In an interview on Bangladesh

Why did you select Pather Panchali or Song of the Road by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay?

This is my childhood favourite. It is a novel about a boy called Opu growing up in a very poor family. His father is a Hindu priest but he leaves the family to take up a job in very rich Hindu businessman’s house. The mother fights with her elderly sister-in-law until her death and it is only when she herself becomes old that she can understand her. It’s very touching, the way the writer depicts our strong sides and our weaknesses, and how we grow up and stop fighting over the small things. Then Opu’s sister dies and the family decide to leave their ancestral village. His mother dies along the way.

I was not born in Dhaka so when I was admitted to university I had to move away from my home. In Bangladesh we live together and we are emotionally bonded. When I left my house in Magura – my mother and father and my everything – I felt like the boy in that story when he left his village. There was a strong similarity to all the emotional turmoil he felt.

This book was set in 1929. Has life in the villages changed much since then?

Perhaps in some villages the standard of living and culture has changed a little bit. But this internal migration of young boys and girls separating from their families and coming to bigger cities for education or jobs hasn’t changed. People in the West may not understand this, but it is a very emotional story for so many of us in this part of the world. A famous Indian filmmaker made a film about it and it’s still hugely popular.