Sukumar Ray Page #2

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to England to study printing & photography.

In 1911, Sukumar went to England

on a fellowship. He was 23 then.

In London he studied for a year in the London County

Council School of photoengraving & Lithography.

He then studied

Chromolithography and litho-drawing

at the

Municipal School of Technology, Manchester.

His correspondence tells us that his tutelage

under Upendra Kishore was of great help.

This was the time (1912) when

Rabindranath Tagore also went to England

with his translation of "Gitanjali" (Tagore

was to win the Nobel Prize for 'Gitanjali')

Sukumar Ray was one of the

first to welcome him there.

Sukumar wrote an article in 'QUEST'

introducing Tagore to the West.

Sukumar returned to India in October 1913 He

had passed his examinations with distinction.

Two months later he married Suprabha.

In summer of 1913, Upendra Kishore started

publishing a children's magazine called SANDESH.

Earlier he had published children's versions

of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana

and the 'Book of the Toontooni Bird'

A collection of folk tales of Bengal.

In 1914, the family shifted to

a new house at 100, Garpar Road.

His printing press was in the front and

living quarters at the back, facing south.

Sadly, he died just two years

after SANDESH was first published.

But in these two years

SANDESH had become a premium magazine.

The quality of printing in SANDESH

was unsurpassed in its time.

Sukumar took over where

his father had left SANDESH.

His first poem for SANDESH was called Khichudi (Kedgeree/mixture) later

included in his famous collection 'Abol Tabol' (The Ridiculous).

Such convoluted verse and such pictures

could only have come from Sukumar Ray..

Was a duck, porcupine (to grammar I bow

not) Became Duckupine, but how I know not.

Stork tells turtle, it's a delight...

Our Stortle shape is exactly right!

The Parrot-Head Lizard feels very silly: Must

he spurn insects, for a raw green chili?

The goat now hatches a plan to wed... Mounts

scorpion's neck... body unites with head!

The giraffe's reluctant to wander nearby

With his grasshopper wings, he longs to fly.

Says the cow, What ails the pen

That my rear belongs to a rascally hen?

See the Whalephant: The Whale wants the sea;

The Elephant says, It's the jungle for me.

The lion has no horns, that's his woe...

He pairs with a deer; And antlers grow!

Covers from early issues of

SANDESH.

The standards Upendra Kishore set for Sandesh

were never lowered in Sukumar's time.

The whole family contributed (and

some contributions have become classics)

Family apart, almost every well known writer

(Including Tagore) wrote for SANDESH.

But the bulk of pictures,

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