Sanatan Bhowal

Or in Rains Sanatan Bhowal

This novel mixes the dregs of radical politics in Bengal with the tribal question of joining the mainstream. Set temporally against the backdrop of Naxalite Movement in Bengal and spatially against the backdrop of tea gardens in North Bengal, it is about the growing up of a tribal boy, Biru, with the mellowed-down, chastened ideas of a fugitive Naxalite. Biru grows up with a growing sense of difference all around him save the vision of sameness he is offered by Titli, his fellow student of superior caste. The novel zeroes in on a cornered Naxalite who indulges in soul-searching in his blue diary and before disappearing forever, leaves Biru with his diary. Biru reads the diary periodically in search of stories but finds them only in their untold form. Tributaries to Biru's stream of time are the stories of his grandgpas, the mornings of his mother, the anecdotal appearance of the European manager in the tales of his grandfather, the two headmasters' separate tales, and of course the blue diary that in its replicate form links Biru with Titli. What happens to Biru and Titli in the site of sameness? How would they meet in future?