The death of Sunil Gangopadhyay at the age of 78 is an irreparable loss not only to Bengali but Indian literature. He was all his life opposed to cultural chauvinism. Sunil was essentially a poet, but he was dragged into writing fiction for money. But even in that field, he rose to the pinnacle of success. And that is not to be measured in terms of the big bucks in made. He modestly said that his success was accidental. It was to pay his debt that he wrote a novel ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ somewhat perfunctorily in a film magazine. By a stroke of luck, Satyajit Ray made it a film and Sunil had never looked back since. But he was the severest critic of his own work. Readers lapped up his romantic novels but he was not happy. He decided to do a fair amount of historical research and wrote a number of historical novels backed by considerable documentation. His ‘Sei Samay’ is a masterly portrayal of 19th century Bengal featuring Madhusudan Dutta and Young Bengal. Awards were galore. However, poetry remained his passion. His ‘Neerar Janye’ –a tribute to women-remains a major piece of writing.
Success did not make him arrogant. He remained a gentleman to his fingertips. He was never seen angry or boisterous though in his young age, he led a hectic life. He never bragged about the scholarship which took him to the US for some time. His mind was always rooted in Indian soil. Though a non-Marxist, he was skeptical about the political change-over in West Bengal and was very critical of the creative bandwagoneers who cashed in on it. Sunil was a great lover of music-Rabindra Sangeet and Classical alike. He wrote a memorable novel about his friend, classical singer Amir Khan who died in a car accident.
