Life and Times of Banka Harichandan

A tremendous portrait of the hopes and horrors, the threadsof delicate perception and the pangs of fear and illusion, of a growingboyslife in a provincial town in Odisha.Banka Harichandanreturns us to the uniqueatmosphere, at once particular and universal, of our own childhood.-Chandrahas Choudhury, Author ofArzee the DwarfandMy Country Is Literature Dipti Ranjan Pattanaik creates a masterly tale of coming of age in Odisha'spious, rustic, heartlands. Deftly translated into English from Odia, The Life and Times of Banka Harichandan carries the reader into a delightfullyimmersive experience of young Banka's heady confrontation withadolescenceand with the relentless world of grown-ups. Dispassionateand compassionate at the same time, ';Banka Harichandan' is a heart-warmingtribute to the eternal reenactment of growing up.-Paul Zacharia, Author ofBhaskara Patellar and Other StoriesandThe Reflections of a Hen in Her Last Hour and Other Stories In this tour-de-force of a coming-of-age narrative, the story of anordinary but precocious boy named Banka Harichandan is told afresh,using a mixture of childhood perception, idiolect, and anecdotes.The stories evoke a child's restless and questioning mind constantlypushing against the restrictive limits of his placid and conformist times. Presented in a series of discrete tales, the narrativebest thoughtof as a ';composite novel'takes the reader on an odyssey throughthe whole gamut of emotions that light up the passage from innocenceto experience in a small-town, lower-middle-class setting. Unfolding ata leisurely pace and studded with epiphanies,The Life and Times ofBanka Harichandanis a remarkable contribution from Odisha toliterature centred on children.