Yes, there is little doubt that the book Potingbora is exceptional and its writer Dijendranath Bannrjy has completed one "singular" task by writing it. From the preface to the very last line, all the words (over 18,000) inside the book are stated with the letter ‘P’ (Bengali ‘Pa’ to be precise) and there hasn’t been a single case of exception of that found in the whole 93-page long book.
Thanks to the magnificently rich language (Bengali) for accommodating such a large number of meaningful words made out of a single letter and kudos to the writer for finding them from an ocean of this language.
Potingbora indeed is a research publication and it has been published by the research division of the Bangla Academy. The writer was the founder principal of the BIAM college of Rajshahi, and was two-times gold medal winner for the ‘best teacher of the year’ at the national level.
But don’t take this very book as a staid and subject-oriented one just meant for a particular group; it is rather a book for all and the material-based upon which it is written can easily be grasped by a commoner.
In writer’s own word, his book is a social novel. It has been written in an unconventional method. The way the story of the novel is revealed is like a trail of lost breadcrumbs that the readers are given only when it is absolutely starving for something. Once they are given, those crumbs turn into succulent, nourishing slices of a delicious pie.
The whole book is divided into a total of 15 chapters. The opening one is titled, ‘Prakritik Porimondol’ (A theater of nature). In this chapter, the writer gave an elaborate illustration of the river Padma and its surroundings. The reader, at the beginning might find it a bit strange to read three pages of description of the river and about its surrounding nature, but the beginning of the second chapter-which is titled ‘Pande Poribarer Porimondol’ (the story of Pande family) explains those lines-the whole plot of the novel is set up at a village by the river Padma, where two families- ‘Pande’ and ‘Promanik’ (the whole story is centered on and around them) have resided.
Just after second chapter, the writer gave a 12 page (third chapter which titled ‘Pathshalar Porimondol (The world of schools)) neutral description about the school life of a typical student. Interestingly, at fourth chapter, titled - ‘Ponchosokhir Porimondol’ (The story of five friends), he gave a vivid description about the lifestyles of five friends, one of which was later found to be the protagonist of the novel.
In fact, this is the style that has been followed through the whole book. The writer just don’t bring a mere character into the plot and try to bled the character in, he cemented them with a seemingly unnecessary digress (sometimes to long though) from the plot. But somehow he has done that with panache and has been able to carve a secret niche to captivate the reader to stick with the book.
Through chapters, he has revealed the two protagonists of the novel-Provakor and Purnima, and has drawn the necessary explanation, forming and twists in the plot to create a happy ending and make that book a successfully romantic yet bizarrely unconventional novel.
The book costs Tk90, and is available at the Bangla Academy outlet.
