The Great Vagabond

The Great Vagabond was originally written in Hindi under the title of Awara Messiah by the noted Hindi writer and Poet Vishnu Prabhakar. It is translated by Jai Ratan into English. It is based on the life of the celebrated Bengali novelist, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee who strode the Bengali literary scene as a colossus. The original Hindi Awara Messiah was the result of Vishnu Prabhakar’s painstaking research and literary virtuosity. The author had personally visited all the places associated with the name of Sarat from his childhood onwards in the land of his birth and various neighbouring countires. Vishnu Prabhakar had personally met all the persons who knew Sarat in the various periods of his life, studied at first hand all the documents and references relating to him that he could lay hands upon even in most inaccessible places where the great vagabond roamed around as a crusader against social injustice and discrimination. In the book there are also cross-references to what others including Tagore and other luminaries had said about Sarat. Thus The Great Vagabond is not only a literary masterpiece in English but also an authentic document which brings the great vagabond and his immortal works to life and sheds new light in a cohesive manner on various facets of his complex character and his noble intentions for social reformation.