Life Of Samaresh Basu
Born on 11th December to father Mohinimohan Basu and mother Shaibalini Basu. He was born in his paternal house in the village of Rajanagar under the Munshiganj sub-division in the district of Dhaka.
From 1928-38, Samaresh at first studied at the school of Girish master and later Gandaria Graduate School till the seventh grade
He moved to Naihati where his elder brother Manmathanath was posted. He was admitted to Mahendra High School, but he dropped out after his eighth grade after being 'not promoted'
With a bunch of friends from school, he started editing a hand-written magazine called 'Beena'. He started writing short stories, poems and even his first novel called 'Samadhi-Milan' for this magazine. He started doing illustrations for the magazine as well
While in Naihati, he started frequenting the home of his freind Debshankar Mukherjee. This is where he met Gauri, Debshankar's elder sister. Samaresh and Gauri became friends and then fell in love. However, Gauri was elder to Samaresh and a divorced woman. They also belonged to different castes. Their relationship was accepted by the respective families. The two ended up eloping and getting married. The young souls, without a penny in their pocket, ended up settling in a ghetto in Aatpur in North 24 parganas.
Samaresh worked for a poultry farm, selling eggs to British families settled around the cantonment area, to make ends meet. In January 1943, Samaresh joined the Icchapur Arms factory as a tracer. His eldest daughter Bulbul was born in February 1943. Around this time he also met Satyaprasanna Dasgupta (popularly known as Satya Master) who was a big influence in his life and political vision. Under the aegis of Satya Master, both Samaresh and Gauri joined the Communist Party of India. In 1945, their second son Debkumar was born
His first short story, Adaab was published in the 1946 Autumn edition of Parichay magazine. The story immediately piqued interest garnered widespread accolades from the literary circle. Around the same time, Samaresh started writing his first novel 'Nayanpurer Maati', while he was still working at the Ichhapur Riffle factory
By 1949, Samaresh was father of four with Nabakumar and Mousumi born in 1947 and 1949 respectively. In 1949, the Communist Party of India was banned and its members were taken as political prisoners. Samaresh was incarcerated at the Alipore Presidency Jail. Without a penny to feed the hungry mouths, Gauri was in a dire condition. She approached the then chief minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Ray, in spite of him being a political opponent. Dr Ray came forward to help the family and stipulated a monthly allowance for the family until Samaresh is released.
He was released from jail in 1951. He had lost his job at the riffle factory by then. It is at that point that Samaresh decided that he going to take up writing as his profession. He had written his second novel 'Uttaranga', while in jail. In 1951, it became his first published novel. Over the next few years, he had a few novels and short stories being published including 'B.T. Roader Dhaare', 'Nayanpurer Maati' and 'Srimati Cafe'
In 1952, while writing a political piece called 'Vote Darpan', Samaresh used the pseudonym 'Kalkoot' for the first time. In 1954, when he decided to go to Prayag Sangam to witness the 'Maha Kumbh Mela', he entered into a contract with Ananda Bazar Patrika to send them daily reports from ground zero. It is during that time, that he decided that 'Kalkoot' is going to be his alternate literary persona for a new kind of prose.
His writing career finally taking off, he moved back to Naihati with Gauri and their 4 children, where he bought a plot of land with a tile roofed house, behind the Notun Bajaar area. In 1955, Gauri and Samaresh's membership from the Communist Party of India. The reason sighted was 'due to their unavailability' as recounted by Gopal Basu in the essay 'Agnikanya Gauri Basu'
The next few years saw Samaresh rising to the forefront of new age of Bengali writers with novels such as Ganga, Tridhara, Tinpurush, Baghini and short stories such as Paari, Pasharini among others. Using the Kalkoot pseudonym, he penned novels such as Nirjan Saikate, Amrite Bisher Patro, Kothaye Paabo Taare and Ghorer Kaachhe Arshinagar etc. Film and stage adaptations of his work started to happen including Ganga and Baghini. He was the recipient of the 'Desh' prize for his contribution to
The 60s saw an emergence of a new kind of prose, both in terms of its content and style from Samaresh- one which was more assertive, fearless and reflected the changing times around him. During this phase, his novels Bibar (published in 1965 in Desh) and Prajapati (published in ) created widespread controversy. Court cases were filed against the writer and the publisher on charges of obscenity. The lower court ruled the novel as obscene and the book was banned. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, where after 17 years, the writer and publisher were acquitted and the ban lifted.
His short story Swikarokti, published in 1964, (which was later expanded into a novel) also received brickbats from a section of his erstwhile party workers. While his work during this phase was plagued with controversies, his personal life was no less. In 1967, he married Dharitri- the youngest sister of his first wife (Gauri). In 1968, Samaresh's fifth child, Uditkumar was born out of the wedlock with Dharitri. He moved base from Naihati to Kolkata with Dharitri and Udit.
In 1969, Patak was published. This novel too was accused of obscenity. However, undeterred from all the controversies around him, Samaresh carried on writing. In 1972, he received a special jury prize on the Golden jubilee of Ananda Bazar Patrika along with Budhhadeb Basu and Santoshkumar Ghosh. On the personal front, he lost his mother in 1972.
In 1971, he wrote his first children fiction 'Bandho Gharer Awaj' which introduced the hugely popular child detective Gogol. After this, he wrote a series of children's adventures with Gogol as the central character and found an entirely new audience. He wrote another child fiction in 1973, known as 'Moktardadur Ketubawdh' which was semi autobiographical in nature.
Work pressure, frequent travels and an irregular lifestyle had started taking a toll on his health. In 1976, at only 52 years old, he suffered his first attack followed by a second one in 1979.
Every decade saw him trying to break his own literary style, both thematically and
In 1980, he won the prestigious Sahitya Akademy Award for the novel 'Shaambo', which he wrote under the pen name Shambo. On 11th July of the same year, his first wife Gauri passed away.