rating - 3.75/5 Translated from Bengali by Soma Das.
Koto Ajanare - The Great Unknown is the first novel by Sankar. This book took form when literary bug had just then bitten Sankar. Sankar was then working as a clerk to the last British Barrister of Calcutta Noel Fredrick Barwell.
My first Sankar book was Chorwinghee - translated by Arunav Sinha, and that book had impressed me way too much that I found other Sankar writings which I had read or was reading (The Middleman and The Great Unknown) to be rather okayish and ordinary.
As a clerk to the barrister - Sankar met lots of people rather clients of the barrister who came to settle their legal disputes. Along with them they brought their stories. This book is a documentation of their stories most precisely from a legal implication standpoint. Apart from these there are stories of other barristers too, who had their share of legal experiences and some of their personal side of life too. There are stories of other babus and their experiences in the legal ecosystem too.
Overall, one wishes to or not, many of the stories are glued together by the commonality of law, 1950's Calcutta, poverty, post colonial India. What I did find missing was much more details into the personal life of Noel Fredrick Barwell, infact, he was married to Marion Barwell, but not a trace of mentioning in the book exists. Nor details on the personal side of Sankar. It was a bit of let down (ever so slightly) as one expects a little bit of oneself in what is termed as semi-autobiographical work, one cannot have everything as an outward projection.
The reason for me to find the stories monotonous because as a reader, I knew what to expect out of each story (if not precisely). A client approaches the barrister for some legal problem and you get to hear the story of the client, nature of dispute or complications.
The stories seemed okayish because in the contemporary era, one has access to news, newspaper, social media, online platforms and much more, so there is less likely stories like these haven't been heard of or read before. So each story hardly took a turn around the corner of surprise. This is where Chorwinghee was much ahead in terms of depth and surprises.
Also the narrator of the story stays with you for a short while may be like 20-25 pages then you end up with another. So there is no collaboration or planting a particular seed of thought in one story which takes shape in another story. Each story is more or less atomic.
Another reason I also felt that, the storyline and agenda seems outdated because with the advancement these days, there are more sophisticated and complicated legal issues. The issues mentioned here seemed to be from a bygone era, though lend a very rustic charm to the reader. Nevertheless, a good read.
An absolutely lovely portrait of the Calcutta High Court of the 1950s, Sankar's the Great Unknown is a prime example of why we Indians should translate (and read translations) more. Sankar brings alive the life and times of a different India, and opens up a slice of history for us; the novel is more or less an autobiographical account, which just makes its stories all the more enthralling.
Sankar's journeys in English continue with the critically acclaimed Chowringhee and Thackeray Mansion (both out in gorgeous Penguin editions, and both of which I'll read this year); to readers everywhere and to Indians especially, these translations are a gift.