Poets

Samir Roychoudhury (Bengali: সমীর রায়চৌধুরী) is considered as one of the founding fathers of the Hungry Generation Movement.

Birth and Early Life

Samir Roy Choudhury was born at Panihati in West Bengal on November 1st 1933, in a family of artists, sculptors, photographers and musicians. His grandfather Lakshminarayan, doyen of the Sabarna Roy Choudhury clan of Uttarpara, heard learned drawing and bromide-paper photography from John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, who was Curator at the Lahore Museum (now in Pakistan), and thereafter established the first mobile photography-cum-painting company in India in the mid-1880s. The company was later taken over by Samir's father Ranjit (1909–1991). Samir's mother Amita (1916–1982) was from a progressive family of 19th century renaissance.

He studied at City College, Kolkata. Here he saw his classmates Dipak Majumdar, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Ananda Bagchi who were planning to start a poetry magazine known as Krittibas (1953). He was an active member of Krittibas group. Samir became an active member of the group. Eka Ebong Koyekjan, the first collection of poems by Sunil Gangopadhyay was funded and published by Samir. When Dipak Majumdar left Krittibas group, Samir along with others were eased out of the group. He had edited the Phanishwarnath Renu issue of the magazine. Thereafter he took up a job of marine fisheries expert in a ship. His first poetry collection was known as Jharnar Pashey Shuye Aachhi t..