Shesh Namaskar () (The Last Salute) is a 1971, Indian,

Bengali-language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken of t ...

novel that was written by

Santosh Kumar Ghosh Santosh Kumar Ghosh (9 September 1920 – 26 February 1985) was an Indian Bengali litterateur and a journalist of repute. Early life Born in Faridpur district of what is now in Bangladesh, Santosh Kumar had his ancestral house in Barisal distri ...

. The novel, which is considered to be its author's

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

, is written in the form of a series of letters from a son to his deceased mother. It won the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 1972.

Publication

''Shesh Namaskar'', which is subtitled ''Shricharaneshu Make'' (To my Mother), was first published in 1971 by Dey's Publishing. Being a confessional narrative, the novel is written in the form of a series of letters from a son to his mother, who has died. Through these letters, the narrator seeks forgiveness from his mother just before his death, telling the story using the second-person narrative technique. The author tries to concentrate on self-analysis and his search for the meaning of life and of death through a confessional self-projection into the narrator's persona.

Characters

The principle characters of the novel: * The narrator * Pranabnarrator's father, an unsuccessful playwright * Tanunarrator's mother * Sudhirmama (lit. Sudhir Uncle)Tanu's friend * Rajanian almost blind girl

Synopsis

Because the author does not want to be dependent on an abundance of events, he selects a few events, observes them poignantly and analyses them with meticulous care. As a result, ''Shesh Namaskar'' does not have an overt plot or a sustained story-telling style. The novel starts with a letter from a son to his mother, Tanu, followed with another such letter each week. At the end of the novel, the narrator realizes the search for the mother is endless and that perhaps every son searches for his mother and with her, the supreme spirit. The novel ends with the narrator asking whether this search ever ends. The story develops through the letters using flashbacks. Each character reveals a story in their statements.

Reception

''Shesh Namaskar'' received the

in 1972. A translation into English by Ketaki Datta was published in 2013. For its profound sensibility and realistic depiction, the novel is considered an outstanding contribution to

Bengali literature Bengali literature ( bn, বাংলা সাহিত্য, Bangla Sahityô) denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle- Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time ...

. Subhash Chandra Sarker praised ''Shesh Namaskar'' for its "remarkable use of Bengali language" and its "ability to make a vivid presentation of complicated scene with the most common words". Critic Amalendu Bose highlighted the use of technique and "remarkable" quality.

References

External links

* (Bengali) * (Hindi translation) * {{Google books, id=9orUAaO5gIgC 1971 Indian novels Indian Bengali-language novels Epistolary novels Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works Second-person narrative novels