"My kind of girl" by Buddhadev Bose, translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha. This book is published by Random House India in 2009 and has 128 pages. This book was originally published in 1951. It's a novella.
Four middle aged Bengali strangers (all male) meet in the waiting room of Tundla station, 25 km from Agra, where they have pass the night. A powerfully built Contractor, a bureaucrat, a doctor and a writer on holiday. They see a newly married couple lost in each other, deeply in love. Since there is no train till the next morning, they decide that each one will tell a story about a girl in his life.
Three of the four stories are of what would be conventionally termed as unsuccessful love. Unsuccessful because it did not end in a marriage. But was the love unsuccessful? Not really. Love was there. The feeling and satisfaction was there. So love was successful.
All the stories are about common people. Love that they experienced was made up of a number of small things and incidents. It is the small things that matter. Love in this book is very subtle and delicate. Readers are drawn into the stories. They don't want the book to end.
Though this is a translation of original Bengali book, the lyricism in the narration is preserved. The tender feelings and delicacy remains unadulterated. Nothing seems to be lost in translation. Full marks to the translator. If the translation is so good, how good will be the original? Alas! I don't know Bengali.
Although the book was written in 1951 you enjoy reading it immensely. Love is an emotion that is not bound by time and timing, it's eternal.
An excellent book. A must read.
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