Book Review: "The Penguin Book of Bengali Short Stories" ed. by Arunava Sinha

Who knew that the fiction of the Bengali language could be so immersed in war, violence, death and tragedy? I mean, the volatility is all through the culture's history and especially since the first novels of the Bengali people were written. It is stated in the introduction that the fiction is often born out of resilience over adversity and how violence can impact the generation's writing. But one thing I think I have to agree with is that the Bengali short story should be revered by the world. I didn't go into this thinking I would enjoy it but the emotion that was conveyed, the atmosphere of violence and the way the stories moved me was something else entirely. If you have never read Bengali fiction then this would be the perfect place to start.

A big theme across the stories is the loss or the importance of innocence in the face of adversity or difficulty. In the story Pikoo's Diary we see a child of six who is oblivious to the suffering around him but, we are shown how innocent and lovely he is though - we are also worried about what happens when he finds out the truths. Truth can often hurt so is it better that the young, especially the very young, do not know about it? He makes lovely drawings like a child might but does not know much of the instability around him emotionally. His mother has had an affair and his grandfather who was once bedridden has died. The story is written so brilliantly that I would have to put this up as probably one of the best of the whole anthology.

When it comes to the loss of innocence though, we see a story called Draupadi (which is named obviously for the Indian Mythological character). Dopdi Mejhen is an innocent woman who is hunted and then abused by another group of people. The story is extreme and highly suggestive of what this abuse is. It is both physical and emotional and definitely something that was sometimes off-putting to read. Sometimes it doesn't have to be gory or detailed, it just has to be suggestive and like a quiet nudge. Your brain thus puts the image together and that is something far worse than intense details. Her loss of innocence comes through this abuse but her resilience is shown as her requirement to never feel shame and her ability to push through the image of her through the eyes of others. Honestly, this was something that I found directly juxtaposed to the story Pikoo's Diary because it deals with the want to erase innocence through resilience rather than the want to keep innocence through remaining oblivious to emotional turmoil.

Another story I thought was really well written was called Aadaab and is about the things we have in common rather than our obvious differences. This story is simple as it deals with two people of different faiths who meet in an alleyway. These two different faiths are in battle with each other and initially the two characters are obviously cynical and fearful of each other. Be that as it may, they both belong to the working class and ultimately end up bonding over their struggles in a time of financial and economical uncertainty. I know what you're thinking: 'oh but that sounds so obvious!' Yes it does. But it is so simple that it shows us something that is directly happening in our modern day. We are all fighting amongst ourselves whilst the rich watch us and cause more rifts between us. They will never feel the pain, they will never fight the fight and they know that if we are distracted enough we will just fight with each other and never see how they are puppeteering everything. This story forces us to acknowledge that we all may have more in common than we think.

All in all, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this text. I initially bought it because it was cheap on Kindle on that day and it has been a while since. I'm very glad I did read it because there are so many more great stories in here that I haven't the time to tell you about. I would urge you though to discover it for yourself.