Hattimatim tim () is a Bengali folk rhyme made for children. This is taught to

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

children when they are in nursery. At one point this rhyme was institutionalized for all children in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

and was featured in Bangladesh’s 1st grade bangla book. It is not any more.

Content

Bengali

Transliteration

English

History

Hattimatim Tim is a folk rhyme passed down from generation to generation. The writer is unknown. "Hattimatim Tim" was first found In 1899 in Kolkata City Book Society’s "Khukumanir Chhara" book 13th edition, page 37. The book is a collection of folk poems and rhymes compiled by

Jogindranath Sarkar Jogindranath Sarkar (1866–1937) was a Bengali children's author. He wrote more than seventy books. Early life and education Son of Nandalal Sarkar, a native of Jaynagar, he was born in the house of his maternal uncle in Netra village of Sout ...

. In 1950, Shishu Shahito Shongshad, a publishing house in Kolkata, published a rhyming book containing colorful pictures for children called 'Chharar Chhobi'. This book contained four lined rhymes about the fictional animal called 'Hattima Tim Tim'. It was again featured in 1952 in

Narayan Gangopadhyay Narayan Gangopadhyay (4 February 1918 – 8 November 1970), also known as Narayan Ganguly, was an Indian novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer, and one of the leading writers of modern Bengali literature. He introduced the endearing ...

’s book “Chhotoder Shreshtho golpo” in a short story titled “Durshorsho motorcycle”. The rhymes of the book were compiled by Shri Mohendronath Dutto. After the publication of the book, the fictional animal Hattima Tim Tim became very popular among Bengali children. In 1974, The Gramophone Company of India (now

Saregama Saregama India Ltd. (Saregama refers to the first four notes of the Indian musical scale); formerly known as The Gramophone Company Of India Ltd. is India's oldest music label owned by the RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group of companies. The company i ...

) turned the six rhymes into a song. (Record number: 7LPE 110). It was sung by Shrimiti Alpona Bondopadhyay and directed by Nachikheta Ghosh, though

's YouTube video mentions the name of Onnodashonkar Roy as the lyricist. In an interview, Roy said: From this it becomes clear that Roy did not write the lyrics. Again, Onnodashonkar used the two lines 'Hattimatim tim, ora mathe pare dim' - in his rhyme titled 'Jolsha' (in this rhyme he also used the two lines 'Humpty, Dumpty sat on a wall' from an English rhyme

Controversy

In late 2018, a post went viral on Facebook claiming Rokanuzzaman Khan, Roknuzzaman Khan Dadabhai was the author of 'Hattima Tim Tim' and that the original rhyme was 52 lines. The main reason for this confusion is a book of rhymes written by Roknuzzaman Khan called 'Hattima Tim' that contained a rhyme called 'Hattima Tim' which has no similarity to the original 'Hattima Tim Tim'. This book was published in 1962 by Kakali Prakashani. The cover artist was Hashem Khan. A second edition was published by Muktdhara in 1975 and a third edition by BRAC in 1997 with multicolored covers and decorations; these two versions also have art by Hashem Khan. The original author of the 52 lines was Nadia Zaman, a Bangladeshi expatriate living in the UK, who in 2012, published it on a blog. She wrote 48 lines herself and then added the last 4 lines from 'Hattima Tim Tim'.

Bibliography

{{Reflist Bengali-language literature Traditional children's songs Bangladeshi poems Poems in Bengali