From near and far

WHOEVER said regional Indian literature had no class? Those who have missed yet another memorable collection of some soul- stirring stories in the new Katha Prize Stories (Vol. 10), will have to change their reading habits. These profound and yet direct ponderings on life and its fate leave you seared with the power of their words.

There is no real attempt at cohesiveness or in trying to project a homogeneity. But then that is exactly what modern India is - many different peoples, many different climates and perhaps myriad moods and seasons, each one more intoxicating or confusing than the other. Like Sudhakar in "Abyss." This deeply moving story of gender confusion, role changing and finally a transformation, leaves one stunned. Human emotions and their complexity like in the case of the mother, who in her desire to have a male child, refuses to let her little girl be a little girl. No doll, Only guns. But can instinct and craving overcome nature? The abyss that follows is deep and swallows up Sudhakar eventually.

Or "The Man In the Sheet and I." A beautiful Urdu story about malevolent human emotions - pride, anger, disgust finally leading to unrest. The plot is simple enough. A man lying on a train berth in a suburn train in Mumbai. It is crowded and people jostle for space, cursing him, yet no one attempts to wake him up wondering at his temerity under the sheet that covers his face. The sheet is like an impenetrable wall, till that is removed and the truth shows its ugly face. Emotions run helter skelter. Are we men or beasts?

Does aloneness become lonliness in time? "Very Lonely She", translated from Sindhi, is a touching story about how distances, physical and otherwise, can reduce life to a period of waiting which finally turns into grief as the realisation sinks in that one is alone forever.

Perhaps one of the more unusual entries is "Music of the Cyber Waves." The story of a guard on night duty, who, finally bored by his work and to avoid sleeping on the job, invents a dangerous game. One where he tiptoes into the master's house and murders his mistress. The game goes on, till one day it passes into the realm of daylight fantasy and then?

These are 17 short stories, each one like a polished jewel. Crafted rough and yet honed to perfection. The translations have in them the same urgency that the writer tries to convey through his story. These are stories of desire, of want, of love, anger, distrust and disgust. Human emotions all. Universal in their theme. A salute to Katha for sharing with us what we may have missed otherwise.

SUCHITRA BEHAL

Katha Prize Stories, edited by Geeta Dharmarajan and Nandita Aggarwal, Katha, Rs. 250.

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