A deep, dense forest in the interior of Taiga region next to a blue mountain. There lived a man. He worked tirelessly, away from his family, away from the rest of humanity amidst snow-roofed cottages, fir-pine-birch trees and reindeer. On some days when snowstorm hit the region and blurred the distant view, he felt the icy cool weather deep inside his heart. It made him feel lonely and sad for his family. On one such evening he looked too excited. Gleefully he wrote a letter to his lovely wife inviting her to come to his place with their two five-year old sons- Chuck and Gek, who lived far away in Moscow. The scene shifts to the big, bright city Moscow, with its stone-carved old heritage buildings, modern apartments, asphalt roads, steep spire churches. The Moscow of the Soviet Union.
The story 'Chuck and Gek' penned by Arkadi Gyder begins here. We get a peek into the world of two rolly-polly, wide-eyed, mischievous kids and their adventure that begins with the arrival of a telegram from their father. The author beautifully tells a simple story of two kids. The other day I chanced upon a movie on YouTube based on this book. A glimpse of this and I was transported into a period many years ago, when I was just a eight-year old kid, trundling along some railway platform in Bengal, holding my mother's hand. I looked at everything with a sense of wonder and viewed life through a beautiful prism of books. An entire blank white slate seemed to be open to write, erase and re-write, till eternity. While browsing through books on a platform wheeler, I noticed the Bengali translated copy of "Chuck aar Gek." I nudged my father and soon I bagged it. Since then I have read it umpteen times, first on the bunk of our train compartment, then at home in Calcutta on a hot, summer afternoon; next on a five-hour car-ride to my granny's house, so on and so forth.
The fight between the two beautiful kids in it; their Russian indulgent mother in fur coat; the excitement of the kids when she announces the journey to their father's house, subsequently the train journey to Taiga are still vivid in my memory. The lines of the book in Bengali which describes the hill and the forest opened up a whole new world of Russia, the swampy coniferous forest, between the Tundra and Steppes of Siberia. I could figure myself somewhere by a fireside, with fur-coat clad, strange-looking people. I could feel mild breeze from a bunch of trees in the distance- pines, spruces and larches. Then there was the train journey where one of the kids got out of the closed compartment in the night. He was strolling along the corridor when a train official sweetly asked him to go back to his compartment. He went into a different compartment and started crying. On another sequence, in the next morning, the two kids looked outside at the passing scenes- acres of snow-covered lands, industrial belt with steam emanating from long chimneys, big factories. They felt very happy. It was the same with me, perhaps like every other child. With the flashes of every new place, village, empty tracts of land, small ponds, urchins through the train window, I wondered--- how they lived; how their lives were; what if I was living with them; what if my life connects with them; how is it to love in a lonesome hut in the midst of nothing; how is it to work in one such big, industrial houses in a small town and spend my entire life in it? Every scene seemed like a sea wave; like a cloud; like a short, sweet film.
In the next half of the film when Chuck and Gek reached Taiga and slept with their mother at the sledge-driver's place- as moonlight fell on the face of one of the kid's; she felt content looking at his smiling face- she realized he was seeing a nice dream. They all slept peacefully.
In simple terms, this book teaches us about innocence, simplicity, brotherhood, family values, adventure, dreams and their fulfillment. The fact that I enjoyed it so much makes me realise I am a simple, bohemian person at heart and nothing can take that away from me. I realise its good to be rooted, to stay stable and grounded. Every time I feel restless or unstable, for whatever reasons in Mumbai I shut my eyes and imagine my roots, the books that I have read, the people who have influenced my mind. These are the influences that have greatly helped me find light within me- I should embrace that and smile.
