Kolkata-based educationist and writer, Prabir Kumar Datta loves to write short stories, poetry and novels – both in Bengali and English. ‘The Rainbow Days’ is his first English Novel, published by Penguin group. With his first attempt he has won several hearts with this simple yet excellent debut novel.
‘The Rainbow Days’ is an emotional saga of a family in the rural Bengal between 1967 and 1972. Prabir’s keen observation, subtle analysis, passionate involvement, and simple but powerful language made the book impossible to stop reading till the end.
Spectralhues got in touch with Prabir Kumar Datta. In an exclusive interview with Susmita Bose he spoke about his book, his inspirations and life.
Congratulations on the release of your debut novel “The Rainbow Days’. The book is considered to be the documentary of a contemporary history of rural Bengal between 1967 and 1972. Despite the tragedy, the characters turn out to be winners in their own ways. Please tell us briefly about the amazing portrayal of ‘The Rainbow Days’.
The book contains 39 chapters with 376 pages and written in the background of rural Bengal
during the fragile period of 1967 to 1972 when,
- There was no TV, not to talk of mobile phone or Internet, but life was full of emotions..
- People at large were simple, rural nature was virgin, but village politics was very much there.
- A whole generation of Bengalees was suffering from the just recent partition of Bengal.
- Families started breaking and relations started being redefined, causing family intrigues.
- Refugees were pouring in and poverty and adversity were inseparable parts of life.
- Bangladesh was born in 1971 out of erstwhile East Pakistan after long battle of liberation.
- Opportunists were grabbing all benefits after independence and values started eroding.
- A few idealist selfless ex revolutionaries who sacrificed their life and career for the independence
but did not rush for money and position were ignored and faced untold sufferings, but defying adversity, they carried on their lone battle of values against corrupted establishment.
- Exploitation was rampant and the extremist movement was rising with a dream of changing the society and removing exploitation by targeting the richer people at large.
The book is a passionate tale of a family that represents that age and the lone battle of a selfless ex-revolutionary against all odds and corrupted establishment while defying Himalayan adversities surrendering everything to God. The story is told as seen in the eyes of his growing child.
But this is not a dry narration of history, nor is mere sermonizing . It is a simple and fast moving attractive story of life full of passionate moments, dramatic turn of events, suspense and cinematic climaxes. There is exiting struggle for values and an undercurrent love and hate with enormous reading pleasure. It also depicts the society and life of that age as a whole and interaction of many characters.
Are the incidents and narrations in ‘The Rainbow Days’ real?
I can only say that ‘The Rainbow Days’ has many characters and incidents which are influenced by real ones. But a novel cannot only be mere narrations of facts, it has got to have many imaginations and a message. The same is the case here too. However real life experience has a big role to play here.
What motivates you to write this particular story?
To me, the particular fragile post independence period of transition of Bengal and the battle of a few idealist and self less persons against corrupted establishment in the teeth of huge adversity contained the seed of reconstruction of Bengal and its present day’s development and so it 
deserves in-depth study. It also has a universal appeal to people of anywhere in the globe where man has become victim of the political decision of a few and where a handpicked few have fought against wrong.
But unfortunately, the reflection of that period and the struggle of that time has not received proper attention in the literature . I felt that this is much overdue and the present generation should know and appreciate the plight of a generation, post independence turmoil and battle of values of that time.
Hence I have made this humble effort to depict that period through my novel.
What kind of response have you been getting??
The response is spectacular and the response area is daily growing. So far, whoever has gone through the book 
has conveyed overwhelming appreciation. I am receiving such appreciations almost every day. I believe that very soon it will be able to touch the heart of huge number of readers.
The title is very interesting. How did you hit upon it?
Life, particularly the child hood is like a rainbow, it has many colours and shades. The story of this book has characters of many colours, there are many unique incidents, unprecedented turns of events. There are lot of ups and downs and the days of which the story is told is no less than a rainbow. Apart from that, a rainbow brings to us the feeling of an unadulterated joy. So I have chosen the name.
But frankly speaking, the name suddenly clicked in my mind and I chose it without much of thinking at that time, although It has fitted into the book well.
How much of Papu is Prabir Datta?
There is a lot of my own experience in the book and that has been told through the character ‘Papu’ But as I said earlier, there are many imaginations and additions and alterations as per the demand of the story.
Are the central characters like Somu, Beel Babu, Atiyar, Bimal da based on real persons known to you?
There is lot of influence of many real characters seen by me. However they have been changed according to the need of the story.
But the central character ‘Nabin Babu’ is based on that of my father who was an ex revolutionary.
How do you manage time from your busy schedule to sit and write? How many days you took to complete it?
In fact I have a very busy schedule as I am engaged in various jobs like teaching ( in Physics), writing books (on Physics and also on literature) and a few other literary, social and family activities.
But at the same time I am very much routine bound that helps me getting enough time for each work. As regards Writing of ‘The Rainbow Days’ I wrote it at a stretch and it took around six months to complete it. But I was toying with the ideas for years together.
What is the message you wanted to convey through your book?
I have tried to reintroduce my readers with the values of life that is much worn out today. No hardship or adversity is insurmountable to a person who is in the path of truth and is doing his duty wholeheartedly having totally surrendered everything to God. Ups and downs are inseparable parts of life as is love and hate. It is not only wealth and success that matters, but struggle and perseverance are also not less important in life. Much above all the small pleasures and sorrows of life, there is one thing called joy which is eternal and is gift of God.
That apart, the book tells about a fragile period of Bengal just after partition when values were declining fast by pressure of adverse reality and a very small few were fighting their unequal battle against loss of values and Himalayan odds. They were the unsung heroes of that age and those uncompromising characters are there in every age and in every part of the world. Their contributions are not recognized by the society, nor do they hanker after any benefit, but they are the prime mover of the society. This story is told about such a fighter and I believe this has an universal appeal to all society and all countries of the world, wherever value has been eroding and some voice need to be raised against that. In particular my message is to the youth to whom the future world belongs to and if they get some inspiration, my effort will be successful.
Being a debutant author how is your experience with your publisher?
Penguin group is a world famous publishing house who have published huge number of best sellers of famous writers of the world including Nobel prize winners. So I feel very much fortunate having my book published by Patridge Publishing of that house. They have been excellent to me and rendered all sort of co operation as agreed.
They say writing is a ‘lonely process’, still how much support you are getting from your near ones?
Not mere writing, any type of creative work is a very personal thing and at the beginning, nobody else than the creator himself knows the pain or anxiety for the same which cannot be shared. But during course of writing of the book I have received all co operation of my family without which it would not have been possible.
What interests you other than writing?
I am fond of reading whatever book I get .Also cricket is one of my favourite area. Apart from that, I remain engaged in teaching Physics and preparing students for admission to IITs.
Which other books and authors do you like? Is there any single book which has particularly influenced you?
If I have to mention a single book that had influenced me in the childhood most, that is ‘THE MOTHER by Russian writer Maxim Gorky. The book ‘HINDU VIEW OF LIFE’ by Dr. Sarvapally Radhakrisnan had also lot of influence on me.
But I have many other favourite authors like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindra Nath Tegore. In particular I am fond of the writings of Swami Vivekananda.
Tell us something about your future plans?
I am thinking of writing a novel on the turbulent period of 70s and 80s. I have completed a novel on the subject of urbanization where cities are gradually swallowing adjoining villages and uprooting village societies.
Thank you very much, Mr. Datta for your time. Wish you all the best for your future works.
That was Prabir Kumar Datta! In a candid conversation with Spectralhues he expressed his delight that his debut novel ‘The Rainbow Days’ has been received well by book lovers across India. Spectralhues wishes him glorious success and hopes he would come up with many more remarkable books.
