Shelf life: The Fabulous Four

Book: The Best of Tenida
Author: Narayan Gangopadhyay
Translated by Aparna Chaudhuri
Publisher: Puffin Classics
Pages: 200
Price: Rs 250

If you grew up in Bengal and read Narayan Gangopadhyay’s tales about Tenida and his band of friends (although ‘followers’ isn’t too far off the mark) in Bengali, this collection might not entice you to pick it up. But for those who haven’t, this translation is a delightful afternoon read, one that can begin immediately after lunch and will end just in time for tea. The timing is important simply because of all the food and Bengali snacks mentioned in each of the stories. Tenida, a teenage airhead from Potolbagan, a fictional neighbourhood in Kolkata, is full of stories of his many victories and accomplishments, but he refuses to share them unless Pyalaram, Habul and Kyabla ply him with snacks. He might not have a scholarly disposition like Kyabla, but Tenida is no fool: he never pays for the tidbits and he’ll always have the last word. But none of this bothers the rest of the boys, for in Tenida, they have a natural born leader, an enthusiastic enabler of mischief with a remarkable capacity to spin a yarn spooled out of thin air.
This collection contains six classic Tenida tales including favourites such as Charmurti (The Four Heroes), Bhajahari Film Corporation and Tenida ar Yeti (Tenida and the Yeti). The book also contains an elaborate author file, a few words about 1940s Kolkata and a glossary for non-Bengali readers (according to Bengalis, the world is divided into Bengalis and non-Bengalis). Chaudhuri, the young translator of these stories, has done an excellent job, keeping not only the flavour of the tales intact, but coming up with apt translations for Bengali proverbs, slang and ditties. In her note at the end of the book, she writes about what made the Tenida stories so enduring and timeless: “… the Tenida stories… spoke of a city that never was… Perhaps they were created… to escape reality into a life and language richly satisfying… made up of the simplest ingredients.”

 

 

The Other Prime Minister
Book: Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister
Author: Tabric C
Publisher: Hachette
Pages: 323
Price: Rs 350
As far as topical thrillers go, Prisoner, Jailor, Prime Minister by first-time author Tabrik C, hits the ground running. The book begins with the surprise election of Siddhartha Tagore as the country’s youngest ever Prime Minister. Charismatic, uni-browed and blessed with dashing good looks and a genius intellect, Tagore is also a bisexual music prodigy afflicted with moderate bipolar disorder. If such a character is not enough to make you rush to your nearest bookseller or log on to a shopping portal, the book also has an arresting plot that traces Tagore’s tumultuous past as well as his soon-to-be fraught-with-peril future as leader of the world’s largest democracy. Though the author’s sporadic bursts into stream-of-consciousness can get tedious, Tabrik manages to capture the reader’s attention through familiar references to our sociopolitical milieu, complete with bastard sons, indiscreet private secretaries, incompetent national security satraps and a big, white guy bellowing and throwing his considerable weight around.