সাংবাদিক শ্রীযুক্ত শেখর দত্তের চোখে: ‘দুই ভুবন’

Celebrated Bengali novelist and short-story writer Manik Bandyopadhaya (actual name, Prabodh Kumar Bandopadhyaya) had once been asked by a publisher keen to publish a collection of his short stories to select the stories to be included in the planned volume. Manik had expressed his dilemma over the choice to be made, citing the incontrovertible fact that his creations were like his children and it was next to impossible to select and discriminate anong children.Arindam Nath, arguably Tripura's most popular police officer, may not have confronted the dilemma as he had produced a new volume of stories or closest approximations to them in the form of diary. But his creativity, keenly observant eye and aesthetic sense unmistakably underline all the stories and facets of his daily experiences in life in his fifth published book 'Dui Bhuban. Aesthetics and police service apparently go ill together because of the very nature of police service which seems to blunt any finer sensibility in otherwise sensitive human beings . But exceptions do exist and Arindam Nath personifies this in full measure.

Thus we have the opening story 'Lokti'-an outsider who had entered the town with a silver-flute and would move around aimlessly , charming people with his flute-blowing. The author was reminded of the piper of German town Hamlin who had driven away the bristling rats of the town with his tune after being promised a reward by the Mayor. He had retaliated by piping away with tune all the children of the Hamlin town after being deprived of the promised reward. The odd man out in the Agartala town resembled the piper of Hamline but stopped short of repeating the feat.

In the course of his career as an additional superinrendent of police (ASP), Dhalai. author Nath had encountered a foxy militant leader Jacob Hrankhawal; who had always given a slip to the police and security personnel. In the story titled 'Sarva Dharma Sammelan'-believed to be factually correct-NLFT comander Jacob Hrangkhawal had put his paramour Lallum Halam in the safe custody (?) of an ex-trigamous daocoit chief Milan Sarkar who had two other wives Sujata Sarkar and Nasima Bibi. They were apparently at peace and testified to changed character of ex-dacoit Milan as a big grocery owner. Dodging the police dragnet several times Jacob had finally taken away his paramour Lallum before surrendering to security forces.

Nath's incisive eyes and alert ears to even slightest deviations from normal routine of life made an impact. Thus one morning while on morning walk he listened to a middle-aged security man on march asking a school girl 'what is your name' ? It struck Nath and his companion as upsurge of 'libido' in a man of advanced age. The author's robust sense of humour comes out in sharp relief in the episodic story 'Sarameya Charitam' (character of canines) which gives in detail the movement , activities and characteristic features of stray dogs.

The tradition of short story writing as a separate genre of literature can be traced even to the very ancient age : 'Hitopadesh', 'Panchatantra' and the ennobling stories of 'Upanishad' in classical Sanskrit illustrate the point as do Esop's tales. As the civilisation advanced story writing skirted the didactic overtones in the anecdotes and episodes of antiquity as the classical masters Guy de Moupassant, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Anton Chekov-to name a few only-took over to produce abundance of masterpieces. Author Arindam Nath's 32 stories included in the volume , so sleekly published by 'Niharika', may not be high literature but they do provide a refresing insight into human mind, action and reaction.