It was terribly hot. I lay in the shade of a tree, feeling quite limp. I had put down my handkerchief on the grass: I reached out for it to fan myself when suddenly it called out, ‘Miaow!’ Here was a pretty puzzle. I looked and found that it wasn’t a handkerchief any longer. It had become a plump ginger cat with bushy whiskers, staring at me in the boldest way.
from HaJaBaRaLa (A topsy-turvy tale)
Born in Bengal, India in 1887, Saukmar Ray’s nonsense works would go on to shape the fabric on Bengali culture, being continually referenced and parodied. in many ways the Ray-Carroll comparison is apt, as both writers wrote fledgling works for family magazines. In the case of Ray, it was one that he and his brother Subinay Ray helped set up through their father’s publishing firm. The majority of Ray’s nonsense work was written for “Sandesh” over an 8 year period. The most famous of these works being the collection of satires/poems “Abol Tabol” and the Carrollian “HaJaBaRaLa (A topsy-turvy tale)“ in which a young child gets lost in a bizarre world after following a handkerchief which has turned into an impertinent cat.
Despite his work being cultural currency in India, sadly essays and such in the western world seem to be lacking… which I find a little odd for someone whose work is considered an equivalent and equal to Carroll.
Both Abol Tabol and Hajabarala have been translated into English by Oxford University Press.
Excerpts and a better overview here.
1987 Documentary here.
