Bhaskar Parichha
‘Sir’s Scooter and Other Stories’, as the title suggests, is a poignant tale of everyday events told with panache. With fifteen stories revolving around a common premise and each one of them strong enough to give a dominant message, the collection of short stories by Umakanta Rout is a welcome addition to the arid world of Odia short stories translated into English.
Rout is a fashionable name in the field of creative literature in Odia.He writes poetry, short stories, satires, children literarure, feature columns and everything in between. A veteran editor having edited multitudes of magazines, Rout has a dozen collections of short stories and poems to his credit. He is the first Odia poet to bring out a CD of self-recited poems.
If versatility is what one notices in his Odia works, Rout’s short stories have positive vibes of life. His stories offer solace to the crushed souls and distracted individuals. A writer firmly tied to his moorings, Rout’s stories are full of warmth. He is also mindful of the changing social parameters and his writings are adaptable to the societal changes. His characters invariably rise above the ordinary and t often turn into protagonists.
Dr Kamala Prasad Mohapatra who has translated ‘Sir’s Scooter and Other Stories’ into English is a familiar name in the area of translation, essays, skits, book reviews, creative writing, feature writing, newspaper columns, editing and criticism. Having spent his life in English teaching, Mohapatra himself writes poems and stories both in Odia and English. His works inexorably reflect his assenting, holistic and reformative attitude towards life.
With such a combination, the anthology can only become enhanced. In the foreword, Dr Jatindra Kumar Nayak, former professor in English, Utkal University says, “humor seamlessly blends with pity in the stories rendering them a memorable experience. A sharply observant narrator, who employs gentle satire but not vindictive irony, breathes life into the characters that people the world of these stories.”
If ‘Sir’s Scooter’ – the title story – is an hilarious account of an ‘easy to fool’ teacher and an ‘fly-by-night’ student, ‘The Chasm’ is the saga of a father who has sacrificed his life for his four sons and their opulence and yet remain uncared. The other stories to one’s liking are ‘Staff’, ‘Cater Pillar’,’Boomerang’,’The Prey, ‘Tsunami’ et al.
Says Mohapatra , ‘the stories are rich with symbolism,myths,metaphors,folk images, rustic landscapes, and trenchant irony unleashing tacit hints for reformation. Sometimes the language is abjectly banal and exclusively regional, subscribing to his native turf Bhadrak.’
While the reader may mistakenly imagine that the stories in the anthology begin in a rather predictable fashion, they actually move into broader dimensions. The plots are clean with very little cluttering and flow smoothly from beginning to end. Together, they are tales which answer many un-asked questions: What is the meaning of life? What is happiness? How can it be achieved?
‘Sir’s Scooter’ quite brilliantly captures the quintessence of life.
Sir’s Scooter and Other Stories
Umakanta Rout
Translated by Dr Kamala Prasad Mohapatra
Authors Press
Q-2A, Hauz Khas Enclave,
New Delhi – 110016
Rs 295
(The reviewer is a senior journalist and Consulting Editor of OdishaLIVE)
