"The Government of West Bengal and Satyajit Ray Productions Present" "SUKUMAR RAY" "Saumitra Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt, Santosh Dutt  others" "Cinematography:" "Barun Raha, Art:" "Ashok Bose;" "Editing:" "Dulal Dutt" "Narration:" "Saumitra Chattopadhyay Songs:" "Anup Ghoshal  Chorus" "Screenplay, Music  Direction:" "Satyajit Ray" "There are few Bengalis unfamiliar with these pictures" "They are from two wonderful books and a great short story" "The books are 'Abol Tabol' (The Ridiculous) and 'Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law' (Absurdity) and the story 'The Diary of Heshoram the Clever'" "The Author:" "Sukumar Ray He was born 100 years ago" "His father was Upendra Kishore Ray Chowdhury" "Upendra was the adopted son of Hari Krishna Roy Chowdhury" "Before adoption he was known as Kamada Ranjan and was the Second of 5 brothers" "The brothers were all gifted" "They were Sharada Ranjan, then Kamada Ranjan (Upendra) followed by Muktida Ranjan, Kulada Ranjan  Pramada Ranjan" "Sarada Ranjan taught Mathematics  Sanskrit His books were used as Textbooks" "He was the principal of Metropolitan College and the best known cricketer of his time" "Upendra was a noted printer and publisher He was also a painter, a scientist ... a writer of children's fiction and a musician" "He was the only Indian to regulalrly publish in 'Penrose Annual' - on printing technology" "Mukti Ranjan, also a mathematician and a sportsman, also taught in Metropolitan College" "Kulada Ranjan also played Cricket and was known for his translations ... of children's classics from around the world" "Pramada Ranjan served in the office of the Surveyor General of India" "He wrote about his experiences in a book called 'Baner Khabar'" " Jungle Stories" "Of the 5 brothers 2 were traditional Hindus Upendra, Kulada and Pramada belonged to the reformist BRAHMO SAMAJ" "Despite the social boycott of the Brahmo Samaj The relations between the brothers was always cordial" "Upendra Kishore married Bidhumukhi, the daughter of a leading Brahmo Samaj member and started living at 13, Cornwallis Street in Calcutta" "They had six children The second was Sukumar Ray" "Sukumar graduated with Honours in both Physics and Chemistry from Presidency College Calcutta" "When in College Sukumar established a group called Nonsense Club" "They published a handwritten magazine on humour called the "Thity two and a half fries"" "It was here that he published his first humourous poetry and his famous nonsenseplay 'Jhala Pala' (Cacophony)" "Here is a sequencefrom Jhalapala:" "Asked to explain the meaning of 'I go up, we go down'" "The teacher says:" "I stands for the 'eye' go = cow (Bengali phonetic equivalent) Up means water (Bengali phonetic equivalent) so 'I go up' means "The cow's eyes water" or "the cow is crying"" "the next part tells us why" ""We go down"" "We means termites (Bengali phonetic equivalent) and 'go down' means godown or a warehouse." "So 'I Go UP, We Go Down' means The cow is crying because termites have destroyed the warehouse" "Another play was 'Laxmaner Shaktishel' (The magic spear of Laxman) a spoof based on the Ramayan" "Rama and his army have invaded Lanka the kingdom of Ravana the powerful king" "They are about to meet Ravana in the field of battle" "Rama:" "Last night I had a beautiful dream." "I dreamt that Ravana had climbed a tree" "He climbed to the top, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground unconscious" "Then Ravana must be really dead The king's dream cannot be wrong cannot be - will not be - can never be" "I told Hanuman to throw the body in the sea" "Hanuman said it was unnecessary Ravana is totally dead" "Totally Dead?" "Then lets enjoy" "But.." "But.." "There's Ravana's Chariot And there's Ravana!" "Really!" "That means Ravana is not dead?" "He must have 9 lives!" "Its all the fault of Hanuman Why didn't he throw the body into the sea?" "Now its like trying to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted" "Here's our spy Tell us all the news" "Sir, I've just arrived" "Wonderful!" "Is that all you can tell us?" "You've just arrived!" "Whats so great about that?" "Tell us what happened today In details" "Sir, I got up in the morning, bathed had some rice and vegetables and went out.." "I had pumpkin even though the astrologers said eating pumpkin is not advised today" "You see my pumpkin had started rotting!" "Stop talking nonsense!" "Talk about business" "Well, I ate, slept for a couple of hours and went out" "Saw that drums were rolling!" "Like this:" "Dha Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra..." "This guy is repeating 'Dha Ra ra ra ra' like a recurring decimal!" "Are you going to tell us what you saw sequentially, serially, step by step, chronologically?" "Yes tell us everything.." "What next?" "Ravana is coming, with great pomp Drums are beating and its very noisy" "What next?" "..." "What next?" "..." "What next?" "Drums are beating, cymbals clashing, The clash of arms is deafening.." "What next?" "..." "What next?" "..." "What next?" "Thousands of soldiers Flags are flying" "What next?" "..." "What next?" "..." "What next?" "They are thumping their breasts The earth is shaking under their feet" "What next?" "..." "What next?" "..." "What next?" "They put the fear of god in me, my heart started beating faster" "What next?" "..." "What next?" "..." "What next?" "None of you will survive this day.." "You'll all die in droves.." "In 1895 Upendra Kishore set up a printing press called 'U.Ray  Sons'" "Upendra Kishore hadn't been abroad, but sent Sukumar to England to study printing  photography" "In 1911, Sukumar went to England on a fellowship." "He was 23 then." "In London he studied for a year in the London County Council School of photoengraving  Lithography" "He then studied Chromolithography and litho-drawing at the Municipal School of Technology, Manchester" "His correspondence tells us that his tutelage under Upendra Kishore was of great help." "This was the time (1912) when Rabindranath Tagore also went to England with his translation of "Gitanjali" (Tagore was to win the Nobel Prize for 'Gitanjali')" "Sukumar Ray was one of the first to welcome him there" "Sukumar wrote an article in 'QUEST' introducing Tagore to the West" "Sukumar returned to India in October 1913 He had passed his examinations with distinction" "Two months later he married Suprabha" "In summer of 1913, Upendra Kishore started publishing a children's magazine called SANDESH" "Earlier he had published children's versions of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana and the 'Book of the Toontooni Bird'" " A collection of folk tales of Bengal" "In 1914, the family shifted to a new house at 100, Garpar Road" "His printing press was in the front and living quarters at the back, facing south." "Sadly, he died just two years after SANDESH was first published." "But in these two years SANDESH had become a premium magazine." "The quality of printing in SANDESH was unsurpassed in its time." "Sukumar took over where his father had left SANDESH" "His first poem for SANDESH was called Khichudi (Kedgeree/mixture) later included in his famous collection 'Abol Tabol' (The Ridiculous)." "Such convoluted verse and such pictures could only have come from Sukumar Ray.." "Was a duck, porcupine (to grammar I bow not) Became Duckupine, but how I know not." "Stork tells turtle, "it's a delight-- Our Stortle shape is exactly right!"" "The Parrot-Head Lizard feels very silly:" "Must he spurn insects, for a raw green chili?" "The goat now hatches a plan to wed-- Mounts scorpion's neck--body unites with head!" "The giraffe's reluctant to wander nearby With his grasshopper wings, he longs to fly." "Says the cow, "What ails the pen That my rear belongs to a rascally hen?"" "See the Whalephant:" "The Whale wants the sea;" "The Elephant says, "It's the jungle for me."" "The lion has no horns, that's his woe-- He pairs with a deer; and antlers grow!" "Covers from early issues of SANDESH" "The standards Upendra Kishore set for Sandesh were never lowered in Sukumar's time" "The whole family contributed (and some contributions have become classics)" "Family apart, almost every well known writer (Including Tagore) wrote for SANDESH" "But the bulk of pictures, sketches and stories were penned by Sukumar himself" "(They are still read 100 years later)" "The versatility of Sukumar and his thirst for new things was unending he had given 7 names to just one handwritten Notebook .." "The Unnecessary Notebook" "The Nonsense Notebook" "The Fanciful Notebook" "The Notebook for Drafts" "The Just-Like-That Notebook" "The Wasted Notebook" "The Collections Notebook" "This Wonderful Notebook with its many scribbles, riddles and notes" "Gives us an insight into the mind of Sukumar Ray" "Sukumar had a life outside Sandesh too.." "He was the central figure among the youth of the Brahmo Samaj" "When there was a dispute about admitting Tagore to the Brahmo Samaj" "The youth, led by Sukumar and Prashanto Maholanobis stood up against the establishment" "Ultimately Tagore was admitted by a popular vote" "In 1915 he founded the 'Monday Club'" "It attracted the cream of young intellectuals of Bengal" "Some members were" "Satyendra Nath Dutta (Poet)" "Ajit Kumar Chakrabarty" "Atul Prasad Sen" "Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay" "Kalidas Nag" "Prashanto Chandra Maholanobis" "Hiran Sanyal etc." "The invitations to the Club Meetings were unique in their contents and composition" "Sukumar personally composed them and they were printed at U Ray and Sons" "Most were in verse some have passed into folklore (recitation in Bengali)" "The discussions in this club were on serious issues." "Poetry, literature, Art, philosophy, politics Nothing was left out." "The poet Satyendranath wrote a poem (Recitation in Bengali)" "Sukumar wrote two plays for older audiences One was 'Chalachitta Chanchari'" "And the other 'Shabda Kalpa Droom'" "In 1921, aged 33 Sukumar fell ill with a tropical disease that knew no cure then." "His son Satyajit was born the same year" "Despite his illness Sukumar kept writing for Sandesh" "'Haw Jaw Baw Raw Law' (Absurdity) was written at this time" "This, his greatest creation, was inspired by Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland ." "The world of Haw Jaw Baw Raw Law is a world of fantasy and dreams" "Whats your weight?" "I don't know" "2.5 kilogram How can that be?" "Patal is younger than me and even he weighs 21 Kilograms" "Your measures are different" "Write down Weight 2.5 Kg, age 37" "That's nonsense." "My age is 8 years 3 months" "Is it increasing or decreasing?" "What do you mean?" "Is your age increasing or decreasing?" "How can age ever decrease?" "Are you saying age can only increase?" "40-50-60-70-80..." "I'd grow old and die!" "A person won't grow old at 80?" "How idiotic!" "Why should I let my age grow?" "As soon as I age to 40, a reverse countdown starts 40-39-38-37..." "When it comes back to 10 it starts increasing again" "My age has increased and decreased so may times" "Its now 13" "In 1922, Sukumar was elected a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society" "In 1923 he published "Ateeter Chhobi" A history of the Brahmo Samaj" "His health was deteriorating but his creativity was unabated" "He published printer's manuals" "A new book of verse was taking shape in little pieces" "He was writing the Mahabharata in verse" "A recuperation visit to Sodhpur led to this painting of a sunset on the Ganges" "A dummy copy of 'Abol Tabol'(Ridiculous) was prepared with his own sketches" "Even the cover of the book was painted by him - in color" "Sukumar did not live to see it in print" "In the last poem of Abol Tabol He clearly foretells his death" "Today before I leave/I will speak out my heart Even if it is meaningless/ Let people not understand" "I have let my imagination flow today Thee is no one who can stop it any more and the last two lines..." "Its now time to sleep, my song is over today" "Tagore visited him at this time 10th September 1923 - there was an eartquake in Calcutta" "That morning Sukumar Ray passed away He was only 36" "Heraing of Sukumar's death, Tagore said" "I have seen many deaths." "But I have never seen anyone like this young man who facing death, nevertheless sang songs to life." "Sitting beside his death bed I have heard that song and my heart is overflowing with it," "Early pictures of Satyajit Ray, Sukumar Ray's son"