topics: |  fiction | bengali | children | anthology

pAglA sAheber kabara [the mad sahib's coffin] (1987)

p.517-590

the remote forested town of motiganj was once a vacation area for the white sahebs. today, their palatial homes in the now abandoned "sAheb-pARA" are overgrown with weeds. but many a mystery lurks behind those high walls and locked gates... it is rumoured that a mad sAhib (pAglA sAheb) still goes around on a white horse and shows up whenever there is mischief brewing. it is said that those who can discover his grave may find a diamond-encrusted cross which he used to wear.

haribandhu, who has failed thrice at class seven exams, is sent here to a "reformatory" school for boys, where the teachers are all musclemen, and the "boys" are all considerably over-age. he is put up at a vacation house called green valley, in the sAheb-pARA_. next door is _kusumkuNja, well-known as a haunted house. the area is said to be riddled with secret tunnels.

the plot goes as if there may be a realistic end - at one point, a white horse is discovered - why it was being kept hidden is a bit of a mystery - but then it ends up in a miracle, just like most tales in the adbhuture series. it's as if shirshendu was going to tell a plausible story, but he couldn't quite make up a good ending. or maybe he felt the reader would be disappointed if there were no supernatural happenings.

the story moves along on colourful characters like paTal dAs, who is an
expert thief, and knows all kinds of physical skills used in thievery, and
also a good amount of secret medicines.  despite being an old man now (more
than sixty), he' still very agile and can take on three bodybuilding
dacoits all by himself.  he knows the tunnels of the area like the back of
his hand.

the dAroyAn of green valley, jagurAm, and his wife jhumri are taciturn and
non-communicative.  jaguram is built like a wrestler.  the story has a
number of fearful characters.  a boy who befriends him at school, gopAl,
comes from a fearsome family.

as usual, it is shirshendu's deft characterization and his inimitable
humour that keeps the story moving.

Excerpt

juRiye gele khichuRite Ar gobare tafAt nei.
[paTal dAs tells haribandhu. his wife is making bhAjA muger khichuRi with
fulkapi;  he is about to leave for home.  is kidnapped en route by the
grave-seeking robbers.]
[there's no difference between cold khichri and cowdung]

Contents

manojder adbhut bARi 		  1
gnosAibAgAner bhut		 99 (gosaibAgAner)
hetamgaRer guptadhan		163
nrisingha rahasya		223
boxer ratan			279  (baksAr ratan)
bhutuRe ghaRi			335
gouRer kabach			397
hIrer AngTi			463
pAglA sAheber kabar		517
hArAno kAkAtuyA			591
grantha-parichay		727