Binayak Banerjee - Sikandar : 10 Players 68 Days

SIKANDAR

10 PLAYERS, 68 DAYS

One of the most promising young poets of India, Binayak Banerjee is now regarded as the changing face of Bengali fiction. His debut novel Sohaginir Sange Ek Bachhar (A Year with Sohaginir) was published in 2008. Sikandar was published in 2009 to popular and critical acclaim. He combines a career in teaching and writing.

Born and raised in Kolkata, Soma Ghosh is a journalist by training but a writer at heart. She writes a weekly blog for the Times of India and a personal blog entitled Rose Tinted Glasses. She contributes to various online and offline publications and is currently working on a novel. This is her first translation.

SIKANDAR

10 PLAYERS, 68 DAYS

By
Binayak Banerjee

Translated by
Soma Ghosh

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First published in India by westland ltd 2011

Copyright Binayak Banerjee

Translation Soma Ghosh

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-93-80658-73-5

Typeset by Mindways Design

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permissions of the publishers

Translators Note

One of the most significant arguments that a translator needs to wrestle with while translating a work of literature is whether or not the book should reflect the original in letter or in spirit. This is all the more difficult in a language as ornate as Bengali and doubly so when the writer has chosen to embolden a story from the here and now with a rare degree of linguistic mastery and richness of imagery. While in the ideal world, the end product is a judicious mix of the two, more often than not, the book leans either one way or the other quite heavily. In the Sikandar, I have attempted to attain and maintain that rare mix of word and spirit, even as I have tried to stay true to the literary ethos of the language that the book has now been translated into.

I do hope you will find this balance as you read through the pages of Sikandar and enjoy feasting on the same, as I have enjoyed myself in sharing this story with you.

Soma Ghosh

The Studio

Good evening, this is Joyeeta and you are watching Headlines at 8.

Leakages in the public distribution system led to protests, admits the Food minister.

Police informer murdered in Belpahari, Maoist involvement suspected.

Parents take to the streets in protest against alleged corruption in the lottery-based admission system in government schools.

Agitation in the port city of Haldia over the death of a labourer, fatally injured by a pay loader while off-loading cargo. Three workers unions call strike over alleged medical negligence.

Irrigation department in trouble as bankrupt people corner authorities with protests over embezzlement of funds.

Bipasha and John in town for the premiere of their new film. Bipasha puts all rumours to rest about their troubled relationship with her candid remark that the two passions in Johns life are bikes and Bipasha, nothing else!

I will continue to play if I get selected and I will try to better my performance. But I dont harbour dreams to play in the Indian team anymore, announces Bengals promising fast bowler, Ranadeep Bose.

The Headlines at 8 is brought to you by BuildBuilding Careers for You; and todays hottest news is brought to you by Gambuja Cement.

.... Yes, we are taking you there now where? No, the locales cannot be revealed now. But our representative Arunangshu is already waiting there to dish out the spicy details for you, straight off the oven.

Arunangshu, can you hear me, Arunangshu? I think we have lost the connection with him. Arunangshu, can you hear me?

Yes, Joyeeta, I can hear you.

Arunangshu will tell us about the mood prevailing amongst the participants now. But before that, I would like to remind our viewers that tomorrow, on Netaji Subhash Chandra Boses birth anniversary, we are going to start Bengals first ever reality show, Sikandar! As you already know, not only celebrities, but also people from modest backgrounds are an integral part of this showpeople with ordinary lives but extraordinary in their own ways. We will now find out more about them, more about what is going through their minds right now. Hello, Arunangshu

Yes, Joyeeta. This house, the one Im standing in front of, this is going to be the home for our participants in the coming days. And I was speaking to them in there, a little while back

Yes? And how are they feeling? Are they all excited?

Yes, Joyeeta. There is definitely a sense of excitement and thrill coursing through all of them. Im sure the viewers will agree that even the participants would never have imagined that something of this scale was possible in Bengal! We all know of Big Brother, the reality show in the UK where our very own Shilpa Shetty won the crown for us. But this reality show, which will culminate with crowning the best Bengali, is different in many ways from Big Brother! Here, for instance, on one hand we have Bengali cinemas superstar Kanishka Dasgupta, famous politician Makhan Mondal, social activist Rangajoba Sanyal, and on the other hand, we have the brave young man Shubhrangshu Maity, then Bonolata Pattanayek, who has embraced Bengali culture as her own, as well as a beacon in her dark world, Lovely.

Arunangshu, I want to remind the viewers again that this show is not only about celebrities, it is as much about those relatively unknown sparks who might go on to become the champion and win the title of Sikandar. And only your votes can help each of them scale those heights! Yes, your votes, that you will SMS to us, to select your favourite contestant from amongst these ten contestants, to crown him or her Sikandar! Arunangshu, so is everybody ready for the battle?

Yes Joyeeta, everybody seems to be ready. But as of now the mood is one of friendship and openness rather than a war zone.

Yes Arunangshu, we all understand this friendly atmosphere, dont we? Every Bengali, as we know, loves a hearty adda, loves making new friends. That is why I would again want to draw our viewers attention to the fact that we have two participants here who are not Bengali by birth; Bengali is not their mother tongue. But they are still participating because they too believe that being Bengali is not being part of a tribe, its a state of mind. Yes, Arunangshu

I want to add a word here, Joyeeta. This competition, that starts tomorrow, the 23rd of January, will reach its final stage on the 15th of April. That will be the day we will finally know who has emerged the winner of the Rs 25 lakh prize money; who is the first Sikandar of Bengal! Joyeeta

And, you all will decide who will be Sikandar! Every round will see one of the contestants exit the competition, and your votes will decide who stays on till the last stage and wins the prize money. Will it be the hermit Swami Samyuktanand, or the feisty elocutionist Aindrila Roy Saksena? It could also be the famous industrialist Lalit Bajoria or even the resolute teacher Elizabeth Mitra! We will bring you the details of who is ahead, who slides down, who gets eliminated, bit by bit. Be sure to catch the action live on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. And Sunday afternoons, you can catch the weekly highlights between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. telecast directly into your drawing rooms. Arunangshu, now take us inside Jotugriha. This house, where our participants are going to spend the next few months together has been named Jotugrihano, not the Jotugriha of the