Thanks Mr. Subhajit Chatterjee for coming up with this valuable information. As our webmaster Anindya has already pointed out, we can really take pride in this.
I think for the betterment of the Bengali language and culture we first need to increase our passions for them and enhance our skills in them. Unfortuantely, we look for Sidney Sheldon or Jaques Prevert in the Kolkata Book Fair and not for Bengali novels and poems. We present Harry Potter to the children nowadays and not the fantasy classics of Upendrakishore Raychoudhuri, Sukumar Roy, Sunirmal Basu, Khagendranath Mitra, Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyaya and many others.
The release of the Bengali animation film "Laal Kaalo" a few years back (I do not remember the exact time) created a sensation and initiated the comparison of it with the Potter movies. And this not the only case. According to me, Abanindranath Tagore's "Bhodor Bahadur" or Troilokyonath Mukhopadhyaya's "Kankaabati" are no less grand in their qualities from Lewis Caroll's "Alice's Adventures in the Wonder Land and through the Looking Glass". Khagendranath Mitra's "Bhombol Sardaar" is no less charming than Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn adventures. With the due respect to all the foreign writers (I am a great fan of English and French literature myself), I think that we are not providing our vernacular language and literature with enough scope and sympathy.
In fact there is no enmity between the vernacular language / literature and the foreign language / literature; they are complementary and can enrich each other by the way of translating in and out. Nevertheless, translators in Bengal are still neglected today and translations are second class citizens in the world of the Bengali literature and publishing industry.
Thus, the Unesco rating or whatsoever will succeed in doing nothing benefecial for the Bengali language and literature unless we ourselves change our attitudes. Let us strive together for the betterment of our mother tongue.
Regards,
Kumaraditya Sarkar.
Regards,
Kumaraditya Sarkar
