Author: Kishori Charan Das
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 164
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143031120
Description
A celebrated writer takes an honest and uncompromising look at individuals and their tangled lives.
Kishori Charan Das, winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1976, is an eminent Oriya author whose works have been widely translated. In this collection of nine short stories, Das observes the many facets of the Indian middle class, the choices they make, the disenchantments and anxieties that characterize their lives, their petty foibles and great expectations.
A father, who has found comfort in the stillness of a flower in his garden, silently battles his restless son; a simple tailor’s unwavering faith in God is pitted against an educated lawyer’s sense of intellectual superiority; a mother and daughter engage in unspoken recriminations and justifications as they strive to bridge years of distances; and a couple in the twilight of their lives spar with each other, bickering over shared memories as they move towards a semblance of understanding.
A dark and trenchant take on relationships, this collection depicts human nature in all its hypocrisies, deceptions, and frailties as the protagonists struggle for something meaningful in the ordinariness of existence.
Contents
Introduction
Atonement
The Jasmine Bud and the Servant Girl
When God Is King
The Lullaby
The Idol
Compassion
The Alleyway Cinema
Mr Absent-Minded, His Wife, and Co.
The Journey