(RELATIONSHIP IN ALL COLLECTION) Through the short story of Bats, Bhabendranath Saikia has been able to use the theme of complex human relationships which may be deemed as more complex, rigid, complicated and difficult in places like North-East India where there are various threats that are harmful for the development and progress in human relationships such as insurgency, ethnic clash, communal clash, clash of identity and others. Some of the other short stories coming from the North-East also portray traces of complex human relationships which are hidden beneath the surface of issues of racial and ethnic clash, corruption and other problems faced by the region. For example, in the story ‘Ine Leipaklei’3 by Nongthongbam Kunjamohan, we have the relationship between a doctor and an old woman who are bound together by mutual feelings in spite of not having any blood relations. In the story ‘The Invitation’4 by Arupa Patangia Kalita, we have the portrayal of a family that is completely opposite to Loknath’s family in ‘Bats’. The family in Kalita’s story does not have any kind of intimate relationship among its members. The mother is ill-treated by her husband and even her own children do nothing to save her. The story ends tragically when the mother dies due to the burden she feels from her family. The only relationship that may be viewed as intimate is the relationship between the narrator and the mother which also does not have much progress or significance. In ‘Basan’s Grandmother’5 by Bimal Singha we have the relationship between a young boy and an old woman belonging to different ethnic groups and whose racial differences brought them to their doom in the end. In ‘The Silver Roll of the Bridal-Path’6 by Sibananda Kakoti, we are presented with a secret relationship that is forbidden to progress due to the conventions of society. The translators of these short stories along with D.N. Bezboruah, the translator of Saikia’s ‘Bats’ have been very skillful in their translation and have helped to preserve the cultural uniqueness of the region by deliberately including the local terms such as ‘baideo’, ‘mekhela sador’, ‘Ine’, ‘Bah’, ‘ka pi’, ‘zu’ etc., and thereby arousing the curiosity of readers to know more about the cultures of each region.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 07:32:39 +0000
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