No Title
Amitabha Bhattacharya
THE BOY WHO PLAYED WITH LIGHT: SATYAJIT RAY Lavanya Karthik Duckbill Book, 2021, 43 pp., 199.00
November 2021, volume 45, No 11

All children are born imaginative, some perhaps more than others. And imagination fosters creativity. Unfortunately, their curiosity to discover the world around often gets jaded over the years. What experience ignites a child’s imagination? What helps the child pursue the ideas formed during the growing years? As a child, Einstein was fascinated by a magnetic compass gifted by his father to play with, wondering why its needle always pointed to the north! Later, in his teens, he would marvel how it would be like if he travelled so fast as to catch up with a beam of light!

Reviewing a slim book, sparsely worded but copiously illustrated, for ages 6 and up, would ordinarily be daunting. But this is no ordinary book. It shows how Manik (Satyajit’s nickname, meaning ‘jewel’), a lonely child who lost his illustrious father when he was less than three, used to be captivated by the play of light and shadows and how this experience left a deep impact on his impressionable mind. Written in a style that every child would adore.

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