Samir Roychoudhury facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Samir Roy Chowdhury
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Samir resting at home in Kolkata, West Bengal
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| Born | 1 November 1933 Panihati, Bengal Presidency, British India
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| Died | 22 June 2016 (aged 82) Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal, India
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| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Poet and writer |
| Movement | Postmodernism and hungryalism |
Samir Roychowdhury (born November 1, 1933 – died June 22, 2016) was an important Indian poet and writer. He was one of the people who started the Hungry Generation movement. This was a group of writers and artists who wanted to create new and exciting art.
Samir was born in Panihati, West Bengal. His family was full of creative people. They were artists, sculptors, photographers, and musicians. His grandfather, Lakshminarayan, learned photography from John Lockwood Kipling. John was the father of the famous writer Rudyard Kipling. Lakshminarayan even started one of India's first mobile photography companies in the 1880s! Samir's father, Ranjit, later took over the company. His mother, Amita, came from a family that was part of the Bengali Renaissance. This was a time of great new ideas in Bengal.
Contents
How the Hungryalism Movement Started
Samir's grandfather, Lakshminarayan Roy Chowdhury, opened a photography and painting shop in Patna, Bihar, in 1886. Years later, in November 1961, Samir started the Hungryalism movement from this very city. He started it with his younger brother Malay Roy Choudhury, Shakti Chattopadhyay, and Debi Ray.
Samir's uncle, Pramod, worked at the Patna Museum. He was in charge of paintings and sculptures there. Pramod's daughters were talented musicians and singers. One of them, Dharitri, was also a painter. Samir's mother, Amita Banerjee, had a father who was a researcher. He worked with Ronald Ross, who won a Nobel Prize for finding out how malaria spreads. Being around so many creative and smart people from a young age helped Samir become the great writer he was.
The Krittibas Magazine
Samir went to City College, Calcutta. There, he met classmates like Dipak Majumdar and Sunil Gangopadhyay. They were planning to start a poetry magazine called Krittibas in 1953. Samir joined their group and became a very active member. He even helped pay for and publish Sunil Gangopadhyay's first book of poems.
Later, some changes happened in the Krittibas group. Samir and some other writers left. After leaving the group, Samir got a job working with marine fisheries. This meant he spent a lot of time on a ship in the Arabian Sea. This experience was very helpful for his writing in the Hungryalism movement. His first book of poems was called Jharnar Pashey Shuye Aachhi. This means "Sleeping Beside A Waterfall." It was inspired by his time at sea.
Connecting with People
After working with marine fisheries, Samir started working with inland fisheries. This job allowed him to travel a lot. He met and lived among the poorest boatmen, fishermen, and net-makers in rural India. For thirty years, he traveled to many tribal areas. These places became gathering spots for the Hungryalist poets, writers, and artists. They would meet and create new art and ideas.
During this time, Samir became a deep thinker. His ideas were later called Adhunantika by a famous language expert, Dr. Prabal Dasgupta. Many young writers, poets, artists, and even filmmakers visited him in these tribal areas. Famous visitors included Octavio Paz, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder. Shakti Chattopadhyay even stayed with him for more than two years. Samir is still an important figure for young poets and thinkers today.
Creative Works
Creativity was a big part of Samir's family. Early in his life, Samir and his brother Malay directed many plays. One play was called 'Kauwa Babula Bhasm'. A well-known writer, Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', wrote the script for it.
Samir wrote poetry throughout his life. After his first book of poems, he published Aamar Vietnam. This book was not about Vietnam itself. Instead, it was about how a person feels when they live in a peaceful world but constantly hear shocking news about war. Later, he published his third book of poems, Janowar, which means "The Beast." This book had a very different style. Among the Hungryalists, Samir was known for his amazing way with words and language.
In the early 1990s, Samir moved back to Kolkata. He started his own magazine called HAOWA#49. The name means "Unapanchash Vayu" in Sanskrit, which describes a state of an unknown mind. He also started a publishing company called Haowa#49 Publications. His younger brother, Malay Roy Choudhury, helped him with creative ideas. The HAOWA#49 magazine really changed the modern literary scene. People who used to criticize the Hungry Generation movement started to respect them. Many studies have been written about Samir and Malay. They are seen as people who brought fresh ideas to the world of writing.
Film
In 2011, Srijit Mukherji directed a Bengali film called Baishe Srabon . In this movie, the role of a Hungryalist poet was played by film director Gautam Ghosh.
See also
- Sunil Gangopadhyay
- Sandipan Chattopadhyay
- Basudeb Dasgupta
- Subimal Basak
- Tridib Mitra
- Anil Karanjai
- Rabindra Guha
