Character Sketch of Aniruddha Bose: ISC Prism Indigo by Satyajit Ray
Character Sketch of Aniruddha Bose:
Aniruddha Bose was a twenty – nine year old bachelor working in an advertising agency in Calcutta. He was born in Monghyr, a town in Bihar, where his father was a well known physician. He also had a brother, five years older than him, who has studied medicine in England and now he was settled there as a doctor.
Aniruddha lost his father at an early age. He was sixteen years old, when his father passed away. After that he come to Calcutta with his mother. He took his bachelor’s degree from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta. Soon after he got his job with the advertising agency. He was leading a comfortable life in Calcutta and living in a flat in Sardar Shankar Road, Calcutta.
Since his early myears in Monghyr, he has an “overpowering desire” to go far away from the hectic life of Calcutta from time to time. He had done so several times by by making trips to Diamond Harbour, Port Canning and Hassanabad along the Dum Dum Road. For this purpose he has bought an Ambassador car, which he used to drive himself.
Aniruddha was quite a reserve person. He has not much close friends in Calcutta. So he usually go alone on his trips. One of his old friends from Monghyr was now settled in Dumka. He invited him to visit Dumka, so Aniruddha planned the visit by his car.
Aniruddha also used to do a bit of writing and got some of his stories published in magazines occasionally. But for a few months he hadn’t been writing at all as he was reading about indigo plantation in Bengal and Bihar in nineteenth century.
Aniruddha is a self assured person. He was so well read about indigo plantation and the role of the landlords that he considers himself an expert on the topic. He was prompted to describe the exploitation of the poor peasants at the hand of these landlords.
Aniruddha was very fond of enjoying the beautiful scenery on the way, but the claps of thunder always made him uncomfortable. To him a thunderstorm is a vicious assault on helpless humanity. All the same hurdles and glitches couldn’t stand in his way. He went on his destination, despite puddles on the road.
Aniruddha had an heightened state of mind while on bed in the Dak Bungalow of an indigo tax collector, who had been very greedy, cruel and unjust. Aniruddha felt transformed and found himself in the body of this indigo executive. Aniruddha gives free vent to the mind of this indigo lord who was respected neither in England nor in India. It is in his helplessness that Aniruddha lost control on his own self and shoots, the planters pet hound Rex.
This nightmarish experience of an ordinary, simple person seems inexplicable.
Character Sketch of the Indigo Planter: ISC Prism Indigo
Question : What do you learn about the indigo planter ?
Answer :
Character Sketch of the Indigo Planter:
The indigo planter was an Englishman into whose body Aniruddha Bose got transformed for a few hours during his sleep. It is evident from his letter, which Aniruddha Bose wrote in the state of trance, that the indigo planter was a lonely person. All his friends had left to their homeland and his wife Mary and son Toby had died earlier.
The indigo planter confessed in his letter that he had been “greedier than” his friends that inspite of repeated attacks of malaria he “could not resist the lure of indigo”. The tax collector was lured by the lust of money, which he had amassed by forcing the workers into indentured labour and harshly punishing those who resisted.
He has also admitted that he didn’t lead a blameless life neither in England or in India. So he had to stay here and “lay down his life on this alien soil”. It is clear from his words that due to his shady past he was forced to live in this country.
The English indigo planter confessed that he had been a cruel person and he had been guilty of harassing the poor indigo plantation workers. He had exploited the poor peasants so badly that there would be “no one to shed a tear” at his demise. But his real worry was his pet hound Rex.
This way the indigo planter has been portrayed as lonely, greedy, cruel and inhuman person.