Tales My Grandmother Told Me

Most people see Thakumar Jhuli as a collection of children’s stories. That it is. And much more. It is an insight into the mind and music of Bengal, capturing subtle cultural nuances that are truly unforgettable. Some call them fairy tales, while others folk tales. But you can take one step ahead and view them as allegorical stories that go beyond the confines of time and history and keep alive the cultural traditions of a people and a race. As one famous critic perceptively commented-one can never begin to understand Bengal or Bengalis unless one has read the stories from Thakumar Jhuli. This book tries to capture the spirit of Thakumar Jhuli though a selection of stories from the book that has entranced young and old alike for over a hundred year. Enchanting princesses, awesome ogres, talking monkeys and handsome princes turned into owls by the sorcerer’s charm. Thakumar Jhuli is about magic, mystery and metaphor. Compiled a hundred years ago by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar, the book is an important and irresistible part of Bengal’s literary and cultural heritage. Every child has grown up hearing these stories in some version or the other. Every home has a copy of the book on its bookshelf. Noted translator Rina Pritish Nandy and famous painter Sanjay Bhattacharya have collaborated on this unique English version to bring alive some of the finest stories from the book. The stories are ostensibly for children. But anyone who can suspend disbelief and experience magic will enjoy them. No one knows where they have come from. But grandmothers and mothers over the years have passed them on with their jewellery and tradition to successive generations. Not mere fairy tales, they are apocryphal stories about life itself. And, as Rabindranath Tagore wrote in his introduction to an edition of Thakumar Jhuli, when a young person listens to these tales, the melody of the whole of Bengal’s affections enters his mind and leaves it totally spellbound. SANJAY BHATTACHARYA, whose art brings alive these translation, also belongs to Kolkata. But he has lived in New Delhi since 1983 and is one of Indias most celebrated painters.