Ragpicker Amin Ragpicker Pussy Cat

Ragpicker Amin Ragpicker Pussy Cat is a juvenile novel with difference, mixing reality with fantasy and thereby depicts in a fascinating way the life of children who roam in the streets of Dhaka. Tokai is the generic name for these boys who sleep on park benches, sidewalks, in railway platforms; they roam the streets and pick up rags, scraps of paper etc.. hoping to sell them to some dealer and thus struggle to survive in a ruthless environment. Lutfor Rahman Riton (b. 1961) in this novel gives us very interesting portrait of a ragpicker called Amin Ali who is joined by a non-human ragpicker, a pussy cat. The adventures of ragpicker Amin and ragpicker pussy cat reflect our socio-political milieu in a manner that is amusing as well as disturbing.
This unusual novel for children has been translated into English by National Professor Kabir Chowdhury (b.1923), who happens to be the country’s most prolific translator of world literature into Bengali. He has also rendered various contemporary Bengali writings into English.