Chakatya (चकाट्या) by Da. Ma. Mirasdar (द. मा. मिरासदार)

"Chakatya (चकाट्या)" a Marathi (मराठी) book by Da. Ma. Mirasdar (द. मा. मिरासदार). This edition of the book is published by Mehta Publishing House in 2014 (First edition in 1970s) and has 160 pages. This book is a collection of 13 stories.

'Shivajiche hastakshar (शिवाजीचे हस्ताक्षर)' is a story of confrontation between the history teacher of a boy and his historian father and how he suffers in the fight. 'Pralay (प्रलय)' is a story set in a village of illiterate adults and what they do after reading a news that the world will end, by flood, in eight days. 'Baba (बाबा)' is the story of a father who keeps bragging about his courage and daredevil acts to his son. But was he so? 'Photo (फोटो)' is the story of two rural bumpkins who were never photographed and wanted themselves to be photographed. 'Swabhaw (स्वभाव)' is about a lady who criticizes her neighbor for rumormongering while she does exactly the same. 'Police tapas (पोलीस तपास)' is about Police investigation or rather the lack of it in rural set up. 'Rang denyacha prakar (रंग देण्याचा प्रकार)' is a humorous story about experience of a lower middle class man of painting his house. 'Nava rasta (नवा रस्ता)' is about a proposed new road through Eknath's agricultural land. Can he save his land? 'Abhyas (अभ्यास)' is a story of how study happens or does not happen in a class of school. In 'Shaydi (शायडी)', a man comes to a village. Some think he is mad, some think he is Shaydi. Who is he and what is Shaydi? In 'Pathan (पठाण)' a young man decides to help his friend impress the girl he loves. How does it go? 'Babancha abhays (बाबांचा अभ्यास)' is the story of a father, an editor by profession, trying to supervise studies of his son. In 'Gaflat (गफलत)' there is a theft in a village and all the villagers are trying to determine how the thief entered and exited the seemingly impenetrable villa.

Of all the stories I liked Pathan (पठाण) & Gaflat (गफलत) the most.

Book cover is drawn by Shi. DA. Phadnis (शि. द. फडणीस). If I am not wrong, book covers for all the books written by Da. Ma. Mirasdar are drawn by Shi. DA. Phadnis. His caricatures have special strokes and one can recognize his pictures just by looking at them.

Most of the stories are set up in rural background. This is the speciality of Da. Ma. Mirasdar. Most of the stories are humorous with a border of harsh reality. Author has seen a story where a common man would not be able to. His power of observation is commendable.

All the stories are small with an average length of 12-13 pages, making them crisp. You do not get a chance to get bored. Modern readers who are not interested in rural backdrop may or may not like the book.

The book is good, but another book from same author that I read in recent past, titled 'Virangula (विरंगुळा)', was better.

Read if you have time.

My kind of girl by Buddhadev Bose

"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.

Interpreter of maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

"Interpreter of maladies", a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. Jhumpa won 'Pulitzer prize for fiction' for this book.

The stories are typical every day life stories mostly involving expatriate Indians. These stories look for meanings in the lives of common people. Events in these stories happen every day, but only a good writer can see through the obvious and present the same event in a different perspective. Jhumpa has done this job very well.

This book contains 9 stories. All of them are good. 'Sexy' and 'A real durwan' are very good stories, but the ones I liked most were 'Interpretor of Maladies' and 'Mrs. Sen's'. Jhumpa demonstrates keen observation, adds right amount of emotions and yet presents them in an impersonal manner.

The message in these stories is very subtle. A casual reader may easily overlook it and hence may not like the book.

For the first time, I liked an award winning book.

BTW: Very recently Jhumpa lost the booker prize 2013 for 'The lowlands'. Hard luck.

Do not miss this one. A must read.