Nostalgia: Shankar's 'Chowringhee' turns 60

Kolkata: Chowringhee, the famous Bengal novel by Shankar, has turned 60.

The novel which centres round a hotel in Kolkata was serialized in Bengali magazine Desh in 1961 and the book came out on June 10, 1962.

Dey's Publishing has brought out a new version of Chowranghee with a reminiscence by author Shankar. The book was dedicated to famous scholar and Ramakrishna- Vivekananda researcher Sankari Prasad Basu.

The untimely death of his father in 1947, the family faced acute financial crisis.

To run the family, Shankar had worked as a typist, hawker, typewriter cleaner, junior clerk in the office on a Gunny Broker, teacher at Vivekananda Institution in Howrah. He had worked as the 'baboo' of Noel Fredrick Barwell, a barrister of High Court.

Sudhangshu Dey of Dey's Publishing said Chowranghee has been translated into English, Hindi, Gujrati, Malayalam and Oriya.

Shankar came in contact with the characters the reader finds in Chowranghee.

This was the first novel in Bengali where a hotel was at the centre stage.

The popularity of the book went up after it was translated into a film.

The Begali feature film had Uttam Kumar played the role of Satta Bose, a receptionist of Shahjahan Hotel.

His co-stars included Anjana Bhowmick, Suvendu Chatterjee, Supriya Debi, Biswajit, tarun Kumar, Bhanu Bandopadhyay among others. The film was released in 1968 and was an instant hit.