Draft:Batash Bari

Batasbari

Author	Leela Majumdar
Language	Bengali
Genre	Science fiction, children's literature, mystery, fairy tale, adventure
Published	1974
Publisher	Ananda Publishers

Batasbari (Bengali : বাতাসবাড়ি ) is a Bengali science fiction novel by Leela Majumdar, published in book form in 1974 by Ananda Publishers. The novel had previously appeared in the children's magazine Sandesh.

Plot

The story is set in Lakhna (Bengali : লখনা), a fictional village in the Himalayas, and centres on a group of twelve to thirteen children named Norbu, Shamu, Balbeer, Padam, Pampa, Kanchi, Jyothi, Bahadur, Sukhon and an elderly man known as Boro Lama, a supposed antagonist named Nepen, Dule and a robot named Unoponchash.

At the time the story is set in, the village has been suffering from a prolonged lack of rain, causing the mountain streams to dry up and the crops (namely potatoes and rice grain) to fail. The sudden resulting scarcity has affected the village severely, leaving particularly the children who narrate the condition of ecological distraught to Boro Lama, struggling with hunger.

The children approach Boro Lama in his home, and tell him because the lack of rainfall has affected commerce, food and basic necessities have been difficult to obtain. They request him for food from his supplies and advice. Boro Lama, after properly understanding the severity of the situation, responds to their complaints and requests and leads them towards the house.

Boro Lama after giving the children some pills (which he tells will cure them of hunger, pain, sadness almost all afflictions), proceeds to tell them of his place of origin. A large city on the banks of the river Ganges, where houses, vehicles and other conveniences depend on machinery. fuel and electricity. When the children ask what will happen when these resources become scarce, Boro Lama points to solar energy as the alternative source, which will never run out. Solar energy can provide heat, water and power to keep these machines running.

The story introduces us to another central character at this point ; Dhingipod. The fictional creature is Boro Lama's pet and it survives on sunlight as its sole sustenance. It does not get ill or tired ever. Boro Lama explains to the surprised children that he has built this creature and it cannot do anything except what he has taught it to do. Subsequently the children, Boro Lama and Dhingipod set out on a journey to find the eponymous Batasbari.

When they wake up next morning, and crowd Boro Lama's courtyard, they discover that Dhingipod has built them a "sun-staircase" for their journey upwards overnight. The sun-staircase snaked around the trees and went far up to the tops of the trees. Looking carefully they saw there was a platform built on top of the staircase as well. The sun-staircase is fitted with beautiful railings and a plank as well. The story here introduces a new character the "Padri" (priest of the village), who is the children's tutor as well. The padri, the children and Buro Lama exchange several local folklore's, ghost stories among them while they journey. Suddenly he mentions Nepen, an evil man who supposedly stole Batasbari, and has a bounty of five thousand rupees on his head. He adds that he means to use that amount to open a school for the children and teach them properly.

When Dhingipod comes down to with the balloon for their journey, Padri mentions that Nepen also had a pet-robot, who could do the work of "fifteen strong men in an hour". It led to these workers being fired from their jobs. Angry at the robot, they took out some of its screws to make it less efficient. Then to appease the workers of the factory, Nepen himself made the robot mafunction. He reveals that it was named "Unoponchash" (fourty-nine), which means it had been preceded by fourty-eight other robots.

The eponymous Batasbari is described by Boro Lama as a house that neither burns nor warms in the sun, does not freeze, does not get wet. It is so light it remains floating in the air by itself, requiring neither fuel nor coal or electricity as the solar panel fit on top of it keeps it running.

The story is replete with concerns over not only ecological disaster but overpopulation, technological advancement completely substituting human labour, scarcity of natural resources, starvation, and class difference. As the story progresses the element of mystery around the real creator and owner of both the robot "Unoponchash" and Batasbari starts to unravel.

The story engages its readers by combining elements of science fiction, mystery, adventure and fantasy while presenting both technological flaws and possibilities through the imaginative perspective of children.

The ending takes on an explicitly futuristic and cautionary direction that is replete with hope. A message is left for humanity explaining that when the Earth can no longer suffice as a home for its population, when all the resources have been exhausted, humanity need not despair. The message leaves blueprints for 'air-homes'; the principles of solar-powered engines; the recipe for hunger-suppressing pills; and the secrets of a fabric that neither tears nor burns, expands and contracts with the body, and changes color daily. Technologies to help humanity survive. It also anticipates a future in which food may be obtained beneath the sea and people will live on floating platforms.

Themes

The novel primarily explores the themes of ecological disaster, overpopulation and scarcity of natural resources, starvation. It introduces the element of science fiction in its imagining of a solution to the said problems and in imagining an alternative future. Tertiary themes contain elements of wealth disparity, the negative consequences of technological advancement, as in the replacement of human labour by machines. At the same time technological innovation is presented as a possible means of addressing resource scarcity.