Manik Bandopadhyay was born on 19 May 1908 and died on 3 December 1956. Manik Bandopadhyay was an Indian Bengali novelist and is measured one of the prominent lights of contemporary Bengali literature. For the period of a short lifespan of 48 years, overwhelmed consecutively by illness and monetary crisis, he made 36 novels and 177 short stories. His significant works comprise Padma Nadir Majhi (The Boatman on The River Padma, 1936) and Putul Nacher Itikatha (The Puppet’s Tale, 1936), Shahartali (Suburbia, 1941) and Chatushkone (The Quadrilateral, 1948).
Manik Bandopadhay was born in a small town named Dumka in the district of Santal Parganas in the state of Bihar in India. His actual name was Prabodh Kumar Bandhopaddhay. His house name was resultant from his pet name ‘Manik’. He was the fifth of the fourteen children (eight sons and six daughters) of his parents, Harihar Bandopadhyay and Niroda Devi. His father Harihar was a government official who toured crosswise undivided Bengal in linking with his job. This gave Manik to understanding life and living of people in various parts of Bengal in his early life.
Manik passed the entrance examination from the Midnapore Zilla School in 1926, acquiring first division with letter marks in obligatory and non-compulsory mathematics. In the same year he got admitted in Welleslyan Mission College at Bankura. Previous he studied in Kanthi Model School in Tangail.
In Welleslyan College, Manik came in contact with a professor named Jackson. Predisposed by him, Manik read the Bible and overwhelmed his religious humbleness. In 1928 he passed I.Sc. (Intermediate in Science) with first division.
He got admitted to the B.Sc. course in Mathematics at the Presidency College, Calcutta with the stimulus of his father.
In 1938 Manik Bandopadhyay started his career as the Headmaster of Mymensingh Teachers Training School. But, all through his life, writing was the only source of income for Manik Bandopadhyay and, hereafter, he deteriorated everlasting poverty. Nevertheless, for a petite despite the fact he tried to increase his earning through participation with one or two literary magazines. He worked as editor of Nabarun for a few months in 1934. For the duration of 1937–38, he worked as assistant editor of literary magazine Bangasree. He established a printing and publishing house in 1939 which turned out to be a short-lived enterprise. Also, he worked as advertising assistant for the government of India in 1943.
Once despite the datum he was with his friends in their college canteen, one of them requested him if he could distribute a story in the magazine Bichitra. The would-be novelist responded that his first story would be decent enough for the perseverance. At that time, Bichitra was a leading periodical which conceded stories only by well-known authors. Manik walked into the office of the periodical and plummeted the story “Atashimami (Aunt Atashi)” in their letter box. At the end of the story he signed off as Manik Bandhopadhay. After four months, publication of the story (in 1928) made impression in the literary spheres of Bengal and, from then on, the nom de plume stuck.
His stories and novels were circulated in literary magazines of the then Bengal. They included Bichitra, Bangasree, Purbasha, AnandaBazaar Patrika, Jugantor, Satyajug, Probashi, Desh, Chaturanga, NoroNari, Notun Jiban, Bosumati, Golp-Bharati, Mouchak, Pathshala, Rang-Mashal, NoboShakti, Swadhinata, Agami, Kalantar, Parichaya, Notun Sahitya, Diganta, Sanskriti, Mukhopotro, Provati, Ononnya, Ultorath, Elomelo, Bharatbarsha, Modhyabitta, Sharodi, Sonar Bangla, Agami, Ononya, Krishak, Purnima, Rupantar and Swaraj.
Manik Bandopadhyay published as many as 57 volumes. He also wrote poetry, but not considerable is perceived about his poems.
In a while afterward making his entrance in the world of literature in 1935 through a short story titled Atashi Mami, Manik Bandopadhay boarded upon writing novels. Publication of Diba-Ratrir Kabya in 1935 and Padma Nadir Majhi and Putul Nacher Itikotha in 1936 recognized him as the most prominent novelist Bengali literature since Bankimchandra, Rabindranath and Saratchandra. He distinguished himself with emphasis on the life of commonplace rustic and urban people, with idiomatic language and with a neat storyline. He was a pronounced storyteller who perfected his fiction with intuition into human mind. In the past works he took a Freudian methodology. In the future life, he presented inspiration of Marxist theory. His behaviour of human sexuality in Chatushkone is path-breaking.
Putul Nacher Itikatha is one of the exceptional works of Manik Bandopadhyay. In one of his letters Manik wrote that this novel was a modest protest in contradiction of those who incline to play with the lives of human being as if they were marionettes.
It was serialised in the Bharatbarsha from Poush 1341 to Agrahayana 1342. D. M. Library of Calcutta circulated it as a book in 1936. A film was fashioned based on this countless novel in 1949. The film was focussed by Asit Bandopadhyay under the banner of K. K. Productions.
Since initial life he had wriggled with poverty and epilepsy. The signs of epilepsy first textured when he was involved in writing Padma Nadir Majhi and Putul Nacher Itikatha. Sustained and persistent illness, problems and crises overwhelmed his mental temperament. Ultimately he resorted to alcohol for interval, adding to his melancholy. On 3 December 1956, he distorted and went into a coma. He was admitted to the Nilratan Government Hospital on 2 December where he died the next day. He was 48. His interment took place at Nimtala crematorium in North Calcutta. A huge crowd appeared the memorial meeting for Manik Bandopadhyay held on 7 December 1956.
Source: Wikipedia
