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Selected and edited by Indira Srinivasan and Chetna Bhat Penguin Books, 1999 |
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In their introduction to this collection of some very loveable stories from India, the editors, Indira Srinivasan and Chetna Bhat, both teachers of English in India, write, "It was some months back that Penguin Books India wrote to us, asking if we would be interested in putting together an anthology of Indian writing that would put between two covers the best-known and most enduring popular short stories written in the twentieth century." Daunting though such a task is, Indira and Chetna have come up with a memorable selection of short stories, certainly belonging to the best works of the writers they have selected. And look at the list of writers whose stories are included: K. A. Abbas, Mulk Raj Anand, Anjana Appachana, Ruskin Bond, Nargis Dalal, Keki N. Daruwalla, Manoj Das, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Githa Hariharan, Padma Hejmadi, Attia Hosain, Manohar Malgaonkar, Bharati Mukherjee, R.K. Narayan, Manjula Padmanabhan, Santha Rama Rau, Raja Rao, Nayantara Sahgal, and Kushwant Singh. The collection includes some very touching, some very entertaining stories, and many thought provoking stories. I must admit thata couple of these stories were new to me, and I have been reading literature since time immemorial, at least that is how it feels! When I read story after story, with one exception, I felt, "What else can it be but a beloved story from India!" The collection starts with R.K.Narayan's masterpiece, "A Horse and Two Goats". Whoever reads this story cannot help but be enchanted by Narayan's craft of story-telling. The cream of this collection consists of Attia Hosain's "Phoenix Field" which relates the agony of the Indian partition in a extremely subtle manner by letting an old woman speak. Shashi Deshpande's short story, " The Valley in Shadow" is another moving story from a master story teller. Deshpande has managed once again to look into the heart of a woman, to feel the pulse of a lonely human being who manages to survive when the tower of her illusions comes crashing down. In her most delightful story - an Indian Pygmalion, Santha Rama Rau talks of how it normally is when young people return home (this case to Bombay) after having been on their own in a foreign country. Anjana Appachana's "Her Mother" is another highly successful story because it lends voice to a mother who tries to understand her daughter. "Martand" by Nayantara Sahgal is a story par-excellence in lending dignity to love outside marriage. The story is set in the post-partition India, and there is, just a touch of, a helpless feeling because of the increasing number of refugees pouring into the country. The personal drama that unfolds here is equally poignant. K.A. Abbas's "Sparrows" is the story of how a lonely man, who has deliberately created made enemies with everybody in the village, and has become a terror to his own family members, finds love in the company of a group of sparrows. I like almost all the stories in this collection. The exception is "The Tenant" by Bharati Mukherjee. This story is very similar to a whole genre of stories being written by diaspora writers, especially from USA. Anyone reading these stories must think that Indian women living in USA equate freedom with sexual freedom. Surprisingly most of these women belong to academic circles, but what they do in their professional life is of little importance, their sexual "liberation" seems to be much more important to the writers. All in all the collection delivers what the title promises. The stories are stories, and are to a great extent very realistic. The language is simple and straight forward, proving once again that no acrobatics with words are necessary to convey a message, to share a feeling. The only lapse on the part of the editors is their failure to include the dates when these stories were first published. It would have been interesting to see the chronological development, if there is any, in the story telling in modern Indian writing. I look forward to the second volume which consists of the best of regional writing translated into English. |