About Shankar

Shankar’s Kata Ajanare is now available in audio for print-disabled readers from the library of Blind Persons’ Association. Shankar was born on December 7, 1933 at Bongaon, North 24 Pqarganas. He was passed his boyhood in Howrah and studied at Ripon College (now Surendranath College) in Kolkata. When he lost his father at an early age, he had to come out for earning bread for his family.

The central character of Kata Ajamnare is Shankar’s first employer, Noel Frederick Barwell, the last British barrister in Kolkata High Court. He served him as a clerk for a very short period. Barwell called him Shankar and this became his nickname among his friends in the court area. This is how Mani Shankar Mukhopadhyay became Shankar.

About Kata Ajanare

Kata Ajamnare is Shankar’s first novel. When barrister Barwell died suddenly in Madras, Shankar decided to quit the court for good. But he could not forget his employer. He wrote this novel to honour the last British barrister. He wrote, “First, I wanted to build a statue. It was not possible. I then wanted to name a road. Even that was not feasible. And then I decided to write a book about him.”

Kata Ajanare is the creation of a twenty-year-old boy. When it was published in 1955, Shankar was hardly twenty-two. It made him famous. Unfortunately, Rigtwik Ghatak did not finish his film based on this novel which he planned to make in 1959. We could have witnessed some of the memorable characters like Noel Barwell or Miss Triton, Chhokada, barrister B.K. Bose on screen.

Though considered as a novel, Kata Ajanare is a collection of stories, written in the form of a diary or journal. Let us believe that these are all real stories wich the young writer only coloured with his imagination for his readers. Most stories are narration of the brilliant achievements of barrister Barwell. Some have other characters which the author collected from anecdotes told by his fellow clerks in the court. Shankar is the narrator of all the stories.

Kata Ajanare is about 9 hours and 34 minutes long. Thanks to Smt. Ratna Sengupta for recording this book for our library. This audio book is not available for download due to copyright restrictions. Members of Blind Persons’ Association may request for free download. Visit Audio Books page for details.