Sunday, July 22, 2007

'Sesh Prasna' by Sarat

When I was growing up in coastal Andhra (40s and 50s) Sarat Chandra Chatterjee was one of the most popular novelists. I remember that his novels were full of 'padadhuli' and tears with women putting up with all kinds of nonsense. One of his novels which was different was 'Sesh Prasna'. I do not remember much of the novel now except the protogonist Kamal was unconventional and there were lot of 'intellectual' discussions and Kamal saying towards the end "This is the price people pay for stupidity; let us go Ramdhin." I remember mentioning the novel to Kalyan Mukherjea a few years ago and his response was that his mother did not allow him to read that novel. It would be interesting to read it again. I find that it has been translated in to English. A review is here:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020505/spectrum/book2.htm
Excerpt:
"Perhaps it is the woman protagonist, Kamal, who is the most memorable of the lot. Clearly, she is emancipated, much ahead of her times and manages to jolt the polite Agra society out of its complacencies. It is she who makes them (and also the reader) take a second look at patriarchal norms that go unchallenged in society, questioning traditions that have been followed blindly. Upholding the banner of female emancipation, she lives by no rules but her own, frequently changing partners, ripping apart the fabric of social hypocrisy, flinging reality in the face of orthodoxy. Kamal is the one who gives life to an otherwise placid narrative, highlighting the problems of the individual in relation to love and marriage, nationhood, society, and womanhood.

Here, perhaps, lies the answer to a very pertinent question that may confront the reader: why was this novel, first published in 1931, not translated earlier? We are aware that Saratchandra’s popularity has been unflagging right from the beginning of his career. Sesh Prasna, however, was an exception: widely appreciated by women readers, the conservative (read male) reader strongly disapproved of the avant garde ideas presented through its heroine. Perhaps for this reason the novel had to wait for 70-odd years to be available to the reader in English."
Some other stories and novels I remember from those are "Mahesh" by Sarat, "Nirmala" by Prem Chand and "Asamardhuni Jeevayatra" by Gopichand and the perennial favourite "Sreekant" by Sarat.

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