Nalak is a flower born out of a nal (a tube), like a lotus.
Nalak is the story of a child hermit who covers the life-story of the Lord Buddha, but who is sad that he could not meet the Lord himself.
Abanindranath Thakur, the doyen of modern Indian Painting and Art, infuses the story with poetry and colour, to turn it into a classic.
Dr Dhananjoy Sen, who translates the book, was a Professor of English Language and Literature at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur for more than thirty years before retiring.
Nalak is a flower born out of a nal (a tube), like a lotus. Nalak is the story of a child hermit attending to his guru living in a forest. The guru Debal has a vision of the birth of Lord Buddha, and decides to pay him a visit in Kapilabastu, leaving Nalak in charge of the monastery.
Nalak also, in his meditation, has glimpses of scenes of Lord Buddha's life-from his birth to his youth, his experiences of life, and his renunciation of the world, his battles with Maar the lord of passions, and Maari his associate; his attainment of wisdom over the onslaughts of Grief. This great procession of events leaves Nalak in middle age, and he returns home to his mother, rather sad that he missed seeing the Lord himself.
Buddha's story here is inset with Nalak's, and the two are often intertwined. The narration is presented in historic present. The writer, Abanindranath Thakur, the greatest of modern painters of India, gives his literary text wonderful designs of colour and form, and marries sound and sight in a cinematic, poetic style.
Nalak is a classic of all times, both of the juvenile and adult worlds.
Here, through the eyes of an acolyte, Abanindranath presents the story of another hermit-perhaps the greatest hermit of all times, whose story of renunciation moves people all over the world, in all times, even now.
There has to be a second coming of the Lord Buddha, for that alone can rejuvenate our human civilization.
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