Vibrant, skilled writer, enthusiastic, jolly, down to earth, versatile all this adjectives together describes an Indian poet and novelist Sunil Gangopadhya. He was born on 7th September in the year 1934. He obtained his master degree from the University of Calcutta.
In 1953 he with his few of his friends started a Bengali poetry magazine krittibas and he was the editor of krittidas. Later he wrote for many different publications. Ganguly created the Bengali frictional character Kakababu and wrote a series of novels on this character which became significant in Indian children’s literature. He was a great writer and writing was in his blood. As in poetry, Sunil is known for his unique style in prose. Arjun, Pratidwandi, filmed by Satyajit Ray (English title: The Adversary), Aranyer Din-Raatri (also filmed by satyajit Ray – The Days and Nights of the Forest), Ekaa ebong Koyekjon are some of his well known works of fiction. His historical fiction Sei Somoy, translated into English by Aruna Chakravorty as Those Days) received the Indian Sahitya Akademi award in 1985. Sei Somoy continues to be a best seller more than a decade after its first publication. The same is true of Pratham Alo (also translated recently by Aruna Chakravorty as First Light), another best selling historical fiction. He received Sahitya Akademi award for his novel ‘Those Days’. He even wrote various publications of the ananda bazaar group.
Author of well over 200 books, Sunil is a prolific writer who has excelled in different genres but declares poetry to be his “first love”. His neera and nikhilesh series of poems have been extremely popular. Sunil has written (and still writes) in many other genres including travelogues, children’s fiction, short stories, features and essays. Among his pen-names are: Nil Lohit, Sanatan Pathak, and Nil Upadhyay. Though he wrote all types of children’s friction one chsracter created by him that stands above the rest was Kakababu. Ganguly’s writing was endless and was known for his exceptional writing. He achieved various national awards and also honoured with Bankim Puraskar, the ananda puraskar and many more. One of his cult poems Smritir Shohor has been turned into a song for the film Itl Mrinalini directed by Aparna Sen.
This great poet died on 23rd October in the year 2012 at his residence due to a heart attack .It was a great loss to the entire nation because he had enriched Bengali literature through his unique style. No doubt he will always be remembered by the people due to his marvellous work that he gifted us.