Looking for pearls in an oyster
Subrata Kumar Das finds a philosophical man
IF I am asked, "What is or what should be your philosophy of life?" I'll simply reply, "This universe is the expression of unadulterated and unfathomable love. That 'love' is the single reason of the expression of me too. So, my only philosophy is to realise that love and spread it as much as possible. My appearance on this earth is also for this. ... The height of a man can be measured with the power and sphere of his love.' Nuhul, the protagonist of the debut novel Nuhuler Monchitro by Sheikh. Almamun expresses his ideologies this way. Yes, no doubt, it sounds really very philosophical, which the novel abounds in wholeheartedly. The novel opens with Nuhul, in an illusive mental state. And gradually he delves into his childhood days to the recent present. At such moments when the writer attempts to present the shaping of Nuhul's personality in his early life, we find Tarab, Nuhul's father, state his own views on the idea. The beautiful picturization of Tarab's childhood and adolescence are related, with the concomitant disputes and dilemmas. In the beginning comes the dilemma between Bangalis and Noluas. Tarab belongs to the ethnic group called Nolua, who are rather few in number and live in a remote village in the district of Mymensingh. He is a descendant of the Nolua community, whose profession is making household things from a type of bamboo called 'noli'. Along with this Tarab gets entangled with two other conflicts: one is his interaction with David Morris, a European representative of the nearby Christian church, and the other is Tarab's romantic involvement with a Garo girl, which actually is discouraged in his community. Gradually we meet a philosophical man in Tarab who wants to discover the root of his community; and when he gets the clue that it might be in India's Orissa that he will come across people of his own community, Tarab loses little time in starting out for the unknown place. Returning from there, Tarab changes his profession and goes looking for pearls in oysters. The story of Tarab proves really interesting and it is instrumental in paving the way for his son Nuhul to become a purely philosophical man. At the end of Tarab's own story we find his resolute approach where he is determined to bring up his son as a different personality, unlike his fellow community members. At the beginning of the novel, we get introduced to Nuhul talking to a person, in his spell, who seems to be the college girl he did not talk to but whom he had placed in his mind. Sometimes it seems that the discourse that goes on with philosophical ideas and thoughts are actually two different facets of Nuhul's own self. At a point it gradually becomes evident that Nuhul is actually looking for answers to some questions the questions that every individual tries to ask and find answers to on his own. Nuhul, like many other individuals before him, is also trying to shape and reshape those answers that he has discovered through his own experience of life. His plan is to publish those findings, or answers, in the form of a book not to become a popular writer but rather to give a detailed exposition of his discovery. While engaged thus, Nuhul begins with his early days when the intellect of an individual acquires shape and substance. Nuhul's story includes his family and friends, but mostly his grandfather, classmate Siddique and Haridas Babu, who are in many respects different from his other acquaintances. But the incident that devastates Nuhul's adolescence is his inevitable physical attachment with his Nargis Apa, daughter of his eldest uncle. During this period, Nuhul learns terms like 'Marxism'. He then leaves for Mymensingh to acquire college education. The days spent at college days, outside of his home, give a new shape to Nuhul's mindscape. He develops a plan to write books and so after graduation he settles in his village and educates the children of his own community. But Nuhul's plans are not received will by people around him neither his family nor the society he is part of. He eventually decides to spend some days in seclusion, out of sight of all his acquaintances. During his exile, Nuhul meets a sanyasin who teaches him how to control the six temptations desire, anger, greed, pride, envy and disgrace. During his days there he gets introduced to the caves that teach man how to control one's own self. By the time Nuhul returns from the sanyasin, he is a changed man inwardly as well as outwardly. But society cannot take him in easily some comment that he has been in the spiritual way, some call him a fake. On the other hand, the girl living inside his mind flashes frequently, owing to which he again decides to leave society for the cave. On his way from the cave on a boat trip, a nor'wester dishevels him, and eventually we find him floating on the muddy river shore, with some torn pages of his dairy which are in fact the manuscript of his long-planned book. Nuhuler Monchitro is an overlapping of 'bildungsroman' and philosophical novels. Every reader will possibly enjoy the way Almamun delineates the character of Nuhul. In this respect the other bildungsroman novels written in Bengali could be remembered. Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's (1894-1950) Pather Panchali and Humayun Azad's (1948-2004) Sab Kichhu Bhenge Pare are the best instances in this regard. Sulekha Sanyal's (1928-62) Nobangkur or Akimun Rahman's (b. 1959) Roktopunje Gethe Jaua Machhi are also worthy examples from a woman's point of view. Nuhuler Monchitro will increase the list, no doubt. We have also come across novels that tell of philosophical ideologies. In this context the Bengalis will easily recall Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. The power of the novel starts from the cover page and persists right till the last one. The art work by Sabyasachi Hazra shows a somewhat different image which actually relates to something supranatural. Even the dedication page signifies the bravura of the novelist by using the water shadow of his mother's bust, an inconceivable boon done by any serious writer in Bangla language. All the fifteen divisions of the book have a small text of a front page, a gemlike thing, which could be citable for its brevity. The bearded longhaired face of the novelist in the last flap declares that he does not consider himself a writer till date. No doubt, Nuhuler Monchitro is a very meticulous production by Sangbed. Error-free books are probably a rarity in Bangladesh's publishing industry. But Pervez Hossain, the publisher, is deserving of appreciation for his diligent and good performance.
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