Hindi Literature

Sharatchandra’s Short Stories

/ Srishty / 22 Comments

IMG_20140614_120329

When I read Hindi literature, it is majorly two authors – Premchand and Sharat Chandra. Funny thing is that both of them mostly wrote in two different languages and I just happen to read them in Hindi. 🙂 I mentioned in one of my old book opinions that I totally recommend reading Premchand in English if you don’t know Hindu or Urdu. While Premchand’s stories deal more with societal problems in North India during his time like poverty, widow remarriage etc. and paint a picture where you can entirely imagine the situation and feel attached to the characters in a heart-wrenching way, Sharat Chandra was a highly acclaimed Bengali author most of whose works, in my opinion, focus on two things – 1) love with strong emphasis on feminism and 2) worldly happenings presented with humor. One of his most famous works is a novel ‘Devdas’ which has been adapted several times as Bollywood Movies. I have read Devdas in Hindi and loved it (maybe because family drama is one of my favorite genres). I have read another collection of his short stories before this one shared here today and while I loved that other one, I did not like this one as much. Of course, I did like it, but slightly less than the previous one because this one has more stories in the form of him sharing his various experiences as stories while sitting in a group of friends (apparently people who knew him were very fond of his story-telling). I enjoyed that but I wished for more. I wished there were more fictional stories as well. Still I recommend reading his works to those who like old Indian tales (I have already mentioned above what are his focus areas when it comes to genre :D). Very few of his works are available in English though.

This was a plain simple book opinion, right? 😀

IMG_20140614_120250

PS: This is the ninth book that I read as part of the Brunch Book Challenge and as I said, I’ll be logging my opinion about every book that I read as part of this challenge. In case you want to participate in this challenge too, read up about it here. 

Rasidi Ticket: Book Opinion

/ Srishty / 7 Comments

Hi everyone! 😀

I am back with a book opinion again. I am actually lagging with the book opinions considering the number of books that I have read. Hope to catch up with it soon! This is the 6th book that I read as part of the Brunch Book Challenge and as I said, I’ll be logging my opinion about every book that I read as part of this challenge. In case you want to participate in this challenge too, read up about it here.

DSC_8982

I am glad that I read this. Why? Because I wanted to read this since a long, long time. When I was in my early teens, we used to subscribe to this Hindi magazine, ‘Aha! Zindagi’ (means Wow! Life). It was a spiritual, positive thinking kind of magazine. Yes, weird choice for a teenager, but whatever. 😛 In one of the editions, they featured excerpts of this autobiography, Rasidi Ticket, primarily the parts relating to Amrita Pritam’s love life. The whole piece was really beautiful to read. I thought then that I’ll read her autobiography someday and forgot about it eventually. Then, one day, I recalled this and searched the book on Flipkart. Now you know why I am glad that I have read it. 🙂

DSC_8981

Coming to what I think of it, I did not enjoy it all that much. At least not as much as I expected. First of all, I don’t have poetic taste. This book is quite poetic (if that is the right word to describe what follows). It has a lot of poetry going in between the paragraphs, like after a few paragraphs, there would be a verse or two. Now, maybe, I’ll enjoy this sort of thing at some point in life in some book, but till now I haven’t. Also, I expected more intriguing pieces like what I had read in that magazine earlier. You can probably say that I did not find it scandalous enough, which I expected it to be. I liked the beginning of the book a lot, the way she told the story of her birth. I also loved how free-spirited she was, especially considering the times she was born in, India-Pakistan partition was not the best time for a woman (or for anybody!).

DSC_8980

Overall, I am glad that I read it because I wanted to since a long time and it is always great to know more about an author with whom you kind of share you roots and who is a woman and by whose life you are intrigued. 🙂 Whether I recommend it or not, I am not too sure. First of all, I don’t have great tastes! Secondly, I am not sure what kind of readers will like it. If you are into reading autobiographies in general (and read Hindi/Punjabi literature), then give it a go, maybe?

PS: I wish I knew how to read and write (and speak :/ ) Punjabi, funny thing I don’t know my first language.

Take care & keep smiling 🙂