MALAYALAM
Voice for women
K. KUNHIKRISHNAN
VEENDUM LAJJIKKUNNU: Novel by Taslima Nasrin; Translated by MKN Potty; Green Books Private Limited, Ayyanthole, Thrissur-680003. Rs. 160.
THE AUTHOR’S radical feminist outlook and criticism of Islam had earned the wrath of fundamentalists, since she published her “Lajja”, a severe indictment of the violence unleashed in Bangladesh in the wake of Babri Masjid demolition (in India) and an heartrending account of the sufferings of a Hindu family. In the sequel she wrote — titled “Saram” (in Bengali), the characters are relocated to Kolkata.
The book under review is a translation of that sequel. In Kolkata, young Suranjan visits the writer (in exile) and the story unfolds. As Dr. Sudhamayi Dutt, Suranjan’s father, gets cheated of a huge sum of money and dies of shock, the family becomes virtually destitute. The sufferings they undergo at the hands of the fundamentalists are terrible and poignant. The novelist strongly points to the repression and torment of women, and it is universal. The translation is commendable in that it vividly brings out the power and essence of the original.
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