Ghonada was called Herr` Doss by his German friends. He was mostly called Das or Doss or sometimes Ganado.
Ghonada [or Ghanada] first appeared in the short story "Mosha" [Bangla] - means mosquito in english was published in the year of 1947? 1945 [according to New Ghonadasomogro book published by Ananda publications]. This story was about an evil Japanese scientist Nishimara [Ghonada's first Villain character] who muted a mosquito and made it dengerous and then he started experimenting on people. A single bite from the mosquite kills human being. Ghonada arrived just in time and managed to save the world from this mad scientist and his evil invention by one tight slap. Those who are more interested should buy the book and read rest it is available in both bengali and english. Ghonada stays in a rented mess at 72 Bonomali Noskor lane [mostly somewhere in north-central Calcutta, near Sealdah], a typical the then [late 40's] middleclass settlement of migrant office goers with nothing but intellectual aristocracy. His real name is Ghono shyam Das.
Ghona-da is a bengali word, in bengal "da" postfix is added to name any male who is middle aged to show respect. English is a language where you write first and then find a pronunciation for it, but bengali is just opposite, you pronunce first here and then write it in bengali script. In bengali language Ghanada does not mean the name of person is changed, it is just a way of showing affection or respect to person named 'Ghona". Sort of Sir or similar word in english. Close example will be "I understand this Mr. Scott sir"/ however still you are not even getting the flavor, for understanding this "da" you must understand how bengali is spoken and may be that is difficult so lets forget it and let's rather concentrate more on Ghonada. Ghona is elder to the 4 musketeers Shibu, Sishir, Sudhir and Gour and hence they call him Ghonada, in bengali culture calling elders with his name is little annoying and so adding "da" saves a lot of embarassment.
The great old North calcutta adda culture is the backdrop of all Ghonada stories.
And there is good old Rambhuj is the servent of mess and takes special care of ghonada. Banowari is the other servant in the mess. Some times he unknowingly messes up things while cleaning Borobabu's roof top antique attic room. Yes, Ghonada stays in the top floor, at the very attic of this mess bari. Ghonada is a person of very strong likes and dislikes. He does not like the very smell of disinfactant fleet spray also. He doesn't want to change his room, never want to go away from the mess for long time. He has serious attitude [all heros do] and he is only "friendly" towards the 4 musketeers and obidient servents of the mess who always try to keep him in good mood. Everyday morning newspaper is a must read for Ghonada and he reads it in and out, every page, every column, nothng misses his egale eyes.
Ghonada takes an evening stroll in local park [remember this peice was added much later, in his first phase of stories Ghonada never seen taking evening stroll and telling stories to people other than the 4 musketeers] and there also he has some fan following. Now this evening stroll place is not possible in North central calcutta, this was mostly some lake in south calcutta.
Ghonada likes to eat and eat a lot, he has a voracious appetite. Sometimes he loves bigri hans [Duck] (and some tinhead mess bari [house] member had to pay for this), sometimes its Brocoli, or fish fry, sheek kabab, fish croket, hari moyrar badshahi singara, kalighater totapuli langcha
And he smokes ciggerette and most of the time he forgets to return the ciggerette tin [well it was still available in a Tin pack ... good old days] back to Shishir. So that implies Shishir smokes too. When Ghonada is alone in his attic he smokes Amburi tamak from a hucca.
Ghonada takes the centerstage almost every late evening when he joins the evening gossips [adda] with Shisir, Shibu, Gour and Sudhir [the four main characters who listens to Ghonada's heartstopping adventures]. Ghonada tells them numerous stories [?] of his life, the tales of Tibbet or Africa or some times in US. With a pre ww1 era backdrop these stories are one of the best assets of Bengali Literature. The stories are spun from very basic unfamilier scientific fatcs, mostly in non familier islands [names not known to common people], geographical facts and told in very elegant manner that you will love to read it, however you may not beg to believe that Ghonada actually went to those places but you want to.
When I used to read ghonada in my childhood days, it was like a window for me to know about unknown, unfamilier, never found in newspaper geographical, scientific facts told in a simple manner with little sense of intellectualism, I never had a chance to see bbc news nor national geographic channel or magazine [cable tv came in india by 1991 I suppose, secondly the text books or other youth magazines were too much into something else] so Ghonada become instant favorite. I believe this was the key for Ghonada's success. Middleclass book loving bengali who wants to know a lot of things at that but simple did not either have means or way to find it, got it from Ghonada. However the success was mostly inside the literary urban society of Bengal. Not sure how much it was in rural bengal, that was not fault of Premendra Mitra or rural educated bengali, even now, how much printed publication reach our rural India, it is the biggest market and as always untapped and neglected.
However, Ghonada and his 4 musketeers do not drink alchohol. It was still a taboo in middleclass bengali educated and cultured society to whoom these stories were targeted. And almost no woman character in the stories. Is this trend kind of repeated in other dada serie stories like Tenida, Feluda etc...uncanny similarity. Even though Feluda and Ghonada smokes, Tenida and his sangopangoes are very novish in this respect.
This new picture of Ghonada in this blog is drawn by myself.
Mess: cheap dwelling mostly for migrant office goers, students, small time businessmen etc who doesn't got a home in the city. In city like Calcutta which is the biggest city of easter India till now lot of people come arround the places for opportunity.
Ghanada is also used sometimes, but I prefer Ghonada is more appropriate. I think there is no major source of Information available about Ghonada on internet. Atlast this website can provide some solid facts about Both Premendra Mitra and Ghonada.
