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Rumors suggested a mythical monster, the Bunyip, guards the mine. He explains that, lured by the prospect of a priceless yellow diamond from a Kaafi village chief, Alvarez and Carter searched for these yellow diamond caves, on the Mountain of the Moon (Chander Pahar) in the Richtersveld.
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While recovering, Alvarez describes his exploits in Africa with his friend Jim Carter. Alvarez's arrival becomes a turning point in Shankar's life. While at this post, Shankar encounters, rescues and nurses Diego Alvarez, a middle-age Portuguese explorer and gold/diamond prospector. Later, he takes up a job as station-master in a desolate station amidst the Veldts, where he narrowly escapes a deadly black mamba. By a stroke of luck, he gets a job as a clerk at the Uganda Railway and rushes to Africa without a second thought.Īfter a few months laying rail tracks, he encounters the first of many dangers in pre- World War I Africa: a man-eating lion. He wants to explore the wilderness, passionate for learning about African forests and animals. Shankar loves the subject of geography, he wants to follow the footsteps of renowned explorers like Livingstone, Mungo Park, and Marco Polo. After graduating from college at 20-years-old, his family's financial struggles almost force him take a job in a jute mill in Shyamnagar - a prospect he absolutely loathes. If it’s the pairing of an Indian and European together in a still alien climate that piques the interest of experts who read into colonial literature, they will be pleasantly surprised to learn that it’s the universal qualities in Alvarez such as valour and enterprise that Shankar is constantly fawning over, and not ‘whiteness’ or obscure ideals of enlightenment.This novel tells the story of an ordinary young Bengali man, Shankar Ray Choudhuri, as he adventures in Africa in the years 19. Segupta, rightly, refrains from upgrading the names of places in the text (Zimbabwe is Rhodesia, Harare is Salisbury), which adds a quaintness to the story. With an easy-going simplicity (to the point of terseness for some) in a narrative that spans across several minute chapters, Jayanta Segupta’s translation, not employing words that have you scurrying off for the dictionary, indicates the copious amount of geographical research undertaken and a possible proclivity for the fiction of Rider Haggard (among others) on the part of Bandyophadyay. The Mountain of the Moon, a translation of Bibhutibushan Bandyophadyay’s (renowned for his novel Pather Panchali) Chander Pahar written in the 1930s, is a survivalist adventure story with sprinklings of the Bildungsroman and a cleverly insinuated horror element (the unspeakable Bunyip, the dreadful three-toed guardian of the elusive diamond cache). Up against threats as colourful and varied as lurking snakes, prowling lions, ferocious tribals, poisonous roots, the fury of an active volcano and a seemingly supernatural horror that did Alvarez’s former partner in, the seasoned outdoorsman and Shankar, displaying alacrity through thick and thin, stalk their dream with grit and single-mindedness. The love of adventure and the lure of riches fuel a spirited odyssey where the two risk life and limb, traversing hitherto unexplored dense forests, verdant grasslands and arid plains of the Dark Continent. One day, after Shankar saves the life of Portuguese explorer and gold prospector Diego Alwarez, the latter informs him of a quest he had once undertook for el dorado-like diamond mines in the treacherous Richtersveld Mountains. Translated from Bengali by Jayanta Senguptaįaced with the prospect of having to eke out a living as a jute mill clerk in his impoverished village for the rest of his life, Shankar Ray Choudhuri, having just come of age, bids farewell to his family and beloved Bengal to work as a railway construction camp storekeeper in Pre-World War I Uganda and, later, as a station master.