Ten Days Of The Strike: Selected Stories | Short Stories

 Ten Days Of The Strike: Selected Stories by Sandipan Chattopadhyay,  Arunava Sinha 

Book review:

I am a keen admirer of short stories and have never read a Bengali book. So, I thought of reading a Bengali book translated into English. And I picked up Ten Days of the Strike, a collection of ten short stories. Each story leaves a deep and long-lasting impact on the reader.

 

This collection includes The Last Metro, Meerabai, Banabehari and I, The Ivy Shome Murder Case (1978), and many more. It's a great exertion, mirroring the gigantic devotion and unremitting work of the author over his relegated task.

Interpreting any work from one language into another is an exhausting assignment, particularly assuming the work crafted by interpretation comprises verbally expressed words.

The 6th story of this assortment, Banabehari and I, is the biggest one, which is supplied with more than 80 pages chaptered with eleven scenes, a few sections with three, and some with ten sections in each. In scene five, section 6 starts with a discourse design.

This book made me feel the real essence of Bangla and how many people live their lives. Through the story "With Ruby in Diamond Harbour," the author vividly paints a picture of a husband who has been dating a girl for four years and his wife is in the dark. Even when she gets to know about it, she cries a bit, and then she is too normal to let her husband go and have a sensuous time with her in a hotel. But I was startled to see how their date ended and their talks infused a thought of how a woman seeks little moments of happiness. 

The interpreter legitimately released the interpretation by fulfilling his obligation to reproduce the original into English without any deviation from the source. The English language found in this book uncovers the "Bangabhasha.".

The clear style of the vernacular language of the locale converged with the subject of the novel, and the tales that are appropriate to the country yards help to reinforce the design of the book.

The cover page was all around planned by the artist Sourish Mitra, which causes the readers to picture the subject of the story—Ten Days of the Strike, the second one of this assortment. Especially in this story, how the working-class family is defeated by everyday issues like baffling circumstances in the restroom like obstruction of the latrine, spilling over the septic tank, being supplied with numerous cockroaches and centipedes, and so on.

Here I found a family dealing with the vagaries of a blocked toilet, a man setting fire to the fictional worlds he has inhabited for years, the touch of a blue hand marking a boy for life. Daring and provocative, they make for disturbing but uniquely rewarding reading. 

Sandipan writes about everyday life with quotidian details and self-reflective depth at the same time. His stories are noteworthy for their pacing and structure, and Aruniva's translation for bringing Kolkata and the flavours of the original into English.

Conclusion

Each story in this collection is an example of the craft of storytelling and translation. They draw the reader into the world of wonder and banality around us that we often bypass unremarked.

 

Highly recommended!

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 "This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile" 

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