It took me a long while to complete this collection of 15 short stories written initially in Hindi with setting of western modernity influence in Indian culture and translated by Gordon C Rodarmel, who taught Hindi language and Literature at UC Berkeley. The collection was published way back in 1972.
Most of the stories resemble the style of poignant kicking hardly in the gut and beneath kind of stories dealing with poverty, blasé attitude, frivolity, vanity, loneliness and alienation in various forms. Several stories like woman leaving her job and staying aloof in a faraway village, young kid working in a tea shop, two young blokes killing a stranger frivolously, fear and anxiety of a widow husband on raising his queer child, platonic affection of a cart driver over a drama artist, obligation of a man to attend the funeral of a prominent figure in town, futile attempts of young couple to get wife's salary balance from a bureaucracy, person running away from grandeur and schizophrenia and many more heartwrecking tales. I wouldn't recommend it to all but personally it has given more impact. Several stories among the mentioned reminded me of the style of Camus, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Bukowski and Kafka.
Somehow I felt most of the characters portrayed in here reminded me of the new acquaintances that I've made in the past few months. I feel able to understand things better that they have been saying to me. I could imagine myself, if at all it means anything, leading living lives from people getting their break from jobs, moving countries, changing life patterns, having adventures and misadventures, and all that. I'm happy people trust me with their stories and I'm fortunate enough to the extent I've been able to remain conscious and witness the shifting of human condition towards the postmodern era and beyond.
The book made me realize there are wide variety of wonderful Indian writers other the mediocre mainstream ones like Mr. Bhagat et al. Translator has had dedicated this work to all the Indian writers. I hope to explore more such Indian writers thanks to this anthology
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Muthuvel Deivendran
Dedicated to all Indian Writers
Reviewed in India on December 3, 2019
Muthuvel Deivendran
Reviewed in India on December 3, 2019
Most of the stories resemble the style of poignant kicking hardly in the gut and beneath kind of stories dealing with poverty, blasé attitude, frivolity, vanity, loneliness and alienation in various forms. Several stories like woman leaving her job and staying aloof in a faraway village, young kid working in a tea shop, two young blokes killing a stranger frivolously, fear and anxiety of a widow husband on raising his queer child, platonic affection of a cart driver over a drama artist, obligation of a man to attend the funeral of a prominent figure in town, futile attempts of young couple to get wife's salary balance from a bureaucracy, person running away from grandeur and schizophrenia and many more heartwrecking tales. I wouldn't recommend it to all but personally it has given more impact. Several stories among the mentioned reminded me of the style of Camus, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Bukowski and Kafka.
Somehow I felt most of the characters portrayed in here reminded me of the new acquaintances that I've made in the past few months. I feel able to understand things better that they have been saying to me. I could imagine myself, if at all it means anything, leading living lives from people getting their break from jobs, moving countries, changing life patterns, having adventures and misadventures, and all that. I'm happy people trust me with their stories and I'm fortunate enough to the extent I've been able to remain conscious and witness the shifting of human condition towards the postmodern era and beyond.
The book made me realize there are wide variety of wonderful Indian writers other the mediocre mainstream ones like Mr. Bhagat et al. Translator has had dedicated this work to all the Indian writers. I hope to explore more such Indian writers thanks to this anthology
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