‘Snails’ by
Dibakar Barua is a powerful story from Bangladesh, covered under the book
‘School Timez’ edited by Ruskin Bond. The story takes us back to the times of
Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. Quite wonderfully a theme of war and its
ramifications are incorporated into the story.
Thirty miles
south of the port city of Chittagong, a chill has come down on Manpur village
where men and boys of different religions gather after dusk in secret,
segregated societies. There they discuss the war crimes carried out by Pakistan
Army on the people of Bangladesh. They live in fear and getting their men
killed by the army has become a thing of acceptance for them. In short, they
are miserable.
As the story
advances, it narrows down on the story of two Hindu brothers Ajoy and Bijan –
they worship Buddhism. Because of the war their lives are torn apart and there
are many widows that lament death of their husbands every night. Ajoy doesn’t
like this lamenting. The village is in trouble because of war. Pakistan Army is
busy capturing the port city of Chittagong.
Bijan works in
Telephone and Telegraph (T&T) office and it has been two nights that he has
not come home. Her mother is worried. Chances are that he has been taken away
by the Pak Army as rumours have that the army is killing uncircumcised men.
Ajoy’s mother is worried about her son, thus she says to him that grief is
worse than death.
After some
days have been passed, Ajoy grows worried and restless about his brother. He
walks here and there but to no avail. The kind of miserability that war throws
on innocent people is a pure untoward agony. He sees Yusef Malek, one of his
confidents, and from him it comes out that his brother has been taken away by
the Pakistan army. And the worry is that they cannot find him.
Feeling
miserable, Ajoy jumps in a pond, and in the eerie silence of the night he
broods about life and the lamentation of the widows. He feels life is
inexplicable proposition. Though the story doesn’t see any action for a
war-torn country, but the kind of affliction it depicts is indeed praiseworthy.
War-fiction lovers will love it.
Comments
Post a Comment