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434 pages

English

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It is unusual to come across a life so rich in varied experiences as the one that Bijoya Ray, wife and constant companion to the renowned film-maker Satyajit Ray, has lived. Despite being closely related, Satyajit Manik to his friends and family and Bijoya fell in love and embarked on a life together years before Ray s groundbreaking film Pather Panchali was made, and their long, happy married life lasted right until Ray s death in 1992. Bijoya Ray never felt the urge to write her memoirs, but was finally persuaded to pick up the pen when she was well into her eighties. Manik and I brims over with hitherto unknown stories of her life with Satyajit Ray, told in candid, vivid detail.

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Lettres et linguistique

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Publié par	Penguin Books Ltd
Date de parution	01 août 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9788184757507
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0800€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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BIJOYA RAY
Manik & I
My Life With Satyajit Ray
Translated by Indrani Majumdar

PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
Preface
Translator s Introduction
Satyajit Ray s Family
Bijoya Ray s Family
1. Manik Was So Much a Part of My Childhood
2. She Is Such a Little Girl, Will She Be Able to Sing on Stage?
3. Manik Was Far Too Timid and Shy
4. I Never Knew What It Was to Lack Money
5. My Intimacy with Manik Begins
6. I Want to Forget This Chapter in My Life
7. She Had Brought Up Manik Very Strictly
8. We Had Such a Happy Time
9. I Decided Not to Annoy Him Any More
10. All the Responsibility Landed on My Shoulders
11. You Have a Son, a Bonny Son!
12. Only One Day Did I Try to Be Strict with Babu
13. I ve Never Seen Him So Helpless
14. Apur Sansar Celebrated Its Silver Jubilee
15. I ll Never Forget Those Joyful Days in Darjeeling
16. Manik Knew of an Amusing Trait about Selznick
17. Manik s Laughter Was Open, Unrestrained
18. We Faced a Lot of Trouble with Googa Baba , Including Picketing
19. He Always Remained a Bit Tense while Composing Music
20. He Was Never in Favour of Bringing Humans Down to the Level of Animals
21. I Was So Engrossed in the Children
22. The Year Had Begun on an Unpleasant Note
23. Manik Accepted the Golden Bear Award in His Inimitable Style
24. There Was an Unpleasant Incident One Day
25. Shooting Continued Every Day, as Did the Power Cuts
26. In the Meantime, We Received Some Unbelievably Good News
27. The News of Renoir s Death Upset Manik Deeply
28. Calcutta Was Going through a Period of Turmoil
29. What Was He Saying? That Bansi Is No More?
30. Salman Rushdie Arrived Suddenly One Evening
31. I Was Terrified
32. Indira Gandhi Was Assassinated by Her Own Security Guards
33. We Returned Home to Find the Police Waiting for Us
34. He Finally Found a Story
35. Sikka Palace Was Transformed into a Virtual Heaven
36. Manik Had Received an Oscar
37. I Couldn t Bring Myself to Accept That He Was No More
Bengali Kinship Terms
Ray s Feature Films
Ray s Film Unit over the Years
Biographical Notes
Photo acknowledgements
Notes
Copyright Page
PENGUIN BOOKS
MANIK & I

Bijoya Ray, born in October 1917 in Patna, was the daughter of the noted barrister Charuchandra Das and Madhuri Devi. After her father s death in 1931, Bijoya was brought up in her uncle s joint family in Calcutta. She took lessons in music from her aunt, and mastered Rabindra Sangeet, and Indian classical and semi-classical music. After graduating in English, she appeared in a film based on Tagore s Seshraksha , and later Rajani and Mashal in Bombay. She married Satyajit Ray in 1948. A committed social worker at Mother Teresa s Nirmal Hriday , she was also an occasional contributor to the journal Sandesh , after Ray revived it in 1961. After Ray s death in 1992, she became one of its editors for a brief spell. Bijoya lives in Calcutta with her son, noted film-maker Sandip, daughter-in-law and grandson.
Indrani Majumdar lives in Delhi but has her roots firmly based in Bengali culture. Her bilingualism has helped her career as she has translated Bengali texts into English and vice versa. A keen researcher, her vocation in life has been to explore the various facets of Satyajit Ray s work. At present she works with the Programme Office, India International Centre, Delhi.
To Partho
Preface

I know of no other instance when someone has been asked to turn into a writer at the age of eighty-four. I left college in 1938, and since then I ve written a few letters, and maintained a regular diary after my son was born. That has been the extent of my writing. So I never felt any urge to write my own memoirs. This happened quite out of the blue, although I no longer remember how it all came about.
Once I started writing, I had to continue till the very end. There was certainly plenty to write about - I could write volumes on the person who was with me every day, from morning till night. While writing about him, it was only inevitable that I would become part of these memoirs too. I finally decided to stick to the subject I know best.
Everyone s life is made up of joy and sorrow. But the happiness I have received has far outweighed the misery I have had to face, and I never found it difficult to deal with whatever sorrow came my way.
After he left us, I never thought I would ever return to normal again. How would I live without him? For as long as I lived, I would never get over the grief of losing him. The rest of my life would be spent mourning him. But time is such a strange thing - my son, daughter-in-law and beloved grandson gradually helped me return to normal, although I cannot say how or when this happened. Their support, care, love and warmth brought me back to a regular life. There can be few as fortunate as I! I ve brought up my only child with all possible care and affection, and so it s only natural that he would be concerned and loving in return. But I m blessed to have been given a daughter-in-law like mine. Forever cheerful, caring, loving and generous, she has taken over the responsibility of looking after our family. And as for my grandson, he is at the very centre of my life.
So many of our friends have left us, especially a few who could have helped me write this memoir. One of them in particular would have been of invaluable help, our production manager Anil Choudhury. His sharp and precise memory never failed to amaze. It s my misfortune to have lost him a few years ago. His extraordinary devotion and efficiency made him indispensable to Manik s unit. I was heavily dependent on him.
Manik s closest friend, the art director Bansi Chandragupta, died in 1981; his place was taken by Ashoke Bose. He too left us soon after Manik. Bhanu (Ghosh Dastidar), Durgadas Mitra, Sujit Sarkar (the sound recordist), Ananta Das (the make-up man), all of whom were extremely proficient in their work, also left us one by one. I also remember the cameraman, Subrata Mitra. I doubt that our country has seen a brilliant cameraman such as him.
I must mention another cameraman, Barun Raha. He worked with Manik on his last few films, and later worked with my son as well. He was young, older than Babu by only a few years, but died suddenly of a cerebral stroke while shooting for a telefilm. I was very fond of Barun and found it very hard to accept his death.
And now I am waiting for my turn to leave. I m getting on in years, after all. Since the last three years I have been bedridden with a fractured leg. There s no lack of attention: everyone in the family looks after me. It pains me to think that Manik couldn t live to see his grandson grow. When he died, the child was just a year and five months old.
So many of Manik s special friends have gone that were I to start listing their names, it would fill an entire book. I shall only mention Shantul Babu, as Manik respected his erudition and knowledge of all things greatly. If I needed clarification on something, I would always run to Manik, who would then explain it patiently; but at times he asked me to go to Shantul Babu. There were some matters that Manik needed to look up and think upon too, while Shantulbabu seemed to know everything.
I could never have written this account had a few eminent people not helped me along the way. Prominent among them is Nirendranath Chakrabarty, who took time off his busy schedule to set many facts right for me. Shri Partha Basu s untiring assistance considerably eased my workload. There was no one more adept than him when it came to editing the language, checking facts and locating the correct names of various family members and friends. He was aided and encouraged in this job by my son and daughter-in-law. Quite a few unknown readers sent encouraging letters, as well as supplied me with additional facts. It was only thanks to Badal Basu s repeated reminders that I could finally complete this book. Harsh Dutta had initially encouraged me to serialize this account in a journal. My friend Archana, daughter-in-law of Dr Bidhan Ray s brother, was of immense help in writing this book.
I end this account by recording the debt of gratitude I owe them all.
Satyajit Ray s Family
Bijoya Ray s Family
Translator s Introduction

Every time one asked Satyajit Ray whether he had any plans to write his memoirs-or every time one pleaded with him to do so-all one got in return was a cryptic smile. The fact that he never wrote his memoirs always remained a matter of regret-but it is fortunate that the lacuna has now been filled by an autobiography of none other than Bijoya Ray, his wife and constant companion. It was indeed an occasion to rejoice when the noted Bengali journal Desh began serializing her memoirs, Amader Kotha . It ran from 2003 to 2004 in thirty-seven instalments, each segment richly illustrated with rare photographs. I know of no other instance where the wife of an internationally acclaimed film director has produced such significant documentation of their lives and times.
It was fortuitous that Mrs Ray had maintained regular diaries for the past few decades before Ray s death, as her memoirs have been fleshed out almost entirely from these diary entries. Perhaps it was her habit of keeping diaries that served as the inspiration behind Professor Shonku and his inimitable diaries? Or were the quirky diaries kept by Uncle Subimal the source of inspiration? Who knows! This book works as the ultimate compendium on Satyajit Ray, highlighting him not only as an archetypal renaissance figure, but also as a very down-to-earth family man. And that is what makes Mrs Ray s book, which forms part of a long tradition of remarkable testimonies written by Bengali women from the late nineteenth century, so intimate and special.
The book provides detailed documentation on significant historical periods and the numerous important and interesting people who contrib