Short Stories

This is a collection of Bengali short stories and poems by some renowned as well as fledgling and experimental writers. The reader will find an accurate and modern translation of their works which have maintained their startling originality of theme and language. The themes of the stories and poems are wide ranging. They deal with-rural life, mother-daughter relationship, love, marriage and struggle in the face of overwhelming odds.

As a diamond has many facets, so does a woman. She is daughter, wife, mother, nurse, bread-earner, crisis manager, and the centre without which things fall apart. She devotes her life to her family and seldom gets the time or opportunity to find herself or to be herself. This anthology of short stories is an exploration of the essence of being a woman. The stories are located in Bangladesh but are equally applicable to countries all over the world. They induce in turn, feelings of pathos, sorrow, indignation, anger and helplessness.

Like other Bengali children, the writer Runa Khan Marre heard fairy tales from her old nannies and other household storytellers. Now she has compiled these stories in a simplified English translation for other children to read. Many of the tales are common to both Bangladesh and West Bengal. Some of them may be found in Thakur Mas Jhuli, compiled by D. M. Majumdar. Runa Khan Marre's versions are slightly different, being filtered through the several retellings that these stories have undergone.

Beginning with Roquiah Sakhawat Husseins Sultana's Dream, the anthology spans a hundred years of women's writing from this region and is representative of the variety of issues that women from Bangladesh tackle in their writings. It includes stories about the War of Liberation, womens shonour, mother-daughter relationships, the vagaries of marriage and contemporary political corruption.