The Greatest Assamese Stories Ever Told spans more than a century of work by some of the finest writers of short fiction in the language. The storytellers range from literary masters such as Lakhminath Bezbaroa, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, Saurav Kumar Chaliha, Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya, and Homen Borgohain to contemporary writers like Harekrishna Deka. Debabrata Das, and Kuladhar Saikia.
Among the gems to be found in this selection are Lakhminath Bezbaroa's 'Patmugi" which is a searing portrayal of the injustices of society, especially towards women; Mamoni Raisom Goswami's 'Values', an unforgettable depiction of a destitute woman, for whom her Brahmin ancestry is the only thing that she can take pride in; Harekrishna Deka's 'The Captive, a poignant account of the relationship between a kidnapper and his victim: Homen Borgohain's well-known story 'Looking for Ismael Sheikh, which deals with the effects of religious violence on a community. and Sheelabhadra's 'Sweet Acacia', a romance as evocative as the delicate fragrance of the flower that permeates it.
Selected and edited by Mitra Phukan, these and the other stories in this volume offer a fascinating glimpse of a culture and a people that will resonate with readers everywhere.
Mitra Phukan is a writer, translator, columnist, and classical vocalist who lives in Guwahati, Assam. Her published literary works include four children's books, a biography, two novels, namely, The Collector's Wife and A Monsoon of Music, and a collection of fifty of her columns, Guwahati Gaze. She has also published a collection of short stories titled A Full Night's Thievery.
As a translator, she has worked with some of the best fiction writers in Assamese, translating from Assamese to English. Among her best-known translations is Jnanpith awardee Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya's novel Kobor aru Phool (titled Blossoms in the Graveyard in English). Her latest work of translation is Guilt and Other Stories. Her short stories have appeared in various journals worldwide and her works have been translated into many languages. Her fortnightly column 'All Things Considered' in the Assam Tribune is very widely read. She also writes extensively on Indian music, both as a reviewer and essayist. Her works. both novels and short stories, are taught in various colleges and universities.
What goes in, and what to leave out, when collecting the twenty-five short stories for this compilation? Obviously, it's a tough job, for this is not a large enough number when choosing a representative selection for a readership that may not be familiar with the particular flavours and nuances of the short story in Assam. That, of course, would be the problem that any person tasked with selecting a comparatively small number of stories would face, of choosing a few and discarding others, equally 'deserving". equally fit to be included in a collection of this kind. This must be the problem faced by all collators, who have to cull out narratives from the vast ocean of stories that is the heritage of all the many literatures, both oral and written, that enrich our land.
It goes without saying, therefore, that a collection of this kind is bound to be subjective in its choice of stories. A reader's response-and this collection emanates from a readerly response, not a scholarly one-is bound to be coloured by her own lived experiences, her memories, her education, her milicu, the stories she has herself read and appreciated, and, of course, her choice of reading material.
However, the selection of these stories, to the exclusion of others, was not just subjective. They are also, for the most part, stories that have, at one time or the other, struck a deep chord in the general readership. Many are stories that have stood the test of time, their relevance not strictly restricted to the age in which they were written. The human values, or, perhaps, the lack of them, that they highlight, the delineation of unforgettable characters. the ambience of the particular time and place that they are placed in, remain relevant.
The choice of writers, too, was difficult to make, because there are many others who are just as good. Leaving aside the question of subjectivity, when one talks of 'good' writing and writers, there was one criterion that also had to be considered. This was the fact of their having received prestigious literary awards, which is often though admittedly, not always- an acknowledgement of excellence. But this was not the only criteria, naturally. What was perhaps even more important was the fact of their being read, and re-read, by people even today, by readers who acknowledge the 'truth' that lies at the kernel of a great story, whether a novel, a novella, or a short story.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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