Bangla Boi(Bangla E-books Free Download and All are taken from Web): AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Premankur Atorthy: (1 January 1890 – 13 October 1964) was a novelist, journalist, and film director, born in Faridpur. His father, Mahesh Chandra Atorthy, was a propagator and writer of the brahma samaj. Premankur's initial schooling started at Brahmo School, Kolkata. He then studied variously at Duff School, Keshab Academy, City School and Brahma Boys Boarding and Day School
Premankur was imaginative and fond of adventure from boyhood. Failing to do well in his studies, he ran away to Bombay. At Bombay he learnt to play the sitar under Ustad Karamatullah. Returning to Kolkata, he started working at a sports goods shop in Chowringee. Subsequently, he worked for the Baikali, Yadughar, Hindustan, bharatvarsha, Sangkalpa, Nachghar and bharati. He also edited the Betarjagat, the Bangla magazine of All-India Radio.
Premankur entered the cinema world with a role in the Bangla film Punarjanma. He also directed movies, first for a film studio in Lahore and then for the New Theatres Ltd, Kolkata. Among the movies which he directed are Dena Paona Kapalkundala, Dikshul, Bharat Ki Beti, Sudhar Prem, Ihudi Ki Ladki.
Premankur was also a novelist. Among his novels are Anarkali (1925), Bajikar (1929), Chasar Meye (1924), Takht Taus, Mahasthabir Jatak (3 vols, 1944–54).

MOHASTHOBIR JATOK

She spent her childhood 'reading Kashiram Das’s Mahabharata and Krittibas’s Ramayana. She learnt the Bengali script from these books and was considered literate by the villagers of Dighpait in Bangladesh where she lived with her widowed pishi. Most of her neighbours were farmers, many were refugees from India, who brought with them Bengali translations of Laila Majnu or parts of the Koran and Sunanda Sikdar alias Dayamayee would read these aloud to them. She never went to school in her village because in those days, girls and boys were not allowed to attend the same school. Little did she know that her rustic life would one day become a story that others would read.

The ten golden years of her life in her village Bangladesh as Dayamayee, is what Sunanda Sikdar writes about in her book Dayamayeer Katha. She started writing only to get rid of her depression. Through restless nights, she scribbled her emotions and experiences on pieces of paper. She was crestfallen when she heard that her Majumda had died. He was the caretaker of her paternal home in Dighpait, but more than that, he was like her elder brother. She felt stiffed as she found no outlet to express herself. Eventually, her doctor asked her to jot down her emotions.

Scraps of paper formed the manuscript of an award-winning novel. Sunanda Sikdar never thought that an account of her childhood would one day 'win her literary prizes. First came the Shera Bangali Puashkar and the Leela Award from Calcutta University in 2008 and then the Ananda Puraskar in 2010.

Sunanda Sikdar nee Bhowmick, made waves in literary circles. She still wonders how it all happened. Had it not been for Asru Kumar Sikdar, a writer and a relative, the papers would still be collecting dust in her room. “He asked me to publish it. I had refused initially but finally gave in. All I did was to compile was to compile the writings for him," said Sikdar. The rest is history and Dayamayeer Katha is now in its ninth edition published by Gangchil.

Affter winning the first two awards, Sikdar grabbed the first opportunity to go back to her village in 2009. “Some residents of Bally, who were visiting a neighbouring village, offered to to Dighpait. I was very happy to go there. A lot has changed smce I left. The school that once had a thatched roof now has a tin shade. Farmers get a good yield from their crop each year and do not have to buy rice. The villagers have a better lifestyle. What was most striking was that there were no religious differences between the Hindus and the Muslims any more. I was told that the 1971 war had changed all that," said Sikdar. An evening of kirtan was organised while she was there and Sunanda was delighted to see a number of
Muslims in the audience. A feast of khichuri, labra and payesh was arranged and women of both communities got together to cook the meal. " Considering that there was so much c ommunal tension at one time, I was pleasantly surprised to see the two communities living in harmony." said Sikdar.

Although Bally has been home to Sikdar for the past 48 years, the 10 years of her llfe in Dighpait still come back to her. Her Widowed pishima was very close to her. She shared a somewhat distant relationship with her own mother. “My mother; Suprabha Bhowmick, was a school headmistress in Mymensingh. When our family moved to India, she became the headmistress of Bally Girls’ School. I have heard that she was instrumental in developing the school. I had minimal interaction with my mothen because I was separated from her when I was only eight months old and I would see her occasionally, when I came on holidays w1th my aunt. My mother was forced to keep me away because those tunes were bad. She had to run a school and there wasn't enough money to feed me said Sikdar. It was only after she turned 11, that she came to 11ve with her parents 1n Bally. "The Shlfl was necessary for my educatlon. My pzshzma sold off some of the property at Dlghpalt and accompamed me to Bally. I would not live without her and she felt that I would not get any education if I continued living in the village,” she said.

Life Started afresh for Sunanda who had so far lived a pampered life as Dighpait’s Dayamayee. For a a girl who had never been to School, it was tough for her to join class VII in her mother's school. “I could not follow what was happening in class,” she said. One day; Sunanda ran away from school with her Hindi answer script. “I could not recognise the Devanagari script. I was too scared and ran away with my answer sheet. Later my teachers came home to take the sheet back," said Sunanda.

Her school life was full of such incidents. Her mother, unaware of her daughter’s plight, had forced her to study Science, but eventually she had to give it up. “My mother was highly educated and thought that learning came naturally. She never really bothered to look into my problems. Besides, she was too busy with her work,” said Sunanda. “We were seven brothers and sisters and I was the youngest. Since two of my brothers were studying engineering, my mother felt that I, too, must study science. Howeven I was not inclined towards it,” she said. After overcoming the initial hurdles, Sunanda managed to complete school and also graduated from Raja Pyaremohan college in Uttarpara.

Handling cash was also a new experience for Sunanda after she left her vi1lage. "‘I had never seen money when I lived in Dighpait. The barter system was prevalent there. Men carried a variety of household items in boats to the riverbanks and would exchange them for rice grains. I would watch pishima bargain with them," she said. When she came to live in Bally, Sunanda would often have to go to the market. "My mother would send me out so that I could get familiar with the place," she said.

It was on one of these expeditions that Sunanda discovered Bally Sadharana Granthagar. " This was my place of refuge. I spent long hours in the library reading. I was surprised to see such a huge library. I walked in and was amazed to see skeoet many books in one place.I still remeber Sushil Mukhopadhyay, one of the library's caretakers, who helped me find book. Since I was not a member, I could not bring back books home," said Sunanda. It was there that Sunanda came across some rare books. She read the translations of Rig Vedas by Ramesh Dutta and also transaled version of the Upanishads. After reading Kaliprasanna Singha's Mahabharata, Sunanda realised that it was a far better work than Kashiram Das's version of the epic.

Sunanda read her favourite author, Rabindranath, but secretly. " I would steal the voulmes one by one from my mother's room and put them back once I finished. I would not tell any one, lest they tease in 1974 and had to shift to north Bengal. But that was for a brief period of three years until her husband, who worked with a bank, took a transfer to Calcutta. "Once we returned to Calcutta, I visited my mother and pishima at Bally regularly and also came to the library. Gradually I brought this house and we shifted here." said Sikdar.

The 48 eventful years of her life afte she left Bangladesh will follow as a sequel.

DOYAMOYIR KOTHA