Straight from a Story Book: Part I

It all started with a story book. In 1937, Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay, one of the leading writers of modern Bengali literature penned 'Chander Pahar'. It is a story of a 22 year old young man from rural Bengal who sets out to Africa on an adventure of a lifetime in 1909.

(If you have not read the book already you can read the plot summary here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chander_Pahar )

Like millions of Bengali readers I had read this adventure story when I was a kid and then as I grew up, as indicated by its publisher (juvenile literature); it became a thing of the past, a childhood fantasy for me.  It is only in recent years, after I climbed Kilimanjaro (2005), I picked up 'Chander Pahar' again. It is then, the book started opening new meanings and fresh directions for me. It is then I began to understand the meaning of the Swedish proverb- 'In a good book the best is between the lines'. 

My repeated readings of 'Chander Pahar' turned into a close inspection, followed by investigation and that lead to my re-discovery of many elements embedded in the pages of the book. Elements such as, names of people, places and incidents. I found that those elements mentioned by the author were factual. Names such as 'Ruwenzori' ( now spelled 'Rwenzori), Duke of Abruzzi, Harry Johnston, Rosita Forbes, were whispering secrets in my ears about their real life adventures in the last century. 

From that point on, the book became a coded guide to me. A guide that would inspire a journey in real life in today's Africa. A journey from fiction to facts. From imagination to inspiration. From a childhood fantasy to a curious, real life adventure. I wanted to see how far could this book, an adventure fiction, a juvenile literature; actually take me?

Uttar Banga Sambad (http://uttarbangasambad.com/), the largest circulated daily newspaper of North Bengal extended the vital helping hand and became part of this adventure. One fine morning I was all set to retrace Shankar's (the protogonist of Bibhuti Bhushan's novel) trail.  For the next few weeks I kept sending dispatches to the daily as I progressed slowly from ancient port city of Mombasa, Kenya, to the border of Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. 


I have shared two youtube links below, one in Bengali and the other in English. Here I try to explain why I felt a strong urge to undertake such a journey. Please do check them out. I am thankful to Dream Wanderlust team for their interest in this project and help in this recording.

I outlined my route in two stages. The first stage was from Mombasa, Kenya to the shores of Lake Victoria. Here my focus was the Uganda Railway. In the novel ( Chander Pahar) our protagonist gets a job in this historically significant railway in 1909. From the author's description it becomes clear that he first gets appointed as a store keeper in Tsavo ( though the author never mentioned it), works as an assistant to the engineer in charge. During this period he gets to taste the wrath of the man-eating lions of Tsavo. Later, he gets transferred to a remote railway station near Kisumu. After reading both Bibhuti Bhushan and 'Man Eaters of Tsavo'; it became obvious that the author of 'Chander Pahar' was inspired by the writings of Col. John Henry Patterson and his adventures in 1898 while constructing the Tsavo bridge. So in Stage-1,my prime interest was to see and experience the present state of the famous railway, how it is functioning and the condition of some its stations that are so much steeped in history.

The second stage was, entering Uganda through the Busia border and proceed to Kasese, the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains-Ptolemy's fabled 'Mountains of the Moon' and climbing Mt. Stanley massif.  Below are the two hand drawn route maps. They are not to scale.

Watch out for the next episode here in this blog where I outline the Stage -1 of my journey to the Mountains of the Moon-Chander Pahar. 

Stage 1

 

Stage 2