Pagla Dashu (; ''Crazy Dashu'') is a fictional boy character created by Bengali writer

Sukumar Ray Sukumar Ray (; 30 October 1887 – 10 September 1923) was a Bengali writer and poet from British India. He is remembered mainly for his writings for children. He was the son of children's story writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury and the fat ...

. A collection of Pagla Dashu stories translated into English was published as ''The Crazy Tales of Pagla Dashu and Co'' in 2012.

Characteristics

Pagla Dashu is a character appearing in several prominent works of

Bengali literature Bengali literature () 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 and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali h ...

from the early 20th century, most notably ''Pagla Dashu'' (1940). He is a school boy, and although he mainly acts like a maniac, he is famous for his crazy ideas and often inexplicable acts that carry subtle, comedic

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposin ...

. Pagla Dashu stories are mainly for children, fun to read and creative. Pagla Dashu has become one of the very popular characters of

, like many other characters created by

, a popular Bengali author of

nonsense poetry Nonsense verse is a form of nonsense literature usually employing strong prosodic elements like rhythm and rhyme. It is often whimsical and humorous in tone and employs some of the techniques of nonsense literature. Limericks are probably th ...

Translations

Pagla Dashu was translated from Bengali to Hindi by Lav Kanoi, a graduate student of

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University ( abbr. JU) is a public state funded research university with its main campus located at Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established on 25 July in 1906 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into ...

. It was published by the respected Hindi language publishing house Vani Prakashan in 2015.

References

External links

A few online Pagla Dashu stories in Bengali

Culture of Kolkata Characters in children's literature 1940 children's books Indian children's literature Sukumar Ray Bengali-language literature {{child-lit-char-stub