“A House of Rain and Snow” by Srijato Bandopadhyay

House of Rain and Snow, Srijato Bandopadhyay, Maharghya Chakraborty (trans) (Vintage, October 2023)

Set in the metropolis of Kolkata, A House of Rain and Snow describes the struggle of a section of middle-class Bengali society to cope with the effects of globalization during the early 1990s. It tells of their passion for art and culture, which too was affected by changing times. The author, Srijato, an eminent Bengali poet and lyricist, is known for his Anando Purskar-winning poetry collection Udanto Swab Joker: All Those Flying Jokers, just one of his many well-known books of poetry.

Published originally in Bengali as Prothom Mudran, Bhalobasa (literally “First Edition, Love”), it was translated into English by Maharghya Chakraborty, a young lecturer at St Xavier’s College in Kolkata who in fact suggested the English title “A House of Rain and Snow.” Though it differs from the Bangla original, the title indicates the intricate connection between imagination and creativity. Also, it prepares the readers to explore reality in passages soaked in magic realism.

 

Narrated in third person, the novel describes Pushkar’s journey from amateur writer to published poet. Pushkar, an undergraduate student of geography, is shy, introverted and reluctant to go outside the house. He prefers darkness to light and confesses his feelings to a milkwood tree. His imaginative forays are shaped by what he watches through two windows in his room. While it rains continually outside one window, there is incessant snowfall outside another. Though he writes prolifically, he is hesitant to show his poems to others. Rejections from local journals and magazines weaken his confidence. He nevertheless struggles on and revises the rejected submissions.

Also central are Pushkar’s parents (Ishita and Abanish), his friends (Abhijit, Saheli, Asmita and Nirban) and Gunjan Sir, a professor of English. Their struggles, ideals and insights contribute to his coming of age as a poet. They as well as several other people around him influence, inspire and support art and the artist in various ways: personal, emotional, creative, intellectual.

Abhijit introduces Pushkar to Nirban, who brings together a group of young literary enthusiasts. Although not all are creative writers themselves, they have the conviction and commitment to support Nirban’s endeavours to publish a magazine titled Inscriptions. They contribute pocket money and raise funds through crowdsourcing to meet publication expenses. Anuja even donates her gold chain.

Gunjan Sir is a mentor to Pushkar. He views literary texts as sustainable means for interpreting personal sorrows and sufferings. From him, Pushkar learns that texts like Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past are subject to multiple interpretations depending on the changes that take over the reader’s perception of the same incident and experience with passage of time. A similar message is conveyed to him by his father Abinash regarding movies, plays and music. His mother Ishita’s determination to practice music solely for art’s sake in itself is a lesson to artists who compromise their self-respect for fame and money.

Gunjan Sir, an avid reader of English poetry, lives in his own world of books and literary discussions. Being satisfied with his passion and vocation, he rejects a lucrative offer from a university abroad. This upsets his ambitious wife. Their heated altercation reveals her extramarital affair and subsequently leads to their separation. An uncompromising Ishita declines an offer from a recording company when they ask her to appear for an audition, a selection process she considers humiliating for a veteran artist like her. Unable to put up with the chaos of labor strikes and financial insecurity at his workplace, Abanish turns to alcohol.

The supporting characters are protagonists in their own subplots. Their experiences, anguish and reminiscences present life as a glass prism through which opposing forces of the past and the present pass and are refracted by individual struggle. Memory here is not just a functional means for excavating the factual details of what happened, but a process to reflect upon the travails of art, artists and art-lovers in modern urban society.

 

The novel ends on the promising note that there exists an unconditional love in the human heart for art and culture, a love which unites people, strengthens them emotionally and helps them to be perceptive observers. On seeing his poems published in Nirban’s magazine, Pushkar turns into an embodiment of this love. His ecstasy  is similar to the  revelations of Stephen Dedalus in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Though both the books celebrate a young writer’s journey, A House of Rain and Snow is notable for its realistic reflections on the changing socio-cultural conditions in a city located in the global south. Also, it emphasizes the connection and camaraderie between art forms as different as music, literature, painting and sculpture. Srijato’s efficiency in exhuming the unspoken feelings of his characters through apt references to certain ragas and their soulful lyrics in English translation adds a therapeutic dimension to his modernist style. He is also well-served by his translator who displays admirable talent in transforming the cultural zeal of Bengali metropolitan society into a transcultural experience.


Shyamasri Maji teaches English at Durgapur Women’s College, West Bengal.