Adarsha Hindu Hotel

Adarsha Hind Hotel

Third edition title page
Author	Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Original title	আদর্শ হিন্দু হোটেল
Country	India
Language	Bengali
Genre	Novel
Set in	Bengal
Published	1940

Adarsha Hindu Hotel (Ideal Hindu Hotel) is a Bengali novel written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. The novel was first published in 1940.

Plot

Hajari, a middle-aged Bengali Brahmin is the male protagonist of the novel. He works as a cook in a hotel owned by Bechu Chakraborty near Ranaghat railway station. Here customers are often cheated and Padma steals hotel's food. Hajari is strictly against these, but being just a cook, he does not have right to say anything. Here he is regularly mocked and insulted by a maid of the hotel named Padma. Hajari dreams to start his own hotel, but for that he needs ₹200 (US$3.00). Kusum is a young widow, whom Hajari considers as his daughter. One day utensils of Hajari's shop are stolen and police arrests Hajari. After the incidence he loses the job.

After getting a loan from Kusum and Atashi, a girl from his village, Hajari starts his own hotel. Here he works hard with dedication and sincerity. In just a year his hotel becomes the most popular hotel of the area. Two other hotels of the area: one of Bechu Chakraborty and another of Jadu Banerjee almost get shut down. Hajari also gets a railway tender to manage a government-run hotel in the railway platform. At the end of the novel, Hazari signs a contract to manage a large hotel and goes to Bombay. Before leaving, he appoints Bechu Chakraborty (whose own hotel was sealed recently) as a manager of the railway platform hotel. He also gives Padma a job, who used to insult him every now and then.

Adaptations

In 1957 a Bengali film was made based on this novel. The film was directed by Ardhendu Sen.