A universal appeal

Bhasha achay shabda achay
Shada shabda nai
Pranir kachay thekeo tar
Nijayr pran nai.
(Has language has words
No word he speaks
Lives with the living
No life has he.)

Answer: Boi, or book.

The above is the riddle on page 171 of this amusing and enlightening book on Bengali riddles, which displays extensive and valuable field work rather than, despite its title, any in-depth social analysis. It should be read at leisure by Bengalis and non-Bengalis alike. One of its strengths is that the author, from West Bengal (in fact, as she puts it somewhat mystifyingly, "…the archetypal structure of the present volume was awarded the PhD degree by Calcutta University"), makes the reader aware of broad differences in riddles between the two parts of Bengal. As when she notes riddles prevalent at weddings, burials and circumcisions "among the Muslims of (rural) Bengal," or gives riddles that are unique to the districts of Bangladesh, such as the following one from Noakhali:

Andhar ghar bandor nachay
Bandor er ki akkayl achay
(Monkey dances in dark room
Has monkey any sense?)

Answer: Pakha, or hand-held fan.

In the end, aside from the fact that the book deserved a better editor than it got (why is it that in this part of the world Phd theses and project repots turned books are so miserably produced?), one wishes there were more riddles from the tribal areas of Bengal, from the Mundis, Chakmas and Saotals, "whose oral literature is very rich." It would be one way of preserving cultures and heritages being wiped out by ethnic cleansing in the guise of modernization and nation-building.

Farhad Ahmed is a free-lance writer.