I am reading "Bangriposir Du Ratri" (Two Nights at Bangiriposi), a novel by the celebrated Bengali writer Buddhadev Guha. I stumbled upon the book while browsing the internet and was immediately hooked, as Bangiriposi is close to my ancestral village, a place filled with childhood memories.
Bangriposi was the terminal point of a small gauge railway line, now converted to broad gauge. During my childhood, we visited Bangriposi every time we vacationed in our village. I still remember the panoramic beauty of the place, complete with its hills, forest, and rapid-flowing rivulets.
The novel transports three adult characters from their mundane city lives into this wild, magical environment. Among them are a married couple and an unmarried, affluent bachelor in his forties, still searching for his life partner. He finds the lady accompanying them intellectually compatible and appreciates her human values and attitudes.
The moonlit nights at Bangriposi play a pivotal role in the unfolding of the plot. The characters’ secret desires simmer, but societal norms and lurking dangers—akin to the wild nature—restrain their passions.
The husband, portrayed as selfish and cruel, inadvertently fuels the attraction between his wife and the other man. Yet, physical manifestations of their longings remain elusive.
Buddhadev tantalizes readers, leaving much to the imagination. However, scenes like a snake’s ferocity (and its ruthless killing by the husband) and a tragic road accident compensate for the lack of overt physical action.
In these two nights at Bangriposi, the characters’ inner fulcrum is fully revealed. The novel evokes echoes of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” exploring love, desire, class, gender, and sexuality.
In this novel Bangriposi plays a significant role as a perfect foil to the artificial, busy, and selfish life of Kolkata, stripping the characters of all their pretensions.
