Author: Prafulla Roy
Translator(s): John W hood
Publisher: Roli Books
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 247
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8174363335
Description
Here are sixteen of the finest of Prafulla Roy’s short stories, stories made fascinating merely by the realities of everyday life and the quirkiness of human character. This combination of the mundane with the odd-sometimes the exotic-is Roy’s simple recipe for great literary interest. We have a jungle-beater-cum-stray-dog-catcher and his role in the birth of a child; we have two strangers enjoying a passing moment of love after a vicious fight with an animal over food; we have a little girl-the daughter of a prostitute-who, in hr own way, reaches the moon with Neil Armstrong.
The there are stories of the dreams -of beggars, of bird-catchers, of a tiger man and of a would-be film extra. There are stories of self-sacrifice on the part of those who have nothing, and of the exploitation of the weak by those who have everything. There are hypocrites and idealists, holy men and whores. There are the bidi-makers who do burlesque mimes, and there are small town thugs and manipulators. We meet the pathetic down-and-out who cannot get away from his roots, and we feel for the untouchable woman desperate for the protection of her seventh husband. In all, we have a colourful, tragic, heroic, amazing vista of underprivileged life in rural India.
Contents
TRANSLATOR’S INTRODUCTION
LIST OF MONTHS AND SEASONS
Human
One Rainy Day
Hell
Across the Fields
The Rajput
The Election
The Feast
Seven Times Wed
For the Sake of Survival
A Window to the Moon
The Tiger
The Wide World
Father and Son
The Supplicant
An Untimely Flood
The Dumb Show