prettypaperback1's review
4.0
Synopsis
The twenty-three stories in The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told represent some of the finest short fiction in Gujarati literature. Selected and edited by translator and writer Rita Kothari, this collection features established literary masters such as K. M. Munshi, Dhumketu, Himanshi Shelat, Dalpat Chauhan, Nazir Mansuri, and Mona Patrawalla, as well as accomplished new voices such as Panna Trivedi, Abhimanyu Acharya, Raam Mori, and others.
In K. M. Munshi’s epistolary ‘A Letter’, a childbride is worked to her death as she yearns for her husband’s affection; in Neerav Patel’s ‘Creamy Layer’, the politicized, urban, and upwardly mobile Mr and Mrs Vaghela must confront the deep chasm that has grown between them and their family in the village; in Panna Trivedi’s ‘Maajo’, the story’s eponymous young narrator longs for butter-soft skin and a Shah Rukh-like glance from a young man on the train; in ‘Saubhagyavati: The Fortunate Wife’, Dwiref explores the selfish and oppressive nature of marital sex; in ‘A Drop of Blood’ Jayant Khatri looks at how violent acts engender more violence; Mona Patrawalla explores the tribal region of the Dangs and paints a hairraising picture of the violent forms of power wielded by the Parsi landlords there in ‘The Black Horse’; in Dashrath Parmar’s ‘Nandu’, the narrator struggles to hide his caste in the face of insistent questions; in ‘Jumo Bhishti’ by Dhumketu, we see the wonderful bond between Jumo and his beloved buffalo, Venu; and in Abhimanyu Acharya’s ‘Chunni’, a young woman, Shaili, navigates the world of dating in a city far away from home—these and other stories in the collection are passionate, profound, and timeless, showcasing a range of styles and offering a variegated and singular picture of Gujarat.
My Take
What drew me to this book was its title "The Greatest Gujrati Stories Ever Told " In schools, we were asked to read books by Enid Blyton or Nancy Drew series. During highschools, we were asked to read books by Shakespeare (As you like it and The merchant of Venice) so I never really got a chance to explore our Indian Literature much, This was my first experience with Gujarati literature.
This book has around 23 short stories by different authors each covering and targeting different subjects. Some of these stories are thought-provoking. A few short stories that I really liked was Subhagyavati: The fortunate wife, Nightmare, the death of Maaja Vela, Vaadki & Maajo. I relate to a few of them.
In my opinion, this book represents the finest Gujrati Fiction and Rita Kothari has done a great job. this book is not for light reading, some stories are really heavy and intriguing. Gujrat and these stories have left an imprint on my heart forever and I can't wait to read and explore more Gujrati Fiction.
The twenty-three stories in The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told represent some of the finest short fiction in Gujarati literature. Selected and edited by translator and writer Rita Kothari, this collection features established literary masters such as K. M. Munshi, Dhumketu, Himanshi Shelat, Dalpat Chauhan, Nazir Mansuri, and Mona Patrawalla, as well as accomplished new voices such as Panna Trivedi, Abhimanyu Acharya, Raam Mori, and others.
In K. M. Munshi’s epistolary ‘A Letter’, a childbride is worked to her death as she yearns for her husband’s affection; in Neerav Patel’s ‘Creamy Layer’, the politicized, urban, and upwardly mobile Mr and Mrs Vaghela must confront the deep chasm that has grown between them and their family in the village; in Panna Trivedi’s ‘Maajo’, the story’s eponymous young narrator longs for butter-soft skin and a Shah Rukh-like glance from a young man on the train; in ‘Saubhagyavati: The Fortunate Wife’, Dwiref explores the selfish and oppressive nature of marital sex; in ‘A Drop of Blood’ Jayant Khatri looks at how violent acts engender more violence; Mona Patrawalla explores the tribal region of the Dangs and paints a hairraising picture of the violent forms of power wielded by the Parsi landlords there in ‘The Black Horse’; in Dashrath Parmar’s ‘Nandu’, the narrator struggles to hide his caste in the face of insistent questions; in ‘Jumo Bhishti’ by Dhumketu, we see the wonderful bond between Jumo and his beloved buffalo, Venu; and in Abhimanyu Acharya’s ‘Chunni’, a young woman, Shaili, navigates the world of dating in a city far away from home—these and other stories in the collection are passionate, profound, and timeless, showcasing a range of styles and offering a variegated and singular picture of Gujarat.
My Take
What drew me to this book was its title "The Greatest Gujrati Stories Ever Told " In schools, we were asked to read books by Enid Blyton or Nancy Drew series. During highschools, we were asked to read books by Shakespeare (As you like it and The merchant of Venice) so I never really got a chance to explore our Indian Literature much, This was my first experience with Gujarati literature.
This book has around 23 short stories by different authors each covering and targeting different subjects. Some of these stories are thought-provoking. A few short stories that I really liked was Subhagyavati: The fortunate wife, Nightmare, the death of Maaja Vela, Vaadki & Maajo. I relate to a few of them.
In my opinion, this book represents the finest Gujrati Fiction and Rita Kothari has done a great job. this book is not for light reading, some stories are really heavy and intriguing. Gujrat and these stories have left an imprint on my heart forever and I can't wait to read and explore more Gujrati Fiction.
the_bookarazzii's review
4.0
Ever since I started reading books, I haven’t explored much of Indian Literature, I have just read 2-3 books based on it. After reading this book, I realised that I know nothing about my own country as in schools also we were never asked to read books on Indian culture, just some fables were available.
The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told is a compilation of 23 short stories translated from Gujarati. All these stories cover different topics and are very inspiring. They make you think about different scenarios.
Being my first Gujarati literature, it has touched my heart, now I’m very eager to explore more of it. Rita Kothari has done an excellent job. I highly recommend all Indians give this book a shot.
Some of my favourite stories are Vaadki & Maajo and The Fortunate Wife.
The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told is a compilation of 23 short stories translated from Gujarati. All these stories cover different topics and are very inspiring. They make you think about different scenarios.
Being my first Gujarati literature, it has touched my heart, now I’m very eager to explore more of it. Rita Kothari has done an excellent job. I highly recommend all Indians give this book a shot.
Some of my favourite stories are Vaadki & Maajo and The Fortunate Wife.
the_bookarazzi's review
4.0
Ever since I started reading books, I haven’t explored much of Indian Literature, I have just read 2-3 books based on it. After reading this book, I realised that I know nothing about my own country as in schools also we were never asked to read books on Indian culture, just some fables were available.
The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told is a compilation of 23 short stories translated from Gujarati. All these stories cover different topics and are very inspiring. They make you think about different scenarios.
Being my first Gujarati literature, it has touched my heart, now I’m very eager to explore more of it. Rita Kothari has done an excellent job. I highly recommend all Indians give this book a shot.
Some of my favourite stories are Vaadki & Maajo and The Fortunate Wife.
The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told is a compilation of 23 short stories translated from Gujarati. All these stories cover different topics and are very inspiring. They make you think about different scenarios.
Being my first Gujarati literature, it has touched my heart, now I’m very eager to explore more of it. Rita Kothari has done an excellent job. I highly recommend all Indians give this book a shot.
Some of my favourite stories are Vaadki & Maajo and The Fortunate Wife.
deepan2486's review
4.0
‘The Greatest Gujarati stories ever told’ was frankly my first exposure to the legacy of Gujarati Literature. Rita Kothari’s experience in translation in trustworthy, therefore I delved into the book feeling that I would soon be welcomed by a coherent, well-curated, thoughtful set of stories that will familiarise me with the kind of lives borne out of Gujarat. I wasn’t disappointed.
Kothari writes in her introduction: “…Gujarat has come to be associated with….the political power of Hindu nationalism….This present-ness is likely to shape our responses to both the production and reception of its literature, if at all we think of Gujarat in context of literature!…One hopes that this act of translation and the discussions surrounding Gujarati literature will nudge Gujarat to own up to its own multiplicities. At the same time, it might help a non-Gujarati reader to appreciate the less acknowledged aspect of Gujarat.”
The introduction flourishes quite well, and reading the piece along with the stories—you might not need a review, or even a critical discourse that can nudge you to read the book. It is all very subtle, the way Gujarat blooms through these writers and how they approach this influential state of Western India.
Kothari chooses the stories by allotting a very sensible emphasis to portray the shift from rural living to rapid urbanisation, the changing tides of values and morales that gets associated with your daily routine. Most of these stories are based deeply in rural or lesser urbanised contexts, but many of them point very ably towards the glittering cosmopolitan that exists not too far. I liked this choice to be honest, because in a way I wanted to know the heart of Gujarat—the land that exists in the towns and villages, and not in flyovers and cars. Through this journey, these Gujarati writers mostly accumulate in two looming pillars of Indian literature—caste and gender, and how their strata dominates Indian living in majority. Kothari writes in her introduction, “This anthology aims to contribute to an understanding of the region, add nuance to the idea of Gujarat…This collection also hopes to hint at the differences in the realm of the social and personal and provide a variegated and unsettled picture of Gujarat, showing how Gujarat itself is constituted by multitudes, each with challenges of its own; and how, on some days, being human is an aspiration, not a fact.”
I didn’t know much about Gujarat up till quite recently, maybe because I was too naive and ignorant to gather understanding of a state that holds no direct relation with me. But I am glad I picked this particular book, and I am also quite grateful that my introduction to Gujarat was through stories— and not through news and jugglery of journalists. Keeping aside all the political colours and battle of words, it is difficult for a non-Gujarati to appreciate Gujarat from the bottom of their heart, since this perspective will largely be curtailed by fabricated, decorated, arranged notions of the Gujarati community, all pointing to some agenda of governance and public policy.
As I wade across these translated anthologies from various parts of India— quite recently I read short stories in Tamil, Assamese, Malayalam— I come to a very large realisation that would be cumbersome for me to put to words. I will say that I see the deep-rooted contexts of India, shaped by generations of differences and harmony—and this realisation is not limited to a particular community, ethnicity or even language—this aspect of fragmented India is indeed very conjoined and aggregated, adding to my humble understanding of this intimidating subcontinent.
Kothari tries to hint at this conjecture yet again in her erudite introduction, and you can easily replace ‘Gujarat’ and ‘Gujarati’ here with any other state and any language born out of it : “…the Gujarati literary community would look for signs of familiarity in this anthology, totems of association, and nostalgia for the stories they grew up on, had conversations with, and remembered as great. Whether a selection such as this fully confirms that that memory is an open matter, for it has been done with a view to making these stories speak to each other, and sometimes disagree with each other.”
Thanks Aleph for my copy.
Kothari writes in her introduction: “…Gujarat has come to be associated with….the political power of Hindu nationalism….This present-ness is likely to shape our responses to both the production and reception of its literature, if at all we think of Gujarat in context of literature!…One hopes that this act of translation and the discussions surrounding Gujarati literature will nudge Gujarat to own up to its own multiplicities. At the same time, it might help a non-Gujarati reader to appreciate the less acknowledged aspect of Gujarat.”
The introduction flourishes quite well, and reading the piece along with the stories—you might not need a review, or even a critical discourse that can nudge you to read the book. It is all very subtle, the way Gujarat blooms through these writers and how they approach this influential state of Western India.
Kothari chooses the stories by allotting a very sensible emphasis to portray the shift from rural living to rapid urbanisation, the changing tides of values and morales that gets associated with your daily routine. Most of these stories are based deeply in rural or lesser urbanised contexts, but many of them point very ably towards the glittering cosmopolitan that exists not too far. I liked this choice to be honest, because in a way I wanted to know the heart of Gujarat—the land that exists in the towns and villages, and not in flyovers and cars. Through this journey, these Gujarati writers mostly accumulate in two looming pillars of Indian literature—caste and gender, and how their strata dominates Indian living in majority. Kothari writes in her introduction, “This anthology aims to contribute to an understanding of the region, add nuance to the idea of Gujarat…This collection also hopes to hint at the differences in the realm of the social and personal and provide a variegated and unsettled picture of Gujarat, showing how Gujarat itself is constituted by multitudes, each with challenges of its own; and how, on some days, being human is an aspiration, not a fact.”
I didn’t know much about Gujarat up till quite recently, maybe because I was too naive and ignorant to gather understanding of a state that holds no direct relation with me. But I am glad I picked this particular book, and I am also quite grateful that my introduction to Gujarat was through stories— and not through news and jugglery of journalists. Keeping aside all the political colours and battle of words, it is difficult for a non-Gujarati to appreciate Gujarat from the bottom of their heart, since this perspective will largely be curtailed by fabricated, decorated, arranged notions of the Gujarati community, all pointing to some agenda of governance and public policy.
As I wade across these translated anthologies from various parts of India— quite recently I read short stories in Tamil, Assamese, Malayalam— I come to a very large realisation that would be cumbersome for me to put to words. I will say that I see the deep-rooted contexts of India, shaped by generations of differences and harmony—and this realisation is not limited to a particular community, ethnicity or even language—this aspect of fragmented India is indeed very conjoined and aggregated, adding to my humble understanding of this intimidating subcontinent.
Kothari tries to hint at this conjecture yet again in her erudite introduction, and you can easily replace ‘Gujarat’ and ‘Gujarati’ here with any other state and any language born out of it : “…the Gujarati literary community would look for signs of familiarity in this anthology, totems of association, and nostalgia for the stories they grew up on, had conversations with, and remembered as great. Whether a selection such as this fully confirms that that memory is an open matter, for it has been done with a view to making these stories speak to each other, and sometimes disagree with each other.”
Thanks Aleph for my copy.
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