Writer, lexicographer and chemist Rajshekhar Basu was born on this day.
Basu, who wrote his brilliant satirical stories under the pseudonym Parashuram, is one of the greatest Bengali humorists.
He grew up in Darbhanga in Bihar and came to Calcutta to join Presidency College where he studied chemistry.
Basu joined Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy’s Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals as a chemist and became its director.
His writing career began in the 1920s. His sharp satire sliced through the worst of human predilections, vanity, corruption and avarice, but the felicity of his phrases and the precision of his language made his prose delightful. Stories such as Bhushandir Mathe or Birinchibaba are read with as much pleasure today as they were in his day.
He authored Chalantika, a highly-acclaimed Bengali dictionary. He translated the Ramayana and the Mahabharata into Bengali. He also wrote essays and poetry.
A phrase such as Thonter sindur akkhay hok (May the sindur on your lips shine eternally), from one of his stories, will never go out of fashion.
He passed away in 1960.