Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (novel)

Titas Ekti Nadir Naam

Cover page of the novel
Author	Advaita Mallabarman
Cover artist	Ranen Ayan Dutta
Country	India
Language	Bengali
Publication date	1956

Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (Bengali: তিতাস একটি নদীর নাম), or A River Called Titas is a popular novel by Advaita Mallabarman. The author gained fame by writing this one novel. In this novel, the story of the poor angler people of the village has been depicted. Later, a movie was made based on this novel of same name.

History[edit]

The novel was first published in Masik Muhammadi. After a few chapters were printed in Mohammadi, the original manuscript of the novel was lost on the streets. He rewrote the story at the earnest request of friends and devoted readers. Before being admitted to Kanchrapara Hospital, give the manuscript of this book to your friends.^[1] This novel was published a few years after the death of Advaita Mallavarman. Published in the first book. Filmmaker Ritwik Kumar Ghatak made a film titled Titas Ekti Nadir Naam in 1973 based on the story of the novel. Ritwik Ghatak said the reason behind his interest in making this film:

Titas is a fragmentary life of East Bengal, it is an honest writing. These types of writings are not often seen in Bangladesh (in both Bangla) these days. There is a lot of dramatic elements, there are visionary stories, there are many pieces of classical music to listen to - all together create an unforgettable experience. The matter was crying from birth to be caught on film. ... Advaita babu exaggerates a lot. But the writing is written from the heart, from the inside. I myself tried to see from inside without looking through Babu's eyes. At the time Advaitababu saw the river Titas, Titas and the rural civilization along its banks were dying. He did not go to see the next revival. I want to show that even after death there is this resurrection. Titas is now rejuvenated with youth. In my film, Village is the hero, Titas is the heroine.[Translated]

— Ritwik Ghatak^[2]

Summary[edit]

The novel is divided into 4 parts and each part has 2 sub-parts. That is, the novel is spread over a total of 8 parts.

Titas Ekti Nadir Naam[edit]

The Titas River originates from the Meghna River. The water of Meghna has broken one bank of the river and has returned to Meghna after going through forests, fields and fields. This stream originating from Meghna is known as Titas river. Titas is described by the author as a watery river in the introduction of the story. Titus has water in his chest all year round. Thirteen miles from Titas there is a river named Vijaya. There is almost no water in the Vijay river except during the rainy season and because of this the financial and physical condition of the Malos(fishermen) living on the banks of the Vijay river is very poor. In this way two brothers Gauranga and Nityananda lived on the banks of the Vijaya river, in dire straits. Gauranga's wife starved to death. Nityananda had a wife and two children. Gauranga advises his grandfather to marry the wealthy Bodai Malo of Nayanpur. On the other hand, Jamila says that a newlywed bride returns from her father's house to her father-in-law's house by boat with her husband Chhamir Mia. On his way he sees a girl at Malopara ghat and hopes to sign friendship.

The immigration[edit]

One of the Malos living on the banks of the Titas was Dinnath Malo's younger daughter Basanti. In the village of Basanti, there were two right-handed boys named Kishore and Subal. Both of them make a chowari for Basanti's Maghamandal Vrat.^[a] As Subal's father died, he used to fish nets in the river with Kishore. Kishore was three years older than Subal. But they are friends since childhood. One day, Kishore's father sends Kishore and Subal to Shukdevpur village in the north along with Tilak Chand, an old fisherman. Basanti was 11 years old then. The teenagers reached Moral Banshiram's house in Shukdevpur to seek fishing permission. In the middle of the month of Chaitra, Dol Purnima comes. Everyone in Shukdevpur was invited to play the dol in Shukdevpur's khala and the youths were also invited as raiyats of Banshiram Moral's gang. Young women paint the boy while playing the swing. But an unmarried young woman's hand trembled while painting him. During the dol ceremony, the boy meets the girl. All of a sudden the people of Vasudevpur attacked there on the basis of the old mess. An attacker moves towards the young woman, Kishore rushes in to save her. When the girl fainted, the teenager tied her up and took her to her mother. After that, under the guidance of Banshiram Morler's wife, Kishore exchanged garlands with the girl and the girl's father and mother took her to Kishore's boat. The teenagers' boat meets with disaster on the way, and they end up anchoring the boat in the Naya Ganges creek. There they fall asleep for the night, but wake up to find that their boat has been robbed and the robbers have taken away Kishore's wife. When their boat reaches the estuary of the Titus, Kishore sees a woman floating in the water and realizes that it is Kishore's wife and they assume that she is dead. The teenager's eyes turned red; Tilak tells Subal that Kishore has gone mad.

New home[edit]

Then four years passed. Two old men Gauranga and Nityananda set out in a boat with a baby boy Ananta and his mother. Gauranga soliloquizes that Anantara Ma jumped from the robber's boat into the river while she was still on her stomach and climbed onto a bank and accidentally came to Bhavanipur under the shelter of these two old men. They thought that Anantara killed her mother to call the bridegroom, so they kept Anantara's mother in a widow's dress. But Anantara Maa knew that she was Kishore's wife and she also remembered the name of Kishore's village, but she did not know the name of Kishore or Subal. So at last they came to Anantara Ma to reach that village. An old man is trying to force a madman to marry Anantar Ma at the village ghat. Subla's wife met Anantar Ma in the village. Anantara mother learns spinning from him. Another person talks to Ananta's mother, she is the mother of the rich black man of the village. According to Kalor's mother, Subla's wife's real name was Basanti, she was married to Subla, and after Subla's death, she became known as Subla's wife. Mangala, under the priesthood of Ramprasad, a senior priest, included Anantara's mother in his society, which included Subala's father-in-law and Kishore's father. Ramprasad wanders one night to old Ramkeshva's house, where Ramkeshva's crazy son cuts a hole in the ground and tells him, "This is your Meghna Ganga, here is the creek. ... Jaigya khiti Maia has been stolen."

Marriage[edit]

Kali puja is held in the village, everyone contributes to the puja, but Ramkeshva's contribution is waived because his son is crazy. He does not shy away from eating prasad to avoid paying the ramprasad contribution and keeps his son Kishore locked in the house for the four days of the puja. On the day of Uttarayana Sankranti, Malos spend a lot of money. Ramkeshav decides that he will also invite Ramprasad, Mangala and his son Mohan, Subla's in-laws and the new resident of the village, Anantara's mother, to eat. Subla's wife takes Anantar's mother to make pitha in the kitchen at Ramkeshva's house. There the conversation between the two reveals that after Kishore comes home mad, Vasanti's father marries Subal to Subal instead of Kishore. One day, Subal goes on a black boat to anger Jeel. When there is a sudden storm in the river, everyone jumps from the boat, but orders come to Subal to stop the log and save the boat. But while doing so, he got buried under the boat and died. Since then, Anantara's mother used to watch Kishore almost secretly. The madness of the teenager increases in winter. After falling with another madman, he injured himself. Eventually Anantara's mother is forced to serve Kishore and Kishore gets better. Then comes the swing day; Anantara mother goes to paint the boy. But after applying the paint, the boy suddenly picked up Anantara's mother by the waist and started rubbing her face on Anantara's exposed chest. Seeing this, the people of the village beat the boy severely. The teenager died early the next morning. And four days later, Anantara's mother died.

Rainbow[edit]

When Kadir Mia and her son's boat laden with Sakarkand potatoes is about to sink due to heavy rain and strong winds, Banamali and Dhananjaya rescue them and their potatoes and take them in their fishing boat. The brotherhood of Banmali and Qadir Mia developed. Banmali said that her sister got married in Malopara, on her advice she and Kadir went to Malopara to sell potatoes. There, Anant Qadir Miyar galloped in front of the potato stand. Banmali and Kadir Mia both look at the rainbow in endless wonder. Vanmali takes a liking to Anant, flirts with him and promises to take him with her one day. Meanwhile, Subla's wife arranges for Ananthar Mar Shraddha on Ananthar's behalf. Banamali's sister presided over the funeral, she had a good ability to cut rhymes. One day, the house of Subla's wife, that is, Anantar's aunt, the father's house was destroyed in a storm. Due to the huge cost of rebuilding the house, his parents wanted to send Anant, who was staying in the house, away. Kalovaran's mother also refuses to keep Anant as their big boat is damaged in a storm. One day Basanti's, i.e. Subla's wife's, mother goes to beat Anant, so the mother and daughter fight. Basanti gets angry at these things and throws Anant away from home. Ananta catches fish in a towel, wanders alone, one day he goes to the house of Banamali's sister i.e. Labachandra's wife, but later he goes out on his own. No one knew where he lived. At last Banamali found him and went home with himself and his sister Udayatara i.e. Labachandra's wife. Anant observes Vanamali's reading of the Padma Purana and other rituals and ceremonies there. Anantha meets a little girl in the village of Banamali, who says her name is also Anantha.

Golden boat[edit]

Qadir lives with his son Chadir, Chadir's son Ramu and wife Khushi in Birampur village. Qadir informs his son that the Magan Sarkar of Ujanchar wants to seize the land by filing a false case of loan in his name even though the Qadirs had settled the loan by selling jute. Meanwhile, Khushi's father comes to their house to take his daughter to his father's house for a few days. Khushi's father, Muhuri, says he will win the case for Kadir, but they quarrel. Qadir Mia then goes to Magon Sarkar with her eyes red, but Magon Sarkar tells her to let her do this apocalypse one last time, then she will be fine. Qadir also accepted shocked. But the very next day Magon Sarkar died by jumping from a coconut tree. Qadir gets bored hearing that. When Chadir asked for money from Qadir, he expressed his desire to build a big boat to run the boat race, and Qadir opened his hands and gave him the money. Two malos came and built a boat for the roofer. On the 1st of Bhadra, that boat floats. On that day many boats gathered in Titas. Udayatara, Ananta, Anantabala, Vanamali were in a boat. Seeing Subla's wife Anant from another boat, she got into his boat. But there he had an argument with Udayatara and together they beat Subla's wife.

Fierce butterfly[edit]

After the beating at the hands of Udayataras, Subla's wife started to stay indoors most of the time in humiliation. But Bamun Kayet's youths started peeping at his house and cursing his name. Subla's wife started screaming in protest in front of Tamsi's father's house, where the Bamuns and Kayts frequented. Inspired by Subla's wife, the other Malo boys beat three tabla players one day. On the other hand, during the race, Chadir's boat was hit and broken by another boat. Banamali rescues Chadhir. Qadir already knew Banmali, he entertained Banmali. Qadir's daughter Jamila told Udayatara that she saw him on her way to her in-laws' house and wanted to sign. Anant returns to the village and concentrates on studies and loves studies. Meanwhile, in Malopara, the Malors split into two groups on the basis of the ideology of preservation of their culture. Harivansh, Bhatiali, accompanied by Subla's wife Mohan, try to lure other Malos back from the Jatra Dal by singing Malo cultural songs, but are unsuccessful.

Floating[edit]

After surrendering to the Jatra Dal, the Malos' own culture gradually disappeared and the luxury of girls increased. Meanwhile, one day Malora is surprised to discover that Titus's chest has grown floating char. Far away farmers started fighting for the possession of that fodder. Maloras depend on monsoon water. Ramprasad tries to cheer up the fishermen and fails. He himself died while occupying the char. Meanwhile, Anantabala is of marriageable age, but she remains in hope of Ananta, who has moved to the town of Comilla. On the advice of Anantabala's father, Banamali goes to Ananta's town and meets Ananta. Banamali is now working as a fish farmer. Udayatara comes to his father-in-law's house after a long time from Banamali's house and settles his old quarrel with Basanti, i.e. Subla's wife. Malod's condition gradually worsens and one by one Udayatara's groom, Basanti's parents, Mohan's father die. Subla's wife always looked for Anantara even in such sorrow. He comes to know that Anant meets Kadir of Birampur. That day Banamali died, seeing that Qadir opened his paddy shell to distribute. Starving Subla's wife daydreams about everyone and at one point a water-filled lota falls from her relaxed hand.

Notes[edit]

Other notes[edit]

• Malo or Malos refer to Fishermen(Fisherwomen)
• Translated quotes or summaries might have some mistake as translated by bot. You can help Wikipedia to correct it. Refer to the Bengali article.

References[edit]

Secondary sources[edit]

Bibliography or Primary source[edit]

Bengali Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Titas Ekti Nadir Naam

• Mallabarman, Advaita (15 April 1956). Titas Ekti Nadir Naam.