He Who Rides A Tiger
Author: Bhabani Bhattacharya
Genre: Fiction
"He who rides a Tiger " is a novel by Bhabani Bhattacharya depicting the hunger of Bengal feminism in 1943. Kalo, the protagonist of the novel, is a straightforward, honest and hard-working blacksmith. Kalo resides in a remote city of Bengal, Jharna, with his Daughter, Chandra Lekha.
In this novel, we will see how hunger drives him to steal bananas because he could not withstand hunger. What is ironic is that he was trying to steal bananas which he doesn't even like to eat and ended up in prison. Kalo is stripped of his innocence after three months in prison. The seed of vengeance was sown in his heart when he learned that according to upper-class people, lower-class people have no right to live. The novel clearly portrays how wealthy people were cruel to the hungry masses and were untouched by the suffering of the hungry masses.
Bhabani Bhattacharya showed us through the novel that, how circumstances can transform an honest and simple person into a corrupt one.
"He Who Rides a Tiger" is based on an ancient proverb that "he who rides a tiger cannot dismount", but Kalo proved that it is possible to dismount if the necessity arises.
Do read to find how and why he started riding a tiger and once he started, then how he dismounted the tiger and what was the effect of riding and then dismounting.
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