Thursday, May 18, 2006

Sukumar Roy: a new reading

Why Sukumar Roy, I hear you cry? What has the writer of Abol Tabol have to do with the GLG? It is my humble submission that apart from being the finest book of whimsical verse ever written, Abol Tabol also contains two of the finest poems ever written on two diametrically opposed bowel acts--diarrohea and constipation. The poems in question are 'Ahladi' and 'Ramgorurer Chana'.
Still at sea? Remember, Sukumar Roy was writing at a time when Bengali society was more Victorian than the Victorians themselves, and the poems in question could not refer directly to their theme. However, Sukumar solved this problem by doing something very clever--substituting one offending consonant by a completely harmless one. So, the first four lines of Ahladi goes:

Haschi mora, haschi dekho, haschi mora ahladi
Teenjonete jotla kore phokla hasir palla di,
Haste haste aschhe dada, aschhi ami, aschhe bhai,
haschi keno keu janena, pacche hashi haschi tai.


Now simply replace all the 's'-s in the haschi words by 'g'. And read the passage out aloud....

And similarly,

Ramgorurer chana, hashte tader mana
hashir kotha bolle bole hashbo nananana.

Sodai more trase, oi bujhi keu hase...
Ekchokhe tai mitmitiye takay ashepashe.



I rest my case.

13 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

but that produces 'hagi' instead of 'haga'. no one says 'hagi pacche'.

10:58 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

your vallooon is veing vrusstet

10:58 AM  
Blogger La Figlia Che Piange said...

Hehe, I laughed so hard I snorted.

11:35 AM  
Blogger Bone said...

but it's not hashiye phele pachhe, it's oi bujhhi keu hashe! how does that fit into the context? onno keu korle sheta dekhe toh nijer paay na?

(karor kachhe abol tabol achhe? check kore nik ekbaar line'ta. ami mukhostho korechhilam shei class 3te)

3:03 PM  
Blogger March Hare said...

Akkebare bhulbhaal quotes...
1.The second and third lines of 'Ahladi' go something like...

'Teenjonete jotla kore phokla hasir palla di,
Haste haste aschhe dada, aschhi ami, aschhe bhai...'

2. And in "Ramgorurer Chhana' the right lines are...
'Sodai more trase, oi bujhi keu hase...
Ekchokhe tai mitmitiye takay ashepashe'...

11:07 PM  
Blogger Abhijit Gupta said...

sorry about the misquotes, did it from (obviously creaky) memory, will incorporate corrections ASAP

11:43 PM  
Blogger expiring_frog said...

Or replace the 'h's at the beginning of words with 'g's, and get the definite treatise on farting.

12:10 AM  
Blogger expiring_frog said...

*beginnings, definitive

12:11 AM  
Blogger Illusionary said...

oh this is funny!!!

6:57 AM  
Blogger onnesha said...

this is contageous i tell you..noew that ive read this i cant get it out of my head...

12:44 AM  
Blogger mojo said...

@expiring frog:replacing h with g gives you gagchhi or gashchhi....how is that related to farting?

8:02 AM  
Blogger scorpionragz said...

I agree with srin!1 Snortingly funny this!

11:28 AM  
Blogger TC said...

shit!!!!!!Brilliant!!!!!next time i laugh or take a crap i know im gonna be laughin my heart out!!! hagchi mora ahladi indeed!!! tukhor!!!!

9:58 AM  

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