Ajay, Sanat and
Gouranga are three friends. They have come from similar background, of lower
middle class families. They have studied in village schools. Ajaya’s father is
a petty businessman, Sanat’s father an agriculturalist and Gouranga’s father a primary school teacher. They have fully enjoyed freedom as students staying
in hostels, merry making and playing pranks. Born within twelve to fifteen
years of India getting independence and taught by the teachers born before
independence, the three friends have a streak of idealism, dedication and
commitment in them.
Kashatandira Swapna (Dreams of the Kash Flower) is the story of
Ajay. Emergency is declared on the day Ajay’s Matriculation result is declared.
On the first day of his college, on 1st August, 1975, he is witness to police atrocities; the police forcibly cut hair of the students who have hippie
and tear up the trousers of the girls who wear bell bottoms. A college
professor is not spared. He does not have hippie, but long sideburns; police
shorten his sideburns. The students are arrested on flimsy ground. Emergency
excesses horrify him. He is a member of a leftist organisation, of its student
wing, but he has to leave the organisation when the party supports Mrs Gandhi.
He is more disillusioned when the Janata Party government led by Moraji Desai
cannot complete its full term and Mrs Gandhi returns to power in 1980.
In his personal life
Ajay has to fight many odds to set foot in the society. The greatest obstacle
is his father; there is generational conflict between father and son, fight
between tradition and modernity. The novel covers the period from 1975 to
1982-83.
Santosh Publications
(Gajapati Nagar, Sutahat, Cuttack) has published the book in 2003.
(Love has many hues)
Prema Teeni Ranga (Love has many hues) is the
story of Sanat. Sanat teaches History in the college where Madhavi is a
student.
Madhavi is beautiful, talented and innocent. She is not
good at studies, but is a talented dancer and poet. Her mother, brought up in
middle class milieu, is apprehensive lest her beauty and talent lead her on the
wrong path; bring bad name and misfortune to their family. The mother and the
daughter fail to understand each other. Madhavi has to discontinue her dance.
Her dance teacher considering combination of beauty, talent and innocence in
her and middle class background of her parents, predicts that she has much
suffering in life.
Sanat finds her talented and falls in love with her.
But he cannot express it to her, nor can Madhavi understand his feelings
Her parents give Madhavi in marriage to an engineer
posted in New Delhi. After marriage, she discovers her husband is a debauch and
a crook. He is already married and staying with his wife without the knowledge
of his parents. He tortures her and forces her to engage in immoral act.
Madhavi escapes from his clutches, but cannot go back to her parents.
The novel begins on the day Mrs Indira Gandhi is
assassinated. The story is told against the background of those momentous
events India has experienced during the years 1984-85 to 1994-95, such as
assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi by her own bodyguards, commission of Sati in
Deorala village, lowering of voting age to eighteen, assassination of Rajeev
Gandhi, nationwide agitation against implementation of recommendation of Mandal
Commission report, etc
Cuttack Students’
Store (Balubazaar, Cuttack) has published this novel in 2012.
The novel, Head
Office is the story of Gouranga.
Gouranga, scion of a Khurda paik family whose forefathers had participated in the paik rebellion and fought with Buxi
Jagabandhu Bidyadhar against the Britishers, is an honest and upright officer.
He has turned out to be a misfit in a corrupt organisation he has to work for.
He joins Head Office after seven transfers in eleven years of his service
career. His immediate boss in the head office happens to be the husband of his
childhood crush. The head of the office has infatuation with a woman employee.
Gourang falls in love with a lady officer who is already married. Brought up in
a traditional and conservative milieu, she vacillates to come out of the
wedlock. But Gourang again fails to fit into the corrupt system, and is
transferred after a stint of one year eight months and fourteen days, his
eighth transfer in twelve-thirteen years of service, but he has found his life
partner.
The period of the novel is 1995-96 to 2000. Black
Eagle Books, Dublin, USA/Bhubaneswar, India has published this novel in 2021.
The story of three
friends, Ajay, Sanat and Gouranga covers the period from 1975 to 2000 and
captures the time, spirit and events of the last quarter of twentieth century.
*****
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