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Puranic Tales for Cynical People |
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Parashuram |
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Rajshekhar Bose (Parashuram), the second
son of Chandrashekhar Bose and Lakshmimani Devi,
was born in Bamunpara village of Bardhaman
district, on 16 March, 1880 and grew up at his
father’s work place, Darbhanga, North Bihar. His
major achievements are those of compiling
Chalantika, the pioneer handy Bengali
dictionary, and condensing into lucid Bengali
prose the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
He also wrote several essays, published in three
collections, covering a vast range of topics.
Under the pen-name Parashuram, he wrote a
hundred short stories, published in nine
collections. The Universities of Calcutta and
Jadavpur awarded him the Jagattarini and
Sarojini Medals, Hony. D.Litt. and Rabindra
Purashkar. He also received the Sahitya Akademi
Award and was honoured with the Padmabhushan by
the President of India. He passed away on 27
April, 1960.
Pradip Bhattacharya, born in 1947, is
from Kolkata. He is a former member of the Board
of Governors, Indian Institute of Management,
Kolkata, and is on the editorial board of its
Journal of Human Values and also on the Board of
Directors of Webel Technologies Ltd. He
has written several books and numerous papers on
Public Administration, Comparative Mythology,
the Mahabharata, Homeopathy, Management,
and human values.
Shekhar Sen has
written A Brief History of the Army Postal
Service, translated Dejram Sharma’s
collection of poems, and Bandanwar from
Hindi to Bengali, co-authored, with Pradip
Bhattacharya, Prachin Bharate Ebong
Mahabharate Netritwa O Kshamatar Byabahar,
and has written many articles which were
published in various books, journals and
newspapers. He was the Director of the Postal
Training Centres at Vadodara and Mysore, and
served for five years as Senior Deputy Director
at the LBS National Academy of Administration,
and as Regional Director of Central Board of
Film Censors, at Kolkata. He is currently
translating Jaimini's Ashwamedhika Parva.
Puranic Tales for Cynical People
In a style that is curiously light and acerbic
at the same time, Rajshekhar “Parashuram” Bose
places well-known characters from the Puranas in
situations that “might have been.” Surpanakha’s
wooden nose and ear pieces fall off as she
becomes hysterical reminiscing about her
heartbreaking love for Ram; Mahaveer Hanuman’s
wife-hunt ends in despair; Durvasa finds his
rattle years later, in the Kali Yug, tangled in
his beard – thanks to a few mice; and Hanuman
appears again at a séance in the 1950’s to
explain Ram’s rule and the politics of power,
and even delivers the proverbial kick in the
butt to a couple of so-called patriots.
This vintage wine in a whole new bottle has the
fizz and bite to make even the most hardened
cynics drunk on laughter, and make them sit back
and say, “Didn’t I tell you so!”
Praise
for Puranic Tales for Cynical People
Bengalis have
in short stories by Parashuram and Rabindranath
Tagore perhaps the world’s best models for
precision and economy of language. In his …
collection of stories, Parashuram’s prose defies
editing. Not a word is in excess; every sentence
is stripped to its cleanest component.
– Jyoti Sanyal, The Sunday Statesman
To read
an extract, click (NDTV.COM) here
To read
an extract, click (IANS)
here
To read
an extract, click (The Hindu)
here
To read
an extract, click (Deccan Herald)
here
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Paperback
Pages 264
Price US $ 12.95
ISBN 81-87981-84-9 |
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