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एक चुप्पी जगह
Novel for young adults
- GenresFiction
143 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
4 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Vinod Kumar Shukla
52 books187 followersVinod Kumar Shukla (born 1 January 1937) is a modern Hindi writer known for his surreal style that often borders on magic-realism and sometimes move beyond it. His works include the novels Naukar ki Kameez and Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi (A Window lived in a Wall), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the best Hindi work in 1999.
His first collection of poems Lagbhag Jai Hind was published in 1971. Vah Aadmi Chala Gaya Naya Garam Coat Pehankar Vichar Ki Tarah was his second collection of poems, published in 1981 by Sambhavna Prakashan. Naukar Ki Kameez (The Servant's Shirt) was his first novel, brought out in 1979 by the same publisher. Per Par Kamra (Room on the Tree), a collection of short stories, was brought out in 1988, and another collection of poems in 1992, Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega.
Vinod Kumar Shukla was a guest littérateur at the Nirala Srijanpeeth in AGRA from 1994 to 1996 during which he wrote two novels Khilega To Dekhenge and the refreshing Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi. The latter has been translated into English by Prof. Satti Khanna of Duke University as A Window Lived in a Wall.
His first collection of poems Lagbhag Jai Hind was published in 1971. Vah Aadmi Chala Gaya Naya Garam Coat Pehankar Vichar Ki Tarah was his second collection of poems, published in 1981 by Sambhavna Prakashan. Naukar Ki Kameez (The Servant's Shirt) was his first novel, brought out in 1979 by the same publisher. Per Par Kamra (Room on the Tree), a collection of short stories, was brought out in 1988, and another collection of poems in 1992, Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega.
Vinod Kumar Shukla was a guest littérateur at the Nirala Srijanpeeth in AGRA from 1994 to 1996 during which he wrote two novels Khilega To Dekhenge and the refreshing Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi. The latter has been translated into English by Prof. Satti Khanna of Duke University as A Window Lived in a Wall.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 5 reviews
June 24, 2021
A Silent Place by Vinod Kumar Shukla,translated from the Hindi by Satti Khanna is a book that will envelop you with a sense of calm and wonder. At its heart is a story about children and a silent forest and yet, this is not a children’s book per se but one that will end up making you relive the child in you and how you saw the world and its foibles around you with great wonder and a sense of adventure.
The writing is a gentle rhythm that evokes a magical charm: words and phrases are repeated in passages but the repetition doesn’t bog you down. Rather, the words seep in and settle on you like a chant that soothes you down and expands your own response to them. Reading this brings on a sweet nostalgia of childlike discoveries: the wonder of new things,the curiosity that strange things brought to us, the connections brought by companionships and friends with whom you could frolic with a shared air and the magic of discoveries.
The beauty of silence on one hand and sound on the other is pitched in perfect harmony in the narrative through the characters and the predicament they find themselves in. The plot is a simple tale but the writing elevates it to a place that the reader explores with delight. Shukla’s writing is a revelation: it is a gentle breeze that carries you. The words and the mood are evocative and will keep you immersed in a peaceful embrace. This book is a balm, a comfort, go read it.
Full review here: https://bookandconversations.wordpres...
The writing is a gentle rhythm that evokes a magical charm: words and phrases are repeated in passages but the repetition doesn’t bog you down. Rather, the words seep in and settle on you like a chant that soothes you down and expands your own response to them. Reading this brings on a sweet nostalgia of childlike discoveries: the wonder of new things,the curiosity that strange things brought to us, the connections brought by companionships and friends with whom you could frolic with a shared air and the magic of discoveries.
The beauty of silence on one hand and sound on the other is pitched in perfect harmony in the narrative through the characters and the predicament they find themselves in. The plot is a simple tale but the writing elevates it to a place that the reader explores with delight. Shukla’s writing is a revelation: it is a gentle breeze that carries you. The words and the mood are evocative and will keep you immersed in a peaceful embrace. This book is a balm, a comfort, go read it.
Full review here: https://bookandconversations.wordpres...
July 31, 2021
I remember collecting twigs from the garden, short sturdy broken stems and branches, and then cupping with my hands, knitting them somehow to form a makeshift nest. I placed them on the upper crevices of the windowsill, in the lower crests of the taller trees—as much height as I could reach. Some birds came to investigate, but then went on to build homes of their own, higher up in the same trees.
I used to store long wooden sticks and straight branches, and kept them in cardboard boxes like a treasure. In the times of festivals, when Gods and demons were probably battling in the sky, sometimes the monsoon rains and kalbaisakhi winds would try to silence one another. I used to make small wieldable weapons, blunt arrows with special powers and lances with sharp paper tips---pretending I was also a part of the battle, I was engaged in war fighting monsters and restoring peace. It was my imagination which was propelling me, my innocent outlook was the fuel.
When my cousins used to come over, we used to lay a mattress on the floor, then hunt around the house to find umbrellas. Keeping the umbrellas held together, we used to make seemingly spacious tents, with cozy interiors. The interior decoration was—a water bottle, a small torchlight and some packets of chips. Huddled up within our private enclosure, we had umbrellas on top of our heads. Above that the rooftop and further up, the sky. But we felt transported to a separate island, like little Robinson Crusoe(s)—a bunch of little humans with a zeal to create, and glue the ends together with the magic of imagination.
‘A Silent Place’ provoked these fond memories within me, all those memories where I could distinctly see my child self to be starkly different from the more ‘mature’ ways of seeing the world. There’s so much vitality in such a visualization, where everything can be infused with magic—where there is no bar to what is naturally possible. In the world of living and inanimate objects all alive and enchanting, what a wonder exists in hearty glee, boundless joy of excitement and the potential power of a child’s curiosity. Vinod Kumar Shukla’s book makes every enchantment, every magic and every imagination possible. Its all there, flowing on paper, overflowing with poetry. It talks about a forest which has become silent out of grief and a group of children who wish to save it, it talks of moving mountains, twig pencils, and helpful rabbits, of a disappearing hotel and another mysterious owner. Time, logic, wonder, possibility—its all free here, squealing and jumping in the arena carved by an artist’s imagination. The diction here is gushing and transfixing, sentences sound like poems although they are written in prose. This is a book that is dedicated to ‘children and their ways’.
Thanks Westland Books for the copy.
I used to store long wooden sticks and straight branches, and kept them in cardboard boxes like a treasure. In the times of festivals, when Gods and demons were probably battling in the sky, sometimes the monsoon rains and kalbaisakhi winds would try to silence one another. I used to make small wieldable weapons, blunt arrows with special powers and lances with sharp paper tips---pretending I was also a part of the battle, I was engaged in war fighting monsters and restoring peace. It was my imagination which was propelling me, my innocent outlook was the fuel.
When my cousins used to come over, we used to lay a mattress on the floor, then hunt around the house to find umbrellas. Keeping the umbrellas held together, we used to make seemingly spacious tents, with cozy interiors. The interior decoration was—a water bottle, a small torchlight and some packets of chips. Huddled up within our private enclosure, we had umbrellas on top of our heads. Above that the rooftop and further up, the sky. But we felt transported to a separate island, like little Robinson Crusoe(s)—a bunch of little humans with a zeal to create, and glue the ends together with the magic of imagination.
‘A Silent Place’ provoked these fond memories within me, all those memories where I could distinctly see my child self to be starkly different from the more ‘mature’ ways of seeing the world. There’s so much vitality in such a visualization, where everything can be infused with magic—where there is no bar to what is naturally possible. In the world of living and inanimate objects all alive and enchanting, what a wonder exists in hearty glee, boundless joy of excitement and the potential power of a child’s curiosity. Vinod Kumar Shukla’s book makes every enchantment, every magic and every imagination possible. Its all there, flowing on paper, overflowing with poetry. It talks about a forest which has become silent out of grief and a group of children who wish to save it, it talks of moving mountains, twig pencils, and helpful rabbits, of a disappearing hotel and another mysterious owner. Time, logic, wonder, possibility—its all free here, squealing and jumping in the arena carved by an artist’s imagination. The diction here is gushing and transfixing, sentences sound like poems although they are written in prose. This is a book that is dedicated to ‘children and their ways’.
Thanks Westland Books for the copy.
August 8, 2021
A Silent Place is a book translated from Hindi by Sattu Khanna.
When I first read the Blurb, I was so excited for the book. It sounded so sweet, so vulnerable yet so Magical.
The story is about some children who want the woods ( that have been stunned to silence) to have a voice. It's strange that as soon as anybody enters the wood, they can't hear anything, no words leave the edge of their lips.
I couldn't stop marvelling at the innocence of these small children, who only wanted the birds to chirp again, the trees to rhythmically sway with the wind, the Insects to come out and the bees to buzz.
As beautiful as the story sounds, it also doesn't make sense at places. It switches a lot and that too abruptly and leaves the reader confused. There are too many characters to get hold on, everybody with their different stories. At times it becomes difficult to stick to the story.
The plot is one of a kind, but the narration and story weaving isn't that well. Maybe the Hindi version has the magic in words that I was looking for. I believe something was lost During the translation but to be sure, I'll have to read the Hindi Version as well.
It's a short book but because of the confusion, it takes long to complete. At one point I was about to DNF the book, but I kept hoping for the magic to appear out of thin air. It did not happen and I was left disappointed
When I first read the Blurb, I was so excited for the book. It sounded so sweet, so vulnerable yet so Magical.
The story is about some children who want the woods ( that have been stunned to silence) to have a voice. It's strange that as soon as anybody enters the wood, they can't hear anything, no words leave the edge of their lips.
I couldn't stop marvelling at the innocence of these small children, who only wanted the birds to chirp again, the trees to rhythmically sway with the wind, the Insects to come out and the bees to buzz.
As beautiful as the story sounds, it also doesn't make sense at places. It switches a lot and that too abruptly and leaves the reader confused. There are too many characters to get hold on, everybody with their different stories. At times it becomes difficult to stick to the story.
The plot is one of a kind, but the narration and story weaving isn't that well. Maybe the Hindi version has the magic in words that I was looking for. I believe something was lost During the translation but to be sure, I'll have to read the Hindi Version as well.
It's a short book but because of the confusion, it takes long to complete. At one point I was about to DNF the book, but I kept hoping for the magic to appear out of thin air. It did not happen and I was left disappointed
August 23, 2022
A story about a group of kids, which will take you back to your childhood and make you think
Displaying 1 - 4 of 5 reviews