Would it be hard to believe that there were actually no books in my childhood that I can remember which serve the purpose of nostalgia? Simply put I had no access to fiction except for my academic books. If I go back as far as I can, I had access to newspapers which were the only source of my entertainment. So technically there is no childhood book that still resonates with me and the earliest memory of me reading fiction was from a book I read in class seven. It was given as an academic book to the secondary students. So when my brother got into class 9 I got my hand on his books. What I did was I went through all of his books and then came across Hajar Bochor Dhore. Since then it became one of my favorite books of all time.
If I am not wrong then I must have read this book at least 15 to 20 times during my high school period. There are two reasons for that: one is I loved the book. I enjoyed falling in love with the writing of Zahir Raihan and the second one is I had no other books in my collection and this was the only source of my literature so I immediately started reading again after finishing it. So I kept reading it and never got bored apparently. And to tell you the truth, this book still slaps.
This book tells the tale of a typical lower-class Bengali family, who lives in a lower society in a traditional manner where all the old backdrops of society exist and almost everyone is holding to them. The big head of the family rules the decisions, there are beating and bashing of female heads of the family by their husbands, there are many stereotypes and superstitions and whatnot. But there are standout characters too like Tuni and Montu. Tuni is the outrageous teenage wife of the senile family head Mokbul. Tuni bounds no barrier somewhat roams around with Montu. But with the passing of time, there are different shades of Tuni, Montu comes alive on the pages gracefully.
There are many themes discussed in the books. Themes like life, affirmations, prejudice, breaking the barrier, adultery, and many more. But at the end of the story, one theme that stands out is the Flow of Life, It's a classic theme in the literature but it's mixed here so beautifully with many familiar characters that it feels like the book is ripped out of a corner of our country. The familiarity and their epic conclusion in the flow of time are what make this book great and a true classic. And if I look back now, the many nights I've spent finishing this book absolutely worth it.
Finishing it with a quote from the book which will forever remain in my heart as long as I live,
রাত বাড়ছে। হাজার বছরের পুরনো সেই রাত।
Which translates as "The night is getting long. Like a thousand years old long.
And lastly acknowledging the organizer of this contest: https://peakd.com/hive-190212/@bdc-shorts/contest-your-favourite-books-from-childhood
and inviting @notacinephile to take part in this contest.
They did a good job introducing this to our textbook. It was indeed a great novel.
Yeah. It was a great choice to include this one as a textbook contrary to now.
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