বাংলায় পড়ুন
The footpath in front of Gate No. 2 of Jadavpur University has rows of food shops, mobile repair shops, and fruit shops. Amidst all of this is an old bookstore handled by a man in his mid-fifties. His name is Purnendu Ghosh. Nickname Punya. But he has a different identity too. This gentleman has written a book while handling his shop on the street and this book narrates the history of a certain part of the Sundarbans! The book has been critically acclaimed in the researcher circle. Apart from this, he has written quite a few other books as well, and all without a proper college degree.
Born in Purbadigi village which comes under the purview of the Canning police station, his ancestral home was in Bali. Matla river flows next to the village. Indigenous people live on the banks of the river. When Port Canning was created, his family came into this area. They were well off, but the flood of 1943 changed their lives significantly. Since then financial hardship has been his constant companion.
Punyababu's first book is named 'Rakhalbandana'. A set of 12 stories. Next, he wrote stories on the history of Calcutta for children. But his most acclaimed book is the one on Sundarbans and Port Canning. In this book, he has not only highlighted Canning, Purnababu has written the history of how population developed in a vast area of the Sundarbans. The book, published in 2017, is well researched and the information provided is concrete. Arjun Naskar, a researcher at Jadavpur University, calls his work outstanding. Many professors and researchers were proud when a footpath book dealer wrote a very informative, yet extremely well-researched book. He acknowledged that many of them would not have been able to do the research that Punyababu has done.
Punyababu said that the book is a result of his hard work over the last 20 years. He remembers how his daily wages fed his family, and in between he still took out time to work on his book. He spent day after day in the library and the archive. The satisfaction he now gets to see his book published is unparalleled.
