PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Feb 26: Himadri Sarkar, a prolific speaker, an art lover, a foodie and an industrialist-turned-writer, is now in news for his latest book ‘Bengal Now and Then.’
The book is dedicated to this generation of Bongs settled abroad but born in India who are perhaps not aware of the Greats this soil has produced over the years and the legacy they left behind.
In his book, he did a critical analysis of the socio-economic and political culture of Bengal and the Bengalis still referred to as Babu Moshais.
Quoting the observations of the great freedom movement activist and one of the greatest leaders Gopal Krishna Gokhale ” What Bengal thinks today India thinks tomorrow, ” was one of the richest attributes paid to Bengal.
The book elaborated on the Renaissance period which started from the late 19th century with Raja Ram Mohan Roy and culminated with the end of Dr. BC Roy’s (political and social) regime and the Satyajit Ray era (culturally).
” It’s one of the best books on the socio-economic and political culture of Bengal which I have read so far. The book is informative and has elaborated the many first things which Bengal was known for like the first Indian University – Calcutta university (1857), IIT and IIM at Kharagpur and Joka (1951 and 1961) respectively, Presidency College, the first college ( 1817), the first male graduate Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1858), the first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the first Oscar lifetime achievement winner Satyajit Ray, the first Bharat Ratna Dr. B C Roy and many others that cannot be contained in just one large volume of record of firsts, ” said Prabal Sen, a former XLRI professor who has read the book.
According to the author, Himadri Sarkar, the rot started in the 70s that saw the evolution of extremism like the Naxalite movement followed by subsequent rules of communist governments.
Born in Kolkata in 1948 Himadri Sarkar belonged to a zamindar family. His father Late Subimil Sarkar was an engineer who used to work in Kolkata Corporation.
After the death of his father, he spent his early life at his maternal uncle’s house at Jamshedpur with schooling at Ramkrishna Mission.
In 1970 he did an industrial entrepreneurship course sponsored by the government of India. After completion of the course, he ventured into his own SSI unit named Exceller Private Limited at Adityapur which was an ancillary unit of Tata Motors manufacturing over 200 components for Tata trucks.
Writing is his passion. He has also written several books on cricket.
