Border Postings

The stories, by themselves, are extremely representative, ranging from science fiction Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay8217;s Raft to the experimental-allegorical the powerful A Mother-Daughter World, by Hasan Azizul Haque, from the straightforward narrative Nabaneeta Dev Sen8217;s Proprietor to the delightfully elusive Hasnat Abdul Hye8217;s Still Life. Possibly because of this reviewer8217;s relative unfamiliarity with Bangladeshi literature, the short stories from the other side of the border seem far more emancipated from the conventional rigours of this form; the authors, even when dealing with the mundane and the everyday for instance, in Rizia Rahman8217;s Irina8217;s Picture, on bereaved relatives squabbling over property, or Manju Sarkar8217;s Alone, Together, on the distance between an urban middle-class couple, deftly add a touch of the surreal and even the supernatural, to lift the story from the level of its subject.

At the same time, it must be said that each story, from India or Bangladesh, justifies its selection, addressing 8212; and drawing from 8212; a collective cultural imagination that knows no borders. Mahasweta Devi8217;s Jamunaboti8217;s mother, in the eponymous story, could belong to any large city, a woman who lives on the fringes of middle-class consciousness, relevant only in her irrelevance. Still Life, that poignant depiction of the story told by an unoccupied room, a few scraps of paper and a couple of insects and birds, narrates a universally-identifiable tale of love and loss. These may not be their creators8217; best works, yet as part of an anthology that is meant to introduce a reader to an unfamiliar literature, they work.

One wonders, though, about the possibilities of a theme in such a volume. The wide variety in the selection here, while serving its purpose, also makes for an uneven compilation; a thematic unity could have provided a more level playing field for comparing the evolution of a common heritage along different paths. The Rabindrasangeet provides for an interesting comparison. Because of the rigid hold of Viswa Bharati on copyright and tunes, Tagore songs stuck to the straight and narrow in West Bengal, while artistes on the other side of the border experimented with the approved notes, and made for a progressive brand of music that found takers even among puritans.

A word on the translation, that most under-rated and severely criticised of all literary jobs. Readability is Chakravarty8217;s priority, and to that end she succeeds admirably. The translation, to a very large extent, is free of the unwieldiness that mars most such attempts. Chakravarty keeps annotations to the minimum and even refrains from too-elaborate biographical sketches, letting the reader establish his own rapport with the author. The translator, then, is merely a via media.

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