Priyanka Bhattacharyya
THE MERRY ADVENTURES OF HARSHABARDHAN AND GOBARDHAN; DEKI: THE ADVENTURES OF A DOG AND A BOY IN TIBET by Shibram Chakraborty Hachette, India, 2014, 146 pp., 250
November 2014, volume 38, No 11

There is no ‘handheld device’ that a child needs, other than a book. If you agree with this conservative claim, then here you may read a review of two such wonderful ‘devices’: The Merry Adventures of Harshabardhan and Gobardhan by Shibram Chakraborty, and Deki: The Adventures of a Dog and A Boy in Tibet, by George Schaller. Both these books will appeal to young and old alike; for it is often seen that the more admiring audience for quality children’s fiction are the adults who dip into a child’s bookshelf for a respite from the horrors of the world!

Bangla has a glittering phalanx of writers who wrote especially for children: Sukumar Ray, Lila Majumdar, Satyajit Ray, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Samaresh Majumdar, and Upendrakishore Roychoudhury, to name a few. Indeed, Bangla has done more for children than any other Indian language, as Gulzar Saab said in an interview (to Tehelka magazine) once. Shibram Chakraborty is part of this canon. He is often called the Bengali Wodehouse. Thanks to Arunava Sinha’s translation, you will see why. We are indeed fortunate that Hachette have commissioned a translation, for it brings the much loved duo, Harshabardhan and Gobardhan, and all their bumbling antics, to a pan-Indian audience.

Continue reading this review