HaJaBaRaLa, or HJBRL: A Nonsense Story, is a children's novella by Sukumar Ray. Ha Ja Ba Ra La is considered one of the best nonsense stories of Bengali literature. To highlight its genre, artistic merit and style, it is frequently compared to Alice In Wonderland.

Plot

The story starts with a child, the narrator, suddenly waking up from sleep and finding that the handkerchief they had placed just beside them before sleeping has turned into a cat. The child starts talking to the cat, who speaks nonsensically about a handkerchief before disappearing over the hedge. Then the child finds Kakeshwar doing mathematical calculations on a slate, that appears very unusual to the narrator. This includes multiplication that is purely illogical and fallacious. After arguing over math, a goat appears and narrates his life about eating paper and other artificial things. Hijibijbij appears and laughs hysterically at improbable situations and keeps changing his mind about the names of his family members. Then many animals appear, and confusion results. The child wakes up from their odd dream and finds the cat, which does not talk.

Characters

Most of the characters have found idiomatic usage in Bengali language, which is true for many of Ray's works. Some of the main characters are: