Childhood Days

By Satyajit Ray

Book Overview

Childhood Days takes readers through legendary storyteller Satyajit Ray's early life, exploring the people who were around him during his childhood, the places he spent the early years of his life in and the man we now know as an artist, music composer, director and writer. It displays the lesser-known side of Ray -affectionate, tender and humorous, quite different from the serious, introverted man the world knew. Through Childhood Days , Ray writes eloquently about his initial attempts to understand photography, his experience of tasting ice cream for the first time, his discomfort during his school years as a result of his father's and grandfather's fame and what he went through during the shooting of Pather Panchali , his debut and landmark film. Filled with stories that are funny and heart-warming, Childhood Days is a glimpse into the making of a genius.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140250794
• ISBN13: 9780140250794
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: India Penguin
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A great glimpse into the youth of a fascinating artist

Graceful and quick as a read - this is an essential read for fans of Satyajit Ray. Translated by Ray's wife, CHILDHOOD DAYS was first published in the Bengali children's magazine "Sandesh," and is primarily geared towards a young audience. But Ray sheds light upon his own very fascinating, rather bohemian upbringing, and after reading this one will easily spot the many strands of disguised autobiography surfacing in many of Ray's films. CHILDHOOD DAYS is expanded or augmented with additional writings on the making of "Pather Panchali," and also "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne," which was his first children's film - and this section of the book is of particular interest as well. "Goopy" has paradoxically become one of Ray's most popular films in India, and is a major entry in his overall body of work, in spite of being very rarely screened internationally. This portion of the book is a fairly direct address to kids who would have loved this magical and mesmerizing film, but also serves to pique the curiosity of non-Indian film aficionados of all ages (I was only able to locate a copy of the film after extensive searching). In any case, CHILDHOOD DAYS manages to serve as several things - foremost a shimmering, smart bit of writing for young audiences, and simultaneously, a fascinating yet unpretentious creative autobiography. I have biases towards Ray's films and writing, but I still recommend. -David Alston

Those were the best days ..

This is Ray's autobiography ,translated by his wife Bijoya Ray.Ray paints his childhood days (from very little age till when he crossed 16 years) with such minute details and interesting incidents that one has to finish this book in one go.His passion for cinema(Ray is a world-known director)is grown in these earlier years thanks to those Hollywood movies coming regularly to Calcutta at that time.One can get the live sights and sounds and life of Calcutta in this book during the time period of 1926-1936. This is a great work.