While at this post, Shankar encounters, rescues and nurses Diego Alvarez, a middle-age Portuguese explorer and gold/diamond prospector. Later, he takes up a job as station-master in a desolate station amidst the Veldts, where he to narrowly escapes a deadly black mamba. By a stroke of luck, he secures a job as a clerk in Uganda Railways through a fellow villager already working there and goes to Africa without a second thought.Īfter a few months laying rail tracks, he encounters the first of many dangers in pre-World War I Africa: a man-eating lion. He wants to follow the footsteps of famous explorers like Livingstone, Mungo Park, Marco Polo, all of whom he has read about and idolizes. He yearns for adventure, wild lands, forests and animals. Shankar, the protagonist, is a 20 year old man, recently graduated from college and about to take up a job in a jute mill, a prospect he absolutely loathes. It is the story of a young Bengali man’s adventures in Africa in the years 1909-1910. At that time, while reading the book, the only feeling was that of finding a treasure.
Little did I know ,at that time, it was a famous book by a famous Bengali author whose another work Pather panchali: the song of the road and it's sequel were adapted into a film trilogy directed by 'Satyajit Roy', the creator of my another favorite sleuth from books 'Feluda'. So I remember while selling old newspaper to the Radiwala, I saw this book with a beautiful cover, only to purchase it from him with my puppy house savings. In this toy a dog comes every time you press a coin at the door, to take the coin and store it inside the house :)
I used to love the sense of absolute ownership on my books and had a Puppy house toy for saving my prize money / pocket money /money from selling old newspapers for this very purpose.
Chander pahar song lyrics free#
Though I was given a free hand at purchasing story books in my childhood, I was adamant at paying for my own books (mostly:P). I remember purchasing this book from News paper Radiwala (scavenger) as a small boy. I have read this book in Bengali, Odia and English.