Bengali Ethos
Vasantha Menon
AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN BEN¬GALI SHORT STORIES by Enakshi Chatterjee Prayer Books, 1978, 100 pp., 20.00
Sept-Oct 1978, volume 3, No 2

The stories included in this Anthology of Modem Bengali Short Stories, sel­ected and translated by Enakshi Chatter­jee, range from ‘The Music Room’ by Tara Shankar Banerjee, published in 1934, to Kabita Sinha’s ‘The Strange Island’ and Baren Gangopadhyay’s ‘The Hand’, both published in 1966. The preface to the collection states that ‘the themes chosen all relate to our time, though taken together they do not span the total Ben­gali experience between the years 1934­-1966’. This is by way of an apology for the anthology not being’ an ‘exhaustive summary ‘of the contemporary scene in Bengali but more in the nature of a sam­ple intended to whip up interest’. This it does.

From the quiet pathos of ‘The Music Room’ to the intensely disturbing ‘Hounds of Blood’ by Syed Mustafa Siraj, the stories in this volume are concerned primarily with the individual, and cover a wide range of human emotions and experience. ‘Sappho’ by Bani Ray, is quasi-modern in its techniques.

Published in 1945, it explores the themes of lesbia­nism ‘and male chauvinism at a time when these had not become common sub­jects in fiction writing. Premendra Mitra’s ‘The Story of a Coward’ shows the effect of moral weakness, and irresponsi­bility on man-woman relationship. The simple enactment of the victory of loyalty over lust, in ‘They are Three’ by Santosh Kumar Ghosh; the psychological experi­ence of a young girl on a picnic in ‘The Strange Island’ with its strong criticism of false ideals and a ruthless society; the funny but terrifying situation imagined in ‘The Hand’, of a man’s obsession with a physical deformity that may be purely imaginary; the humorous account of an elderly village tailor’s trip to the city with his young wife—in the story by Moti Nanda ‘A Trip to the City’—providing insight into the small man’s need to feel important and his sudden rise in stature through a simple act of kindness; these, and the other stories, ‘Arab’ by Samaresh Basu, and ‘In Quest of Beauty’‘ by Narendra Nath Mitra, convey sensitively various aspects of Bengali ethos and experience. There is also a timeless quality about their themes which, along with the variety of scene, character and situation, is the most appealing feature of the anthology.

Enakshi Chatterjee’s translation is marked by restraint—an absence of excess and complication or a too con­scious striving for effect. Yet the total effect is not one of barrenness. At her best she shows the capacity to keep words and feelings under control, while convey­ing effectively the intrinsic intention of the author. Platitudes and cliches are difficult to avoid in translation, especially where the author’s thought is expressed in colloquial language. The non-Bengali reader will have the added difficulty of not always being able to see that stereo­typed language could sometimes be ade­quate expression for the author’s insights. At any rate, this is a demand made on him only rarely in this volume. What cannot be excused are the several prin­ting errors.

Vasantha Menon is Lecturer in English, Miranda House, New Delhi.