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As the river flows
A rich variety of human situations is presented to us. The vermillion spot on the forehead of a woman is portentously washed clean by the waters of the mighty Brahmaputra. A widow finds that the paintings which connect her to the loving memories of her husband are of no value to the next generation. A retired professor so sure of his deep understanding of human behaviour fails to find a single companion who may withstand his very presence. A two-and-a-half feet dwarf successfully declares the potentiality of his male sexuality to a full-grown gorgeous woman. A mother on her death-bed vainly waits for the insurgent son. An unemployed son discovers that he is unable to relieve the burden of his ageing father. A woman raped by the Army men remains traumatised and cannot keep her marital life intact. A train that has a fixed destination carries people without any destination and purpose in life. The treatment of situations, themes and characters vary from writer to writer, as is to be expected from the authors of such long standing. However, one may note a common strand of realism, verging on romantic irony, running through them. It is modified from story to story, depending upon the context of the plot, the evolution of major characters and their placements in the geo-political terrain. A sense of delusion, interspersed with a biting melancholic gloom, pervades a major chunk of this volume.
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It is a collection of 15 stories by some of the well-known story writers of Assam: Mohim Bora, Homen Borgohain, Bhabendra Saikia, Mamoni Goswami, Bhupendra Bhattacharya, Harekrishna Deka, Apurba Sarma, Arupa Kalita, Purabi Bormudoi, Manorama Medhi, Phul Goswami, Manoj Goswami, Jyotish Sikdar, Navanita Gogoi, Jayanta Chakraborty. All of them have won some of the most prestigious literary awards like the Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith award, Katha award and Sanskriti award.
