Sukumar Ray: A World Where Cats Wink

Growing up as an ardent fan of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, most of you must have wondered if there was someone in India who could recreate this magic. You might come across a writer who wrote Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law, the Indianized version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Let's see how this man created one of the most delightful pieces of Indian Literature through his imagination and magic.

Sukumar Ray, the pioneering poet Source: Wikipedia

Long long ago, two gardens were present in two different parts of the world. Two kids sat alone, wandering alone in their thoughts. The summer afternoon was seasoned with a cool breeze, letting the kids enjoy their alone time. One of them was a girl whose name was Alice. As her elder sister slumbered away, she noticed a white furry creature hurrying. Strangely enough, the rabbit wore a waistcoat and was checking his pocket watch worriedly. Curious to see the rabbit, Alice followed it and fell into the rabbit hole.

In the other part of the world, another kid (we don't know if it's a boy or a girl) sat idly on the grass. It was a still afternoon, and humidity was at its peak. Just as the kid was looking into the horizon, he noticed a handkerchief lying beside him. As soon as he picked up the napkin, it turned into a big, fat cat. The cat says, "Chhilo rumal, hoye gelo beral." (Was a hanky, but is now a cat.)

The first story is a beloved classic throughout the world. Read and re-read, this tale has been adapted into several plays and films. At some point in life, each of us has encountered situations where we want to escape into that rabbit hole where all kinds of bizarre things are waiting for us.

Written by Lewis Carroll in 1865, this tale has been in print continuously. This tale is a the timeless treasure trove that people keep reading because of its sheer joyous originality, leaps of imagination, and great and amusing wordplay.

On the one hand, Lewis Carroll's books never fail to enchant people; there is yet another the author who cooks some appetizing books that can be compared to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Written by Sukumar Ray, this book was titled Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law. His work is more of a novel than a tale inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Almost every Bengali grew up listening to the tales of a cat who emerged from a handkerchief. Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law is as familiar to a Bengali as a plate of steaming macher jhol (fish curry.)

Sukumar wrote this book in 1921, and it first appeared in a children's magazine named Sandesh. Pouring in all his creativity and an astonishing amount of crazy imagination, he also illustrated the entire book to make it more fun and engaging for children. Who was this man who managed to steal the best moments of our childhood through a book that turned a handkerchief into a cat?

Sukumar Ray, the father of Oscar-winning writer and director Satyajit Ray and the son of famed children's writer, artist, musician, and printing innovator Upendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury was a prodigy born decades before his time.

Born at the zenith of the Bengal Renaissance, he grew up in a milieu that nurtured his literary skills. Many people around him, including his father, Upendrakishore Ray, Rabindranath Tagore, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Roy, and Atul Prasad Sen, influenced him to become a litterateur. Roshni Chakrabarty says "Ray's writing seems to be created for children but underlying the simplicity and humor of his language lies a powerful social commentary and satire." about Ray for India Today

Ray had a unique style of writing. Often monikered as the nonsensical poet of Bengal and compared to Lewis Carroll, Sukumar had some path-breaking literature pieces that amaze all generations equally. One of his most famous works, Abol Tabol, is a collection of nonsense poems with in-depth meaning and value, carefully hidden behind funny language and even more amusing illustrations.

Sukumar studied science upon his father's insistence and was also a leading technologist during the British Raj. However, he had a knack for writing books that would amaze people of all ages.

Sukumar had this habit of presenting the monotonous details of everyday life in the most exciting manner possible. In this book, a younger brother narrates the following incident to his elder brother- "Have you heard of the place where our old doctor lives? He seems to eat rice with his hand!

I've heard that he feels hungry if he goes without food, his eyes close if he's too sleepy when he walks, his feet touch the ground, he hears with his ears and sees with his eyes, and when he sleeps, it seems he keeps his head facing forward!"

Yet another work of his, titled Bombagarer Raja or The King of Bombaria, vividly paints the picture of a kingdom where everything and anything is possible. Mango juices are framed, cooked, and solidified to form the king. The queen of the state is tied to a pillow in the poem, while the queen's brother is busy fastening nails on buns. They may be meaningful even if they appear to be pointless. Queens, in most situations, get a lot of rest while the royal brother is busy doing nothing productive. As many rulers do, the king himself screams like a fox, but suddenly we see smashed bottles dangling from the throne!

We've all heard of shattered bottles and thrones or nails and buns, but we've never considered combining the two. Ray's gibberish lyrics are built on strange correlations like these.

Apart from showing a clear picture of the Bengal Renaissance in the nineteenth century, Ray highlighted the everyday happenings in the lives of ordinary people and showcased how the human psyche works in different situations.

Most of his works consist of animals and mythical made-up creatures, and this makes it easier for him to control their actions and make them speak what he wanted them to. These animals jump around in his stories to make them more meaningful and humorous, and children become familiar with them.

Ray's works, such as 'Adbhut Kankra' (Strange Crab) and 'Loraibaaj Janowar' (Battle Loving Animal), show how human nature is depicted in animals.

Sukumar Ray died in September 1924. He would've been pleased if he had lived longer to see the intellectual mentality of a society that had once read his Sandesh.

Nobody believes his story about the cat, the goat, the raven, and Hijibijbij from Haw-Jaw-Baw-Raw-Law; except for the other kids. Because they'll just read the narrative, giggle, and ponder when such experiences occur to them. And the formula for these escapades is

relatively simple. Allow these tales to infiltrate your life.