One of my new year's resolutions is to read a short story a day. So, I compiled all my short story collections together and was surprised to see that only two out of ten were written by English speaking authors and all the rest were either Indian authors writing in English or their works translated in English. I decided to begin with "the loneliness of hira barua". The cover is absolutely stunning and it got a lot of buzz last year.
truthinfiction 1) It won the Sahitya Akademi Award. The first story that I read was "the call girls in the shelter home". And, it was definitely good. You can't just move over to the next page after reading it. It forces you to sit still and digest what just happened. Short story writing is tricky. Sometimes, short story writers become more concerned with world building and I think that's the easiest way to f**k up a short story. 3y
truthinfiction 2) Instead, Arupa Patangia Kalita makes the story sparse and impactful. So much so that you forget to question the setting. It makes you think about the barbarity and monstrosity of soldiers on a rampage but also how a certain sect I.e. call girls is treated less than by the society. I am really excited to get to the rest of short stories. But, going by the first story, I already recommend you to read it. 3y
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