Popular Bangla novelist Manishankar Mukhopadhyay, better known by his pen name Shankar, was sworn in as Kolkata’s 245th sheriff on Monday. Shankar took oath at the Calcutta High Court. The outgoing sheriff Sanjoy Chatterjee administered the oath of office to the octogenarian writer. A largely ceremonial post bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Kolkata, the sheriff has his office in the Calcutta High Court premises.
The Sheriff post for Calcutta was created in 1775 and James Macrabey was the first to hold the chair. The first Indian appointed as the sheriff of Calcutta was Manakjee Rustomjee in 1874 while the first Bengali to have adorned the post was Raja Digamber Mitter in 1875. In his acceptance speech, Shankar said it is a “remarkable” day in his life, making him "feel very humble as the new sheriff.”
The writer said he first stepped into the majestic high court building in 1951 as a teenager in search of a job and was soon appointed a 'babu' by Noel Barwell, the last British member of the Bar of England practising in the Calcutta High Court. After Barwell's death, Shankar narrated his association with the barrister in his first novel 'Kato Ajanare'.
"There were many books in Mr Barwell's library at 6 Old Post Office Street (in Kolkata). I still remember a highly interesting bound volume about the Sheriffs of Fort William by Charles Moore, never imagining that one day I will walk into the historic High Court building to take my oath as the Sheriff of Calcutta," Shankar said.
The writer’s two novellas ‘Seemabaddha’ and 'Jana Aranya' were made into memorable films by maestro director Satyajit Ray. Another feature film in Bangla 'Chowringhee' (1968), starring Uttarm Kumar in the role Satyasundar Bose, Supriya Choudhury and Subhendu Chatterjee, was also based on Shankar’s novel.