Popular Bengali writer Mani Shankar Mukherjee, more famous by the moniker Sankar, doesn't think he would have ever ventured to be an author had he not met Noel Barwell, an ex-armyman who was also the last British barrister at the Calcutta High Court.
Barwell, a bar-at-law, belonged to the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Regiment and came to Fort William, Calcutta after the First World War (1914-18), resigned from the army and started law practice in Calcutta High Court, says Sankar.
"My father was also a lawyer and once a reasonably successful dramatist but I don't think I would ever ventured to be an author had I not met Noel Barwell and later his remarkable wife Marion Barwell who lived, loved and died in Calcutta," the 80-year-old author of works like "Kato Ajanare", "Chowringhee" and "Ghorer Madhye Ghor", told PTI in an interview.
He says he took to writing as a gratitude - an attempt to put on record the events of a wayward life.
Now, with several of his iconic works being translated not only to English but also regional as well as foreign languages, the readership base is only increasing.
Though he has written novels and stories around Calcutta, his diversification includes travelogues, history and recently biographies.
"The latest on Swami Vivekananda (The Monk As A Man) may soon become my largest selling book - this is also available in English (Penguin), Hindi, Assamese, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi and Malayalam," he says.
"I started late, but I am now available in major Indian languages - Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Assamese, Odia. 'Chowringhee' is available in Russian, Italian, French and Spanish apart from two editions from London (Grove Atlantic). There is an agreement for a Chinese translation," the Kolkata-based Sankar says.
The trilogy "Kato Ajanare" ("The Great Unknown"), "Chowringhee" and "Ghorer Madhye Ghor" ("Thackeray Mansion") has been translated into English by Penguin. "Thackeray Mansion", translated by author Sandipan Deb, was recently released. Two of his novels, "Seemabaddha" ("Company Limited") and "Jana Aranya" ("The Middleman"), were turned into films by Satyajit Ray.
