Nirendranath Chakraborty, famous Bengali poet passes away

Nirendranath Chakraborty (94), the famous Bengali poet , has passed away in Kolkata, West Bengal on December 25, 2018. Born in 1924 at Faridpur in undivided Bengal, Chakraborty was a dominant figure in the modern Bengali literary field. His first book of poems ‘Nil Nirjone’ was published in 1954 when he was 30 years old. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 1974 for his poem ‘Ulanga Raja’ (naked king) which mocked the social set up. His ‘Amalkanti Roddur Hote Cheyechhilo’ (Ammalkanto wanted to be the sunshine), ‘Kolkatar Jishu’ (Christ of Kolkata) and ‘Pahari Bichhe’ (Mountain scorpion) are considered his two other cult poems. Chakraborty had been associated with leading Bengali magazine ‘Desh’ and ‘Anandamela’ for children, whose editor he had been for years, and some well known other magazines. He had penned more than 47 books, many of them for children, apart from 12 novels and numerous essays on different issues.