ଆରଣ୍ୟକ

by Manoj Das

60 pages, Hardcover

About the author

Manoj Das, a prolific author, is among India's foremost short story writers. He writes both in Oriya (Odia) and English, and is a Professor of English at the Sri Aurobindo International University, Pondicherry.

Manoj Das was born in a small coastal village named Shankari in Balasore district, Orissa State. Since 1963, he has been an ashramite at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. He is presently concentrating on writing novels.

Manoj Das is perhaps the foremost bilingual Oriya writer and a master of dramatic expression both in his English and Oriya short stories and novels. He says that:

"Characters follow the theme of a story, and the words are merely added by author to represent the thoughts of the character."

That is the precise reason why Das's characters in fiction are from so many varied backgrounds, and display many different dimensions of human nature. He is a philosopher, a thinker-writer whose works can be defined as a quest for finding the eternal truth in everyday situations.

Reviews

[S.Ach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manoj Das has been one of my all-time favourite storytellers.
The famous British author Graham Greene once said, " I have read the stories of Manoj Das with great pleasure. He will certainly take a place on my shelves besides the stories of Narayan. I imagine Odisha is far from Malgudi, but there is the same quality in his stories with perhaps an added mystery."
Honestly, having read both Narayan and Das, I would rate the latter slightly higher than the other. But you can always say I am biased, because I could read his stories in English but in their original written language - Odia.
Very few other writers have given me more pleasure as has Manoj Das. His stories are both humorous and thought provoking at the same time, while depicting the paradoxical life of post-independent semi-urban Odisha.

Normally in a good short-story collection, you would find only few stories very good with others being either average or not that great. But this book, with only 8 stories, can boast of 5 outstanding, including 2 that I would consider exceptional.

The first Story, ରାୟସିଂର ଡାଏରୀ (RaySingh's Diary), that reads as a few-page-excerpt of the diary of a delusional rich-man, obsessed with saving a woman from her presumed unhappy marriage, is so funny that after each paragraph I needed to take a break to laugh my lungs out. I read and laughed. Then I read some more. And I laughed some more. I thought, "Is there a deeper meaning? Probably. But let me laugh first." And then I laughed again. Reminded me of Woody Allen.

The title story ଆରଣ୍ୟକ (Of the forest) was macabre, dealing with a subject that many could consider a taboo. A tale of a hunting expedition going wrong and posing the question of man's morality affected by wealth and societal standing. I was reading this story just before hitting bed, with sleepy eyes and when I came to the final page, I was wide awake and couldn't believe what I was reading. I remained awake for a long time that night. Found out that there has been a movie made out of that story. Need to watch that.

ସଂଗୋପନ କାହାଣୀ (The story of Clandestine Affair) makes fun of a senile man's bravados about his youth-time romantic escapades.
ଭୂତକୋଠିରେ ଏକ ରାତି (A night in the haunted house)tells the story of two friends meeting after a gap of 30 years and deciding to spend a night in an infamous haunted house. Bored of his sexless unromantic married life, a man tries to find love in the dark alleys of the city - is the main theme of ହୃଦୟ ପରିବର୍ତନ ସଂକ୍ରାନ୍ତୀୟ ଏକ କାହାଣୀ (A tale regarding change of heart).
The other stories of this collection are ରବିବାସରୀୟ ସଂଗୀତ (A song for Sunday) , ଉପଗ୍ରହ (Satellite) and ଜହ୍ନରାତିର କାହାଣୀ (A story of a moonlit night)

Thank You Manoj Das. You are amazing.