Aparajito  (English, Paperback, Majoomdar Gopa)

For a long time no book has moved me so much as this one. The crests an troughs in Apu's life are so vividly explored, you can't help wondering how a human can take it. I found this translation better than the one by T W Clark and Tarpad Mukherjee for Pather Panchali. For another nice translation by Gopa Majumdar "Feluda" is the next best stop.

I wish Gopa Majumdar sincerely could please translate Kajal in English. Kajal is the sequel to Aparajito.

It is a sequel to the flawless Pather Panchali. Needless to say, Aparajito is a close second to the first book - a double treat. Personally speaking, anyone who hasn’t read Aparajito and Pather Panchali books doesn’t know what he/she is missing, and it becomes a pitiable fact that they die ignorant of a blessing called reading.

This one is right there at the top with Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment in my reading list. I have read quite a few books (in English and Bengali) in my life but nothing beats these two. If crime and Punishment is all about the conflict that pushes a character into gray,forces him to stand for himself and at the same time doubt his own decisions, Aparajito speaks of the simplicity of human life- people are borne, they experience happiness and sorrow, they suffer and they win. They move on ...