Narayan Sanyal at 101: The popularity of the Bengali thriller writer continues to grow

When Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, an order came to an orphanage in Warsaw stating that all the Jewish children there should be sent to the gas chamber. Dr Janusz Karczok (a Christian), the founder of this orphanage, did not want to leave the children alone. However, before going to the gas chamber, he made his sons perform a play. Karczok had read the German translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s play Dak Ghar (The Post Office). Through the play, he wanted to teach his children that death was not the end of life – beyond death lies eternal life.

When Narayan Sanyal wrote a book based on this incident, he named it Mrityorma Amritam, which in the Upanishads means “from darkness to light”.

Narayan Sanyal was born in the industrial township of Hind Motor in April 1924. Although a civil engineer by profession, he wrote some 150 books in his 81-year-long life. He grew up in Krishnanagar and would jokingly call himself Krishnakoli – “the black-eyed”. It is not possible to confine him to any particular genre, and each book is unique in its theme and style. The boundless variety of topics that he wrote about was perhaps why he was so different from other writers. He was not interested in...

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