Stories of pain and partition

O P Sharma

Book : Purane Rishte Naye Ehsaas
Author : Dr Varun Suthra
Publisher : Highbrow Publications

Purane Rishte Naye Ehsaas -The first ever book of Dr Varun Suthra is a collection of his 13 stories in Hindi. His stories allow the reader to find a subtle connection of an individual with the surroundings and help in realising its relationship with the society. Varun’s stories showcase a quite wide canvas as the quest about human and societal instincts reveal a depth and solemnity. Fineness in art of storytelling and way of knitting the threads in each story easily convey the proximity of writer with the course of events, it appears. Other aspects of his personality including a poet, playwright, activist, Ayurveda expert and humourist are clearly visible in his creations. Nowhere it seems to be a laborious effort rather one can easily make out the spontaneity and natural flow, which qualifies as the inherent character of any creative person.
Varun has efficaciously underlined some serious social evils in a very artistic tendency without making the reader to drop his interest for a moment. One can visualise the course of events while the story develops. Like the story ‘Samadhan’ raises some very serious questions about eradicating the child labour. The writer has fearlessly asked for the willingness among the activists to sacrifice for abolishing any such social evils. The story is a big question mark in itself which asks for a sincere reply. Protagonist of the story is a middle aged woman with all solidarity for a child labour and wants to change his fortune but finds herself on crossroads after beholding the ground reality.
Another beautiful story ‘RangeenGudiya’ is a near to perfection psycho analysis of a small girl. Reader would definitely get convinced that how in the contemporary societal structure, a small girl can hardly get any recognition of her dreams in Indian middle class. In all thirteen stories we find ourselves in one or other character, which we have been playing in our lives too. Most importantly simplicity of telling the story makes it quite easier for the reader of any class to develop a relation with the characters and events.
The story ‘PuraneRishteyNayeEhsaas’, which is also the title of the book reveals the pain of partition which still remains alive in millions of hearts even after seven decades of India -Pakistan division. Undoubtedly, a lot has been written on the subject but Varun’s story is surely an another contribution to loudly convey masses that the wound was irreparable.
Stories ‘Photo-Journalist’, ‘Teen Betiyaan’, ‘Nikamma’, ‘Shikha’,Patla-Khiladi’ and others are like a river which keeps a constant flow despite passing through a varied path. The uniqueness of Varun’s work lies in subtly emphasising a social evil without flouting the norms of storytelling and shifting to any activism or proselytization. Use of routine conversations among the characters makes it easy for the readers to get more into the story.
Seeing it as his first attempt in literature readers and critics would definitely accept the writer as a young promising contributor and expect many more to come from his pen. His deep understanding of the surroundings, human emotions, relations and their beautiful depiction would surely offer something worth to the literature in the days to come.

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