Friends & Foes

 

 

(Swayamprava Sahu, a short story writer is buying the book from Pakshighar Prakasani stall in the book fair)

Anichhuk Prashasak (A Reluctant Bureaucrat) was published in 2021. The book earned me both praise and blame. Less blame, more praise. The persons in administration, particularly a few members of Odisha Finance Service, blamed me, but the general readers appreciated and praised the book. In that book, I had written my experience in the government, during my thirty plus years in service in an organization, perceived to be corrupt and its officers and staff sly and wily.  I had not written about my personal life; I was mere a character, though its main character in the book.

Some friends and colleagues, after they read the book, said, “You have not written all you know and have experienced. You have vast experience and have been witness to many events, both sweet and sour. You have spoken less, left unsaid more.” I replied, “I could have written more, but the book would have been voluminous. ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’ is of three hundred pages. Had I narrated everything, the book would have been more than six hundred pages. The book would have tired the readers. Besides, I have, perhaps, told in the book what I wanted to say, and I think, that’s loud and clear. Had I written more, there would have repetitions only.”

Some friends say, “You have said nothing about your life in ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’. How can we know you? Understand you?” I also replied to them the same, “Had I written about my personal life in the book, it would have been voluminous and lost its readability. I may, for that matter, write a separate book.”

I was born in a lower middle-class family, rather in a family just above the poverty line, in a poverty-stricken backward village. I could study, go to the college and university, and enter a government service. Most of my friends and contemporaries have also come from similar background. We have lived a common life. But the experience of one’s life is different from the other, our life journeys are different. Life journey of everyone will be a novel. I believe, everyone, in whatever strata of the society he or she may be in, should write his or her memoirs or autobiography. Their life stories would enrich literature and collective wisdom of the society.

Atmiya Anatmiya (Friends and Foes) is my memoirs, rather, an autobiographical novel. I have told in this book what remains unsaid in ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’. I hope, the readers will appreciate this book as they do ‘A Reluctant Bureaucrat’.

 (A Reader has received his copy by speed post and displayed on the status of his WhatsApp)