HAFIZUR

MD HAFIZUR ISLAM
Art of comedy in sukumar rai’s “Abool Tabol”

Nonsense literature is generally categorized as part of the macrocosm of

children’s literature. There is no denying the fact that as children we have all
read such literary pieces with much amusement and delight. Edward lean and
Lewis Carrol are considered as the practitioners of nonsense literature. In the
20th century, people has forgotten to love. Life was become more and more
complicated. At this critical juncture Sukumar Roy comes forward with his
nonsense poetry to provide fun and laughter with the citizens of the modern
world. Sukumar Roy (30 october,1887- 10 September 1923) was a Bengali
poet , story writer ,playwright and editor from the Indian subcontinent, who is
remembered mainly for his writings for the children. His creation such as the
collection of poems ”Abol Tabol”, novel, “Haja bara la”, short story collection
“Pagla dashu” and play “chalachittachanchari’ are considered equal stature to
“Alice in Wonderland” more than 80 years after his death ,Roy remains one of
the most popular children’s writers in Bengali literature.

“Abol Tabol”, literary The weird and absurd, is a collection of Bengali

children’s poem’s and rhymes composed by Sukumar Roy, first published on 19
September 1923 by U ray and sons publishers. It consists of 46 titled and seven
untitled short rhymes, Bengali readers were exposed to a new nonsense fantasy
world by the poems in “Abol Tabol”. This selection offers the best at sukumar
roy’s world of fun-riddled poetry. Although it was not understood at the time of
its publication that many poems in “Abol tabol” contain skilfully hidden satire
on the state of society and administration of early 20 th century colonial India –
mostly Bengal. Embedding implied hidden meanings of a subversive nature in
nonsense rhymes for children was roi’s clever way of subverting praise
censorship by the British administration in India, which was paranoid about
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seditious and subversive literature. In analytical literature since 2017, the poems
in abol tabol have been plotted on a timeline and compared with
contemporaneous events, research having yielded plausible connections
between historical events and the contemporary and satire hidden in many of the
poem. His collection had several characters which became legendry in Bengali
literature and culture. Some characters even have found idiomatic usage in the
language. Some of the character in “abol tabol” are; Kathburo(old wood man)in
the poem “kathburo”(“old wood man”); head officer burrobabu (Bose babu) in
the poem. “gnof churi”(“the missing whiskers”);katukutu buro (old tickler) in
the poem “katukutu buro”( “the old tickler”) etc.

It is mentioned earlier that sukumar roy’s poems in “ abol tabol” contain hidden
satire. At this juncture, one may recall the famous poem, “uncle’s
invention”( khuror kol).in this poem, the main character, chandidas’ uncle has
invented a splendid device that all shorten the time of walking a long distance.
Truly speaking , in this poem sukumar roy blends his knowledge of scientific
inventions and his sharp and refined ability to satire a social milieu. The
poem,in its apparent narration, is a pure entertainment to the imaginative minds
of both children and adults. Even in the apparent illogical narrative of the poem,
there is a logic because common people are going round their routines “for
nourishment, and (they) never mind the distance.” This very comment in the
poem conveys the message of it. From this poem ,one may reach to the
conclusion that man’s requirement of life shouldn’t be controlled by men.
Otherwise all of us would be carrying a uncle’s device strapped to our shoulder
throughout our life. Another poem may be cited at this juncture. But is “the
missing whiskers”(gnof churi) like the Indian literature, the western literature
has so many works and their characters to convey hidden satirical messages.
The instance is ‘tintin in Tibet”, written by Belgian Cartoonist herge.
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It is an admitted fact by all all that sukumar roy’s “abol tbol” creates fun and
laughter among the readers. It generates real amusement. The selected poems
will be analysed for the better understanding of the situation. The first poem is
“spew munch;”. Here , the poet introduces us with some strange hybrid forms of
creatures and the consequences of those hybridism. A- porcuduck is formed by
the amalgamation of a porcupine and a duck. In this way, many other strange
creature are created like -stortel,whalephant etc.The main theme of the poem “
spew-munch” is identity crisis. But it creates true turn. “The king of bombardia”
is another poem where bombardia is such a kingdom where anything is
possible. The king hangs tramped, tried and solidified mango juices, the queen
of the state has a pillow tied to her head. In the poem, “the missing whiskers”,
the poet creates an atmosphere of tun and laughter with the help of a tunny yet
illogical incident that is the missing of whiskers of Bose babu. “The old
Tickler” is another poem which becomes an excellent specimen of nonsense
literature with its absurd images and characters. The old Tickler continues
search for a listener to force him verbally and physically to until the man chokes
with laughter. “The sons of ramgaroo” is a remarkable poem of sukumar roy.
The poet presents his readers an imaginary creature, the grim and bitter ram
gorurer chhana who remains in its vow never to laugh. The sons of ram garoo
are the representative of any orthodox men who doesn’t welcome any change in
social order. Some other important poems are –“groomy tidings”, “uncles
Invention” etc.

To conclude, it may be stated that sukumar roy’s nonsense successfully turned

parody into serious literature. By depicting the reality of colonial Banal in an
oblique manner, Roy intended to trigger the birth of political consciousness and
radicalism in Bengal. So that it could react against the contemporary socio-
political atmosphere which was violent, unjust, exploitative, grim and
mechanized. It is truism that to the young minds the poem offers the excitement
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of the possibility of an alternate world of and to the adults, they provided

relaxation trom the morbid reality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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1. Goswami, supriya(2012) Colonial India in children’s literature.

Routledge.p.152
2. Sukumar sahitya samgra,1, Kolkata; Ananda publishers,p.134
3. Banerjee Biplab(2019). Popular literature, Indian books view.