Short stories
Mosquito
মশা
Premendra Mitra · 1945
Synopsis
In a boarding house at 72, Banamali Naskar Lane, in Calcutta, a few young men are chatting about the campaigns against mosquitoes. Ghanada appears, the boarder of the attic room, ageless, who accepts the only armchair and a borrowed cigarette, and declares that he has killed only one mosquito in his life: on 5 August 1939, on the island of Sakhalin. He tells how, employed in the harvesting of amber, he set out with a doctor in search of a Chinese worker who had disappeared with a sack of amber, as far as the laboratory of a Japanese entomologist.
Context
The story appeared in 1945 in the festival almanac Alpana, published by Deb Sahitya Kutir, and gave rise to Ghanada, the character of a long series that ran until 1987. The boarders in it bear the names of the author's friends, and Ghanada is said to have been modelled on a former neighbour at his lodgings whom he called Tenda. The adventures are implausible, but their historical, geographical and scientific knowledge can be verified.
Who it is for
A brief narrative, conceived for young readers and read by all ages. One must accept never knowing what is true. No French translation.
Prizes and reception
The first story featuring its author's most famous character, which earned him a state prize for children's literature in 1958.
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