Writer Tarapada Roy was born on this day.
Roy is remembered most for his delightful stories, often written like sketches that appeared as series. They often combined the absurd and the innocent.
His series for children featuring Dodo and Tatai had a Royal Bengal Tiger in the Sunderbans learning to take smaller leaps after being influenced by the visiting human tourists. His stories could feature patriarchs contemplating a business of selling clouds. With the Dodo-Tatai series, Kandogyan and Gyangomyi, written by him, were very popular.
He had started out as a poet, with a volume of poems called Tomar Pratima.
A significant part of his writing falls outside the “humour” genre though, works such as the other volumes of poetry, or Charabari Porabari, or the travelogue Neel Digante Tokhon Magic.
Writing remained a passion for him till the end: he is said to have written from his hospital bed.
He passed away on August 25, 2007.