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Land of Five Rivers
Noted Indian writer and translator Khuswant Singh’s tribute to 18 major Punjabi writers whose stories he has translated in this collection of short fiction. The writers included here are familiar names in India – writers such as Amrita Pritam, Saadat Hasan Manto, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, and also two new women writers, Ajeet Caur and Usha Mahajan – among others.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1956
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About the author
Khushwant Singh
298 books1,423 followersKhushwant Singh, (Punjabi: ਖ਼ੁਸ਼ਵੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ, Hindi: खुशवंत सिंह) born on 2 February 1915 in Hadali, Undivided India, (now a part of Pakistan), was a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, was among the most widely-read columns in the country.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
An important post-colonial novelist writing in English, Singh is best known for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
March 26, 2019
A decent anthology should provide a sweeping overview of literary output arranged around a theme or – as in this case – a region and serve as a starting point for further exploration. The Land of Five Rivers does exactly that.
The stories in this collection are translated from the three languages of Punjab – Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. There is also an incongruous addition in the form of Khushwant Singh’s English-language story, "A Punjab Pastoral", which seems like a hastily written attempt to add to the linguistic diversity of this anthology – and does in no way reflect Singh’s abilities as a writer.
There are the usual heavyweights of twentieth-century literature from Punjab: Manto, Amrita Pritam, and Rajinder Singh Bedi. And wonderful discoveries such as Upendranath Ashk, Kartar Singh Duggal, Ajeet Cour, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and Gulzar Singh Sandhu.
Manto’s best-known story, "Toba Tek Singh", is unnecessarily translated as "Exchange of Lunatics" by Khushwant Singh here. When I compared the translation with Khalid Hasan's translation (from Kingdom's End: Selected Short Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto), I was disappointed to see that Singh's version is a shorter and looser translation. While I cannot read Urdu, I can understand it, and listening to an audio recording of the story confirmed that Singh's version – although very readable – is not faithful to the original.
I enjoyed Amrita Pritam's story, "A Stench of Kerosene", an exploration of the dark side of female infertility and patriarchal norms in rural Punjab. Pritam led an extraordinary life: her autobiography, The Revenue Stamp (which I skimmed through recently) and various online articles tell of her unhappy marriage, her unspoken (?) passion for the poet Sahir Ludhianvi, their unrequited love story, and finding love with the painter Imroz. A quick scan of In Times of Love and Longing, a collection of Amrita and Imroz's letters, reveals poetic lines like: "The wait for your letters makes me feel like a musical instrument". I can only imagine how much more powerful her stories and their letters are in Punjabi.
I first chanced upon Abbas in Indian Nationalism: The Essential Writings edited by S. Irfan Habib but had no idea he wrote fiction as well. His articles on integrated nationalism may appear idealistic seventy years on but form an important part of secular thought and deserve to be better known in India. (Sample this from the "Nationality Test for Muslims": "The Muslims have no future in this country – as Muslims. Likewise, I hope the Hindus have no future as Hindus, the Parsis no future as Parsis, and so on. Only by merging our respective communal, religious and caste identities in a common citizenship shall we be able ever to rid our country of the thrice-cursed communalism."). His story, "The Death of Shaikh Burhanuddin", also known as "Sardaji" in earlier translations, is a satire written in a first-person confessional narrative style and reveals the hollow prejudices of a clerk named Burhanuddin. Not everyone got Abbas' sarcasm though and his story created controversy in both India and Pakistan.
Kartar Singh Duggal's "The Night of the Full Moon" is a hauntingly beautiful tale of female desire. Malan is trapped in a loveless marriage and daydreams of her lover who finally visits on a cool moonlit night. The events that follow Malan's decision to consummate their relationship have devastating consequences for her – and her daughter. In an article for The Telegraph, Khushwant Singh writes that at the height of Muslim-Sikh animosity in Punjab in the run-up to Partition, Duggal, himself a devout Sikh, fell in love with Ayesha Jaffri, the sister-in-law of the well-known Urdu poet Ali Sardar Jafri. They later got married in the Golden Temple in Amritsar and moved to Delhi after Partition.
Ashk's "The Nupital Bed" brings the Oedipal complex to a Punjabi sitting. This sharply written narrative tells the story of Keshi and his inability to consummate his marriage. Keshi's mother may not be physically present in the nuptial room that she has decorated with flowers, but Keshi cannot get her out of his head. Feeling suffocated in the floral mosquito net hung over the bed by his mother, he leans over to kiss his wife, but cannot once he sees the framed miniature of his mother in the headboard of the bed. I was happy to discover that Daisy Rockwell's translations of Ashk's short stories (Hats and Doctors) and the first two novels in the six-volume novel cycle, Girti Divarein, or Falling Walls (Falling Walls and In the City a Mirror Wandering) are easily available online.
In Ajeet Cour's "Happy New Year", the scene shifts to that of domestic discord against the backdrop of office politics. Kapoor, a recently-promoted clerk is pressured into inviting his colleagues home for dinner on New Year’s Eve much to his wife's frustration. Cour known for her social-realist fiction centered around the position of women in society may have drawn inspiration for her fiction from her unhappy marriage. Having recently read Krishna Sobti's (a Punjabi author whose omission from the anthology seems glaring) semi-autobiographical novel, A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There, set during and after Partition, I'd be interested to read Cour's autobiography, Weaving Water, in which she details her childhood in pre-Partition Lahore and her subsequent move eastwards to Jalandhar and later Delhi.
There is not a lot out there about Gulzar Singh Sandhu; what appears to be the only volume of his work translated to English, Gods On Trial and Other Stories, a collection of short stories is out of print and unavailable online. "Gods on Trial" is set in a Sikh-majority village in Punjab in India. The Muslim families who stayed behind are forced to convert to Sikhism (at least in name) and display their new faith through brightly covered yellow scarves drapped around their necks. The young Sikh narrator's friend comes from one such Muslim family: covered in yellow scarves, their steel bangles glinting in the sunlight they perform namaaz in private. How long will this peace last for them? Sandhu's evocative exploration of the trauma faced by people after the fracturing of Punjab during Partition makes me long for a reissue of Sandhu's work.
While – as Singh notes in his Introduction – there may be nothing "exclusively Punjabi" about this collection, Partition is a recurrent theme. And how can it not be? It was an event that disrupted the lives of ordinary Punjabis and created lines of discord that have only festered over time. I've grown up hearing stories about an undivided Punjab: my great-grandmother from West Punjab, my great-grandfather from the tiny erstwhile Sirmoor state (also in Punjab) nestled in the Himalayan mountains who studied medicine in Lahore. Rajmohan Gandhi notes in his Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten that modern India and Pakistan cannot be understood without an understanding of what Punjab was and the notion of Punjabiyat, or Punjabiness. An anthology like this fills a literary gap for people in South Asia and beyond.
The stories in this collection are translated from the three languages of Punjab – Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. There is also an incongruous addition in the form of Khushwant Singh’s English-language story, "A Punjab Pastoral", which seems like a hastily written attempt to add to the linguistic diversity of this anthology – and does in no way reflect Singh’s abilities as a writer.
There are the usual heavyweights of twentieth-century literature from Punjab: Manto, Amrita Pritam, and Rajinder Singh Bedi. And wonderful discoveries such as Upendranath Ashk, Kartar Singh Duggal, Ajeet Cour, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and Gulzar Singh Sandhu.
Manto’s best-known story, "Toba Tek Singh", is unnecessarily translated as "Exchange of Lunatics" by Khushwant Singh here. When I compared the translation with Khalid Hasan's translation (from Kingdom's End: Selected Short Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto), I was disappointed to see that Singh's version is a shorter and looser translation. While I cannot read Urdu, I can understand it, and listening to an audio recording of the story confirmed that Singh's version – although very readable – is not faithful to the original.
I enjoyed Amrita Pritam's story, "A Stench of Kerosene", an exploration of the dark side of female infertility and patriarchal norms in rural Punjab. Pritam led an extraordinary life: her autobiography, The Revenue Stamp (which I skimmed through recently) and various online articles tell of her unhappy marriage, her unspoken (?) passion for the poet Sahir Ludhianvi, their unrequited love story, and finding love with the painter Imroz. A quick scan of In Times of Love and Longing, a collection of Amrita and Imroz's letters, reveals poetic lines like: "The wait for your letters makes me feel like a musical instrument". I can only imagine how much more powerful her stories and their letters are in Punjabi.
I first chanced upon Abbas in Indian Nationalism: The Essential Writings edited by S. Irfan Habib but had no idea he wrote fiction as well. His articles on integrated nationalism may appear idealistic seventy years on but form an important part of secular thought and deserve to be better known in India. (Sample this from the "Nationality Test for Muslims": "The Muslims have no future in this country – as Muslims. Likewise, I hope the Hindus have no future as Hindus, the Parsis no future as Parsis, and so on. Only by merging our respective communal, religious and caste identities in a common citizenship shall we be able ever to rid our country of the thrice-cursed communalism."). His story, "The Death of Shaikh Burhanuddin", also known as "Sardaji" in earlier translations, is a satire written in a first-person confessional narrative style and reveals the hollow prejudices of a clerk named Burhanuddin. Not everyone got Abbas' sarcasm though and his story created controversy in both India and Pakistan.
Kartar Singh Duggal's "The Night of the Full Moon" is a hauntingly beautiful tale of female desire. Malan is trapped in a loveless marriage and daydreams of her lover who finally visits on a cool moonlit night. The events that follow Malan's decision to consummate their relationship have devastating consequences for her – and her daughter. In an article for The Telegraph, Khushwant Singh writes that at the height of Muslim-Sikh animosity in Punjab in the run-up to Partition, Duggal, himself a devout Sikh, fell in love with Ayesha Jaffri, the sister-in-law of the well-known Urdu poet Ali Sardar Jafri. They later got married in the Golden Temple in Amritsar and moved to Delhi after Partition.
Ashk's "The Nupital Bed" brings the Oedipal complex to a Punjabi sitting. This sharply written narrative tells the story of Keshi and his inability to consummate his marriage. Keshi's mother may not be physically present in the nuptial room that she has decorated with flowers, but Keshi cannot get her out of his head. Feeling suffocated in the floral mosquito net hung over the bed by his mother, he leans over to kiss his wife, but cannot once he sees the framed miniature of his mother in the headboard of the bed. I was happy to discover that Daisy Rockwell's translations of Ashk's short stories (Hats and Doctors) and the first two novels in the six-volume novel cycle, Girti Divarein, or Falling Walls (Falling Walls and In the City a Mirror Wandering) are easily available online.
In Ajeet Cour's "Happy New Year", the scene shifts to that of domestic discord against the backdrop of office politics. Kapoor, a recently-promoted clerk is pressured into inviting his colleagues home for dinner on New Year’s Eve much to his wife's frustration. Cour known for her social-realist fiction centered around the position of women in society may have drawn inspiration for her fiction from her unhappy marriage. Having recently read Krishna Sobti's (a Punjabi author whose omission from the anthology seems glaring) semi-autobiographical novel, A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There, set during and after Partition, I'd be interested to read Cour's autobiography, Weaving Water, in which she details her childhood in pre-Partition Lahore and her subsequent move eastwards to Jalandhar and later Delhi.
There is not a lot out there about Gulzar Singh Sandhu; what appears to be the only volume of his work translated to English, Gods On Trial and Other Stories, a collection of short stories is out of print and unavailable online. "Gods on Trial" is set in a Sikh-majority village in Punjab in India. The Muslim families who stayed behind are forced to convert to Sikhism (at least in name) and display their new faith through brightly covered yellow scarves drapped around their necks. The young Sikh narrator's friend comes from one such Muslim family: covered in yellow scarves, their steel bangles glinting in the sunlight they perform namaaz in private. How long will this peace last for them? Sandhu's evocative exploration of the trauma faced by people after the fracturing of Punjab during Partition makes me long for a reissue of Sandhu's work.
While – as Singh notes in his Introduction – there may be nothing "exclusively Punjabi" about this collection, Partition is a recurrent theme. And how can it not be? It was an event that disrupted the lives of ordinary Punjabis and created lines of discord that have only festered over time. I've grown up hearing stories about an undivided Punjab: my great-grandmother from West Punjab, my great-grandfather from the tiny erstwhile Sirmoor state (also in Punjab) nestled in the Himalayan mountains who studied medicine in Lahore. Rajmohan Gandhi notes in his Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten that modern India and Pakistan cannot be understood without an understanding of what Punjab was and the notion of Punjabiyat, or Punjabiness. An anthology like this fills a literary gap for people in South Asia and beyond.
January 6, 2021
A brilliant translation of short stories by famous writers done by Khushwant Singh. Each story has a streamline flow, caressing every character's build up and expressed raw honesty adds to it's truthfulness. It's a beautiful and encapturing read that keeps you hooked and satsifies you but at the same time, leaves you wanting more and more!
Must read if you want to transport yourself to another world / distract yourself from mundane routines.
Must read if you want to transport yourself to another world / distract yourself from mundane routines.
March 12, 2019
The collection has some good stories. Translated works can never be the same as the original ones; I feel some of the little details, sensitivities and softer feelings are lost.All the same it is a good effort.
February 5, 2016
These stories were written by a galaxy of well known authors depicting various facets of Indian society around the time India when was partitioned. The characters in all the stories leave a deep impact as do the stories themselves. What is said and "unsaid" is true of present day life. It is difficult to forget the Tai Eesree. What a character. "Lajwanti" too stands out.
Worth a read.
Worth a read.
June 1, 2021
A beautiful collection of short stories from the Punjab.
"Exchange of Lunatics", "The death of Sheikh Burhanuddin", "Tai Eesree" and "The breaking point" were my favourites.
"Exchange of Lunatics", "The death of Sheikh Burhanuddin", "Tai Eesree" and "The breaking point" were my favourites.
December 16, 2021
Short, crisp and captivating. There is something about these collection of short stories that one can able to live within these stories amongst the characters in it. It is truly remarkable how these stories manage to do that given that this is a work of translation and English is not the language used to write these. Just marvel how impactful and powerful the stories must have been in its original language.
January 15, 2016
Never before have I felt the desire to know howbto read punjabi. Some of the stories in here were so dull without the feel and sound of punjabi. And yet every story was a world in itself. So much to think , so much to absorb from this book. Must read collection.
June 3, 2021
It’s a collection of short stories which are remarkably underrated.
Rich in descriptions, this book took me back in a time machine to the days in which themes of partition of India, Social stigma, Caste system, riots etc riddled the land of five rivers.
Some stories were quite emotionally rich which are hard hitting on certain personal aspects.
And true, the culture treasure which is buried deep down in the history of India takes a peek through this book.
Some stories do stick with you.
Rich in descriptions, this book took me back in a time machine to the days in which themes of partition of India, Social stigma, Caste system, riots etc riddled the land of five rivers.
Some stories were quite emotionally rich which are hard hitting on certain personal aspects.
And true, the culture treasure which is buried deep down in the history of India takes a peek through this book.
Some stories do stick with you.
September 26, 2019
Re-read required
A commendable and compelling collection of short stories ,
Most of the stories may be shot,
But have an in-depth meaning , to be analysed only on multiple readings.
Most of the storage are focused on partition of India and women empowerment.
Must read for story lovers who likes the twist in the tale.
A commendable and compelling collection of short stories ,
Most of the stories may be shot,
But have an in-depth meaning , to be analysed only on multiple readings.
Most of the storage are focused on partition of India and women empowerment.
Must read for story lovers who likes the twist in the tale.
November 12, 2020
If you want to read about Punjabis, Punjabiyat and the Punjabi way of life - Khushwant Singh is the author for you. His writings are simple, full of masala, tadka, sex, alcohol and full of life (the way punjabis are). If you yourself are a punjabi, you will never put down his books until you read every word of it.
October 7, 2021
This book is a collection of short stories by different Indian authors. Most of them are the pillars of Punjabi literature and folklore. I was reading something else and suddenly caught this book. Well, I think I didn't make a mistake. It's a good collection of heartwrenching and eye moistening stories.
Thank you Khushwant Ji for such a wonderful book.
Thank you Khushwant Ji for such a wonderful book.
November 8, 2017
An easy to read collection of translated short stories originally written in Punjabi.
As with many translations, if the reader has some knowledge of the language in which the stories were written, there is always a feeling that it doesn't match ch up to the original.
As with many translations, if the reader has some knowledge of the language in which the stories were written, there is always a feeling that it doesn't match ch up to the original.
July 18, 2020
This book comprises short stories written by different Panjabi and Urdi distinguished writers. There are some stories which steal my heart and keep captivated me. I enjoyed this book.
Also, Translation by Khushwant Singh is very good.
Also, Translation by Khushwant Singh is very good.
August 31, 2021
I have read a lot of Khushwant Singh books this year but I wouldn’t say this one tops the chart.
While I enjoy reading Khushwant Singh, this one looked like a compilation with inspiration.
Overall, it is acceptable since it is short stories.
While I enjoy reading Khushwant Singh, this one looked like a compilation with inspiration.
Overall, it is acceptable since it is short stories.
June 1, 2017
Nice
Nice little short stories. Keeps one intrigued enough about the past and events at that time, showing human nature is still same .
Nice little short stories. Keeps one intrigued enough about the past and events at that time, showing human nature is still same .
June 11, 2017
A pretty good collection of translate short stories.
October 1, 2017
I good read. Tai Eshri and The night of full moon were superb.
December 14, 2017
Nice collection of stories by some prominent writers.
Worth a read.
Worth a read.
August 16, 2019
সব মিলে মোটামুটি লেগেছে।
April 21, 2020
Short stories mostly depicting life during partition era and the beliefs among the community folks during that time
January 16, 2021
Brilliant translation of some of the best stories by Kushwant Singh.Made me read them non stop. Some characters do really get etched in memory and become unforgettable.
October 4, 2021
Out of 19 short stories only 1 or 2 seemed lacking in something, rest are top notch stuff. Eclectic mix of vivid human colours.
March 14, 2024
A nice and easy read. Some stories are very interesting and some meander. Nonetheless it was a good read as they say!
October 30, 2016
It was my intention since a long time to read Indian short stories from different languages translated into English. Although I originally wanted to read a volume with stories taken from different parts of the country, I couldn’t let up the opportunity to read this book in spite of it having stories only from Punjabi writers. Khushwant Singh has done a masterful job. I know some of the original emotions get lost in translation but even then, reading such work introduces you to the vast diversity of culture in India. Many of the stories are set in the time of Partition, and the tensions and feelings of the time come alive with each page. With a short story collection, some stories are true winners and others are mediocre. I could say the same about this book, although the good ones far outnumber the ones that I didn’t particularly like.
November 5, 2016
Light breezy reading most of the way, this book made me want to learn Punjabi on the spot (though i would like to pick up urdu and sindhi too)..
The collection is great. Has some that tug on mentally blocked memories of past, an era bygone. The author is more of a compilor, and no doubt worthy of respect as it'd be so difficult to decide what to leave out.
My favorites
Exchange of lunatics
Lajwanti
A hundred mile race
The death of sheikh..
Tai esree
One passenger ho!
The collection is great. Has some that tug on mentally blocked memories of past, an era bygone. The author is more of a compilor, and no doubt worthy of respect as it'd be so difficult to decide what to leave out.
My favorites
Exchange of lunatics
Lajwanti
A hundred mile race
The death of sheikh..
Tai esree
One passenger ho!
March 26, 2016
The beauty of simple diction is often lost in English translation because the latter does not absorb the immediacy and clarity of direct sentences as well as Indian languages do. Some of these stories were excellent while others seemed so ordinary as to merit a mention. A good effort on the part of the translator who is one of the most talented translators from Punjabi and Urdu.
November 4, 2016
An easy read for the most part. I found only one story which actually tested my patience. The rest were all run of the mill stuff though not abysmal in any sense. Besides it's incredibly difficult to get the flavor of a place and time through a translated work. Although the book has atleast 4 gems which I will definitely return to at a later time
July 23, 2012
nice and touching collection of stories
April 19, 2015
Good collection of short stories set in Punjab during India's Partition.
May 26, 2015
Some truly lovely stories, some forgettable ones, and some decidedly odd ones
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews