The World of Apu (1959)
Soumitra Chatterjee: Apurba Roy
Photos
Quotes
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Pulu : So are you writing anything? What are you writing?
Apurba Roy : A wonderful novel.
Pulu : And you've kept it mum all this time?
Apurba Roy : You know a good publisher?
Pulu : All in good time.
Apurba Roy : Listen to this: a young boy. A young boy. A village boy. Poor but sensitive. His father's a priest. The father dies. The boy comes to the city. He doesn't want to be a priest. He'll study. He's ambitious. He studies. Through his education and struggles, we watch as he sheds his old superstitions and fixed views. He questions everything and takes nothing on trust. Yet he has imagination and sensitivity. Little things move him and bring him joy. Perhaps he has greatness in him, the ability to create, but...
Pulu : He doesn't make it.
Apurba Roy : That's right. But it doesn't end there. It's not a tragedy. He does nothing great. He remains poor, in want. But he never turns away from life. He doesn't run away. He wants to live. He says living itself brings fulfillment and joy. He wants to live!
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Apurba Roy : You know how much my novel means to me. You mean much more.
Aparna : Really?
Apurba Roy : I'll dedicate it you.
Aparna : You'll what?
Apurba Roy : [In English] To my wife.
Aparna : I know what "wife" means.
Apurba Roy : No, you don't. But I do.
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Apurba Roy : Who's there?
Landlord : Good morning.
Apurba Roy : Good morning. Sit down.
Landlord : Is there any point in sitting down?
Apurba Roy : At least it will rest your legs after all those stairs.
Landlord : I didn't climb the stairs so I could rest my legs.
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Apurba Roy : Khulna? Are you crazy?
Pulu : You'll love it there. A rustic village. Boats floating down the river. Endless fields of grass and rice. Paths winding through bamboo groves and mango orchards. What do you say? And trees full of birds: magpies, bulbuls, nightingales. And at nightfall, crickets and fireflies, jackals, and kerosene lamps. No electricity! Tempting? Have I hit a weak spot? So, you'll come, right?
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Apurba Roy : I have no house of my own, nothing. No home, no hearth, no income. No future.
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Apurba Roy : [First lines] I'll be going, sir.
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Pulu : An oil cooker! Doing your own cooking?
Apurba Roy : Yeah. I'll cook for you sometime. Rice and boiled potatoes.
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Apurba Roy : I do some tutoring. Turning dullards into prodigies.
Pulu : What's it pay?
Apurba Roy : Fifteen rupees a month.
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Apurba Roy : Why should I be a clerk? There's no reason. I'm a free man - no ties, no responsibilities, no one to worry about. Why be a clerk?
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Pulu : Are you writing anything? Any new poems?
Apurba Roy : You're such a philistine.
Pulu : A philistine?
Apurba Roy : Engineering is all you know. You'll go abroad and get your degree, then settle down here with a nice fat salary. Bah!
Pulu : So I'm a philistine?
Apurba Roy : That's right.
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Apurba Roy : Is imagination worth nothing?
Pulu : Not with love!
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Apurba Roy : What is this? Some kind of play or novel?
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Apurba Roy : My father died when I was ten. Mother died seven years later. I had an older sister too.
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Apurba Roy : Aparna - will you be able to endure being poor? Can you live - with a poor man like me for a husband?
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Apurba Roy : What will they think?
Aparna : Who?
Apurba Roy : My neighbors. I'm invited to a wedding and I come home with the bride!
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Apurba Roy : What's wrong? Are you mad? Or sad? Or just in a huff?
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Office Associate : I don't know what your wife is like, But mine - I mean, I like them a little feisty. I like them to be a little quarrelsome, a little saucy. Know what I mean? I like them a bit mischievous and smart. It adds spice to a marriage. My wife's just the opposite.
Apurba Roy : Really?
Office Associate : Never quarrels. Nothing for dinner? She won't say a word. Nothing to wear? She won't complain. Say right, she goes right. Say left, she goes left. Utterly bland and insipid.
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Apurba Roy : I didn't come here for a job.
Pulu : Then why?
Apurba Roy : I just ended up here as I wandered around.
