MANIK BANDOPADHYAY: A Hunger Artist

Born on May 19, 1908, Manik Bandopadhyay was the fifth of the fourteen children of his parents. He was given the name Probodh Kumar Bandhopaddhay. Owing to his dark complexion, he was known to his family members as Kala Manik (black diamond), or simply Manik. His father was a sub-registrar who was posted in different parts of pre-Partition Bengal. Consequently, the family travelled all across the undivided Bengal, which had a shaping influence on Manik. For instance, before his school entrance exam he ran away from home to spend some time with the boatmen community in Tangail. His experience later helped him depict the fishermen's villages in Padma Nadir Majhi.

At the time of submission of his first story, he used his pet name Manik as his nom de plume, thereby authoring his own name, his own career path. It was not mere chance that made him an author. In an essay, “Before Doing Literature,” he mentioned the training and preparation required for writing. That Manik has become a 'gem' of Bangla literature is because of his experiential reality and the economy of language with which he expressed it. There are critics who have tried to categorise the different phases of Manik based on his encounter with poverty, alcohol, political dogma, epilepsy or even later day obsession with Ma Kali. They, however, all agree on his creative genius, and his contribution to the spirit of the age.