Nirendranath Chakraborty dead at 94

Eminent Bengali poet and Sahitya Akademi award winner Nirendranath Chakraborty passed away at a city hospital on Tuesday after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 94 and is survived by two daughters. His wife died in January this year.

Hospital sources said Chakraborty was admitted to the private hospital on Monday due to age-related ailments and suffered the cardiac arrest at midnight. He passed away at around 12.25 pm. His body was kept at Rabindra Sadan till evening to let his admirers pay their last respects.

“People like him and Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, who died yesterday, belonged to a golden era. This era will never return. It is a great loss for us and the Bengali community as whole,” said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Earlier in the day, she had tweeted, “This is a big loss for all of us. His immense contributions to Bengali literature will keep him alive forever. We had conferred on him the Bangobibhusan honour in 2017. My condolences to his family.”

Later, Chakraborty’s body was taken to his residence before being cremated with a gun salute.

Born in 1924 at Faridpur in undivided Bengal, Chakraborty was a prominent face 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). ‘Amalkanti Roddur Hote Cheyechhilo’ (Ammalkanto wanted to be the sunshine), ‘Kolkatar Jishu’ (Christ of Kolkata) and ‘Pahari Bichhe’ (Mountain scorpion) are among his other noted poems.

The poet penned more than 47 books, many for children, apart from 12 novels and numerous essays. He was associated with leading Bengali magazine ‘Desh’ and ‘Anandamela’ for children, of which he had been the editor for years, and some other magazines. In November, he had penned a poem for a magazine, which will be published in its upcoming Kolkata Book Fair issue. He was also a recipient of ‘Ananda Purashkar’ and was the president of Paschimbango Bangla Akademi.