The multi-hyphenate Satyajit Ray and his iconic creation Feluda have the unique quality of evoking nostalgia and yet remaining relevant. Much like a Bengali’s soft corner for aloo sheddho drizzled with ghee or popping oranges in the embrace of the warm winter sun. Evergreen and classic. Penguin Random House India has added to that cocoon of comfort with The Penguin Ray Library and The Feluda Journal, the latter containing unseen archiving materials, illustrations and rare publicity stills created by Ray. We caught up with Premanka Goswami, commissioning editor, associate publisher and head of backlist at Penguin Random House India, to know more about the treasure trove.
This is a treasure trove! Tell us how the idea came to be.
Indeed, the writings, illustrations, music compositions and interviews, among others, offer a rare glimpse of Ray’s creative genius. As a Ray enthusiast and more importantly, as a publisher at Penguin, the leading trade publishing house, I realised that it’s incumbent upon us to disseminate Ray’s works to younger readers.
How did you go about selecting what you wanted to incorporate?
We primarily looked at Ray’s works which largely remained unpublished and therefore, unknown. This required a lot of archival research and restoration to an extent. Sandip Ray greatly helped us here to curate these rare works for readers. We focused on the idea of ‘curating’ every book. Our intention, from Penguin and Sandip Ray, was to offer a great experience to the readers, who’re yet to experience Ray’s works. Being the curator of The Penguin Ray Library, I’m thrilled to see the overwhelming response from our readers. Truth be told, Ray evokes a special sentiment. After all, he gave a unique expression to our literature, art, music, and overall aesthetic sensibility. It was critically important to think through and plan every component of each title. From its cover to preliminary pages, table of contents, main text and end matter, it’s added to The Penguin Ray Library after multiple brainstorming sessions. In the book 3 Rays, we brought out Ray’s translations, which few readers saw before.
What were Sandip Ray’s inputs like?
Sandip Ray plays a significant role in the making of each title. He’s not merely the volume editor of the titles under the series but also, a mentor to ideate and develop these books.
What is your favourite Feluda story and Satyajit Ray film?
Satyajit Ray made two Feluda movies. While I love Joy Baba Felunath, I’m biased towards Sonar Kella. I can watch it anytime.
Tell us about The Feluda Journal!
Well, when Ray began writing the Feluda stories, he was largely looking at younger readers as his audience. Interestingly, soon it was found that they were being read by their parents as well. This is universal. My nine-year-old son — who never lived in Bengal — and I relish Feluda stories. While I read the complete Feluda stories in Bengali and English, I realised Feluda is an amazingly attractive character, who for many of us is both fictional and real. We felt that it’ll be interesting to offer Feluda memorabilia to our readers. Sandipda loved the idea of presenting this in the form of a journal.The Feluda Journal is a collector’s item, wherein Feluda enthusiasts will be able to see the story plot lines, manuscripts of Feluda stories, sketches and original artwork, among others.
