The first time I got Geetima Bhagabati’s Nil Dhaturar Phul I was a little confused to define it–a collection of novelettes or novella. The first one was the titular piece Nil Dhaturar Phul was basically a short story entitled ‘Ei Obogunthan – Neel Duturar Bishad’published in Priyo Sokhi.
The collection contains three tales. One is Nil Dhaturar Phul, the second one Hridayat Xewali Subhaxh, and the third one is Akhon Bahal Prithivir Xapon. The most important difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel is the word count. An average short story usually has at least 3,500 words and no more than 7,500. We find in her writings major twists and conflicts, and the involvement of various sub-plots and multiple characters which is not common in a short story or a novelette.
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A Novelette is simple narrative fictional prose while Novellas more complex were first introduced in the early Renaissance (the 1300s), but their genre did not become firmly established until the late 18th and early 19th century. But a novella is longer than a novelette and her narratives are shorter. Interestingly, enough Geetima’s book Nil Dhaturar Phul has the features of a novella but with the length of a novelette is going to introduce a new genre of fiction in Assamese Literature. This is not the first book that Prof Geetima wrote. Narir Ghar, Prithivir Ghar in 2016, and besides Nil Dhaturar Phul (2022) ,Samuk (2022) is her third story collection.
While one reads the three narratives in Nil Dhaturar Phul, one will feel that with her golden pen Geetima Bhagabati is surely going to carve her name as a promising novelist in Assamese literature. Her novels are sweet romantic capsules with bitter realistic content inside. She so romantically makes Sandip tell her in the novel, “We both will make Anurodh live forever through our love.” But in spite of the romantic sensitivity prevailing all over, we find the intense focus on everyday realities in the later happenings in the novelette.
Anurag and Nishidgandha too are well delineated round characters and Geetima unmasks deeper truths about life and society including the sufferings of women for an unwanted child or broken relationships and smiles in the loneliest moments of an unfortunate woman. These sufferings are a part of life and they justify the very title of the collection As Lord Shiva saves the universe by consuming poison, man too is facing the reality has to digest the poison of sorrows and sufferings of life. So the title is symbolic and the connotation is related to the Shiva myth.
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The second novelette of the present volume Hridayat Xewali Subhaxh, has a romantic title but the content is to some extent feministic in its protest against the patriarchal society. Juroni is a young girl who can go loud even against her own dad to warn him about his activities. She reminds him that his activities made her ashamed as a daughter. The fire in her eyes burned the impurities in the heart of this male patriarch providing us flashes of the fiction of Eunice De Souza. Middle-class life is beautifully chronicled in Geetima’s novel.
In the third novelette ‘Akhon Bahol Prithiivir Xapon’, she depicted middle-class sorrows and sufferings from a psychological point of view. She stressed loneliness, dejection and desolation in the mind of the female characters who are destined to struggle in the midst of the vicious circle called ‘Society’. For example, in the first novelette of titular significance, we find the love story of Aditya and the first-person narrator seems to have a shadowy parallel in the story of Arundhati and the lonely Mahapatra Sir.
A story within a story is unfolded like the peeling of an onion and nothing finally remains for the ending.
Sorrow is not a luxury in the writings of Geetima, it is a necessary ingredient in the spices of life as Shelley wrote, “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts.” The two main stories are hyphenated by her all-time companion the 17-year-old Roma was married to a 50-year-old farmer as his third wife. Her stories are a pastime for the author, obviously the saddest tales.
In between the narratives of love and frustration, pains of distance relation and pangs of love and romance, nostalgic flashbacks, there are realistic pictures of the villages stricken by poverty and dirty happenings where people need medical assistance. Juroni–Anurodh love and the tragic death of Anurodh brings a sea of loneliness for her. In the second novelette, Life must continue and this positive message is given through the novelette.
Though she writes on women more, Geetima does not consider herself as a feminist. Her stories have a twist we usually notice in the stories of O.Henry whose stories she loves to read among the foreign writers. In her writings, the characters are at times victims of tragic destiny. Geetima’s writings focus on human resilience. “I am never a pessimist.” I believe in the positive motivation and encourage all to nourish spiritual and ethical values in life. In fact, for me Character is Destiny and it is humans that can live their own life through their actions something like the Karmayoga of the Bhagavad Gita as emphasized by Swami Vivekananda. The struggle is important. One must remember that Life is a journey, not a destination. In Assamese literature modern writers have come out of the over-dependence on God and Destiny following the Renaissance ideals,” she says.
Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee is a poet and writer based in Kolkata. He may be reached at: [email protected]