CHAOS DANCE IN EBBS AND FLOWS & Other Short Stories

Description

Bhargabi Das’s close translation of some of Bhabendranath Saikia’s most intricate short-fiction brings into English a sensibility that should surely be a revelation to the readers of Indian literature in English translation. Saikia, a distinguished physicist and filmmaker, gave Assamese fiction a new tenor, bringing in fragrance of the earth from Assam’s rural culture-scape. Bhabendranath has so far remained relatively less known outside his native Assam. Bhargabi Das’s meticulously worked translations of an excellent choice of his stories span that gap and offer a fascinating bridge to us, to effect a long overdue connect. — G N Devy, Literary Critique and Padma Shri Awardee

All the six short stories give interesting peeks into the complex, layered lifeworld of rural Assamese women of various ages, classes and contexts. Saikia’s stories are indeed rare honest glimpses of rural Assamese gendered and classist politics, in an age when most filmmakers and writers in Assam were painting a rather romantic and ‘simple’ village life. The stories have been consciously and carefully picked out keeping in mind women’s relationship to the world around, particularly in rural Assam.

Dr. Bhabendranath Saikia was a physicist by education, he directed seven Assamese feature films, all of which won National Awards. His sole Hindi film, ‘Kaal Sandhya‘ was screened as part of the Cairo International Film Festival. His first film, ‘Sandhya Raag‘ was screened in prestigious film festivals at Cannes, Montreal, Toronto, etc. As a writer, he wrote both novels and short stories, out of which, the short story, ‘Shringkhol‘ won the Sahitya Akademi Award. In 2001, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India

Dr. Bhargabi Das is an Assistant Professor at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi. She is a social anthropologist who works in areas of citizenship and political ecology in Northeast India. She is a raging potato, a poet and a theatre enthusiast