Taduki Madness

Two of my all-time favorite pulp fiction happen to be published by Sheba Prokashoni. For my generation, Sheba Prokashoni was the publisher of affordable fiction, as well as some questionable non-fiction books like "General Knowledge on the topic of Sex", which must've been their biggest seller, since I owned the sixth edition. A typical Sheba book would cost Tk.18-25, my daily allowance was Tk.5 (Rickshaw fair from home to Science Lab intersection to study math at Mala sir's). So if I walked for 20 minutes instead of taking a rickshaw, I could save one fourth of the cost of a book. My love of walking, and fitness, emerged from a desire to buy Sheba books. But I digress.

The first one, Bhagya Chakra (Wheel of Fortune), was a rip-off from some western book (the source of which I never found). The fate of Dylan Nash, the mentor gunmen of Dan, the protagonist, made me cry for days. And I had to wait three weeks for part 2 to be published.

But today, I'll talk about the second one. The book, in Bengali, was titled Nesha (drugs), and was a translation of Allan and the Ice Gods, by Henry Rider Haggard. Full text of the book can be found at the Australian Project Gutenberg site.

My cousin taped me a compilation of Sting. He recorded King of Pain back to back by mistake. I was sitting in my living room with this book on a friday morning, with King of Pain playing, and was absorbed in Allan's taduki adventure. I was high on Taduki myself, because I don't remember breathing or eating anything or putting the book down for even one second. I remember only the background music which went, "I've stood here before inside the pouring rain..."

In this story, Allan travels back in time to meet his soul mate, an exotic beauty named Laleela, in the ice age. His wife and tribe objects, love reigns supreme. Although, in the end, she sacrifices herself to save his wife, Akaa.

In a relationship, I always look for a Laleela, the rulebreaker, the fresh breath, the exotic beauty with new perspective. And somehow they always turn out to be Akaa, the settler, upholder of all traditions of the tribe, and the nagging wife.

Finally, a Laleela in my life. Let's hope it stays that way.