When the influence of Tagore started to decrease – a new voice emerged – a voice less melodramatic – a voice full of angst. Critics coined a new term to address that new voice – “Bangla Adhunik Kobita” (Bengali Modern Poetry). Binoy Majumdar was a part of those angry young poets, who wanted to bring a change through words and verses; but he was certainly not an activist like his comrades.

After studying for a few years in Presidency College, he moved to Shibpur to earn a degree in engineering. His mathematically sharp brain was an inseparable part of his poetry. The molding of science with poetry is a rare instance in world literature. Binoy successfully did this when he wrote a verse such as: “If you never come again. Never blow through this steaming regions/ Like cooling drifts of the upper air, even the absence is an encounter.” Binoy’s brain was trained to think through the angles of geometry, it worked through the thin lanes of enigmatic algebra. Binoy wrote three books on mathematics, but they remained unpublished, although the drafts are available in the National Library.

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Binoy started writing poetry when he was in school. He used to write for his school magazine. In 1958, his first book “Nakshatrer Aloye” was published. A massive influence of the great poet Jibanananda Das can be seen in “Nakshatrer Aloye”. According to some scholars, Binoy tried to imitate Jibanananda in his earlier poetry, but the scenario changed when he published his Magnum Opus, “Fire Esho, Chaka” in 1962. It was first published under the name of “Gayatrike” but then Binoy changed the name and added a few more poems to this anthology.

“Fire Esho, Chaka” contained 77 poems and all of them had a kind of poetic language which the readers of West Bengal had never seen before. The influence of Jibanananda was still there and it lasted forever in Binoy’s poetry, but he successfully blended it with his own voice. Binoy composed the verses in his favorite “Payar” (A Bengali poetic meter) meter, and he wrote short poems. Dipped in melancholic blues, the verses left a profound impact on the reader’s mind.

He wrote verses like: “I walk back three paces then hit / by the revelation swing forward / your thought only seemingly far out of the reach of mind / like a comet periodically returns”. Love and separation have always been the major themes in Binoy’s poetry, but the theme of separation intensified as time passed by; it can be seen in verses like “Starting from experience I’ve slowly known you / Like news of the colorless sky.” The presence of a lover, more specifically a failed lover can be seen in Binoy’s poetry, a lover who is romantic and whose erotic desires are not fulfilled and who has cut himself off from the society, taken self-imprisonment. He looks at objects and happenings around himself and keeps on recording.

Binoy too had taken self-imprisonment in an obscure part of West Bengal. His mental health started to deteriorate when he was writing “Fire Esho, Chaka”. He was admitted to hospital and had to receive electric shock therapy. Although Binoy wrote poems even after that, his mental health never fully recovered.

Binoy wrote “Aghraner Onubhutimala” and published it in 1974. It was a composition of six long poems. These poems tell us about the loneliness of a solitary man, who keeps on recording how nature works silently. Binoy said in an interview that all these poems were written in the Bengali month of “Aghran” (late autumn) that’s why he named it “Aghraner Onubhutimala”. Later, Binoy published another book, “Balmikir Kobita” which was banned for its obscenity. Binoy later apologized for writing those poems, but a question mark remains in our minds because most Bengali readers of that time were conservative. They had serious problems in accepting the unorthodox. Figures like Buddhadeb Basu and Samaresh Majumdar too faced difficulties in convincing readers.

Binoy is the unsung hero of Bengali poetry. Readers of our generation are scarcely aware of his poetic brilliance. Even those who are aware take a very ordinary approach towards his poetry. We need to break the shackles of a traditional reading approach and delve deep into his verses. Reception of his seminal works and translations are needed to introduce his brilliance to the world. In the digital era of the 21st century, writing and publishing poetry is not a difficult task anymore, but we still feel the absence of Binoy Majumdar every single day.