Parineeta (Hindi) - Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.
There comes a time in life of everyone when after one huge achievement you want to take a break and just relax 
its like once you climb a mountain, all you want to do is to do nothing and enjoy the few, simplicity is the key here. I reached that point in my life (say reader's life) that I just wanted to pick up a very simple book and enjoy it without putting much pressure neither on my heart nor on my brain. Usually this happens when I either read a horror from someone of King's caliber or hard hitting literature types from someone like Joyce And when I am in the search of simplicity, I don't look too far but get a PGW or a Satyajit Ray or a Premchand or one of the only six from my favorite author Nuala O Faolain but at this point of time I was totally out of stock from any of those and me the miser wanted to keep it cheap hence was on the lookout for books selling under 100/- a piece. Guess what, I got two terrific classic Bengali Literature books in Hindi and both from the great Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Now that name, the moment someone tells my mom that I read and blabbered about a Sarat Chandra classic, she will own me back saying "Whose son is he after all?" and I hardly give her any opportunity these days to do that, so there was no better time for me to pick a few from Bengali Literature in Hindi, give them a read and repair my own mother tongue a bit too. You may not believe me when I tell you this that the book was hardly 120 pages, I thought it will be a breeze to read but with chaste Hindi, it wasn't a cake walk for me as I expected. Yes Yes! before any of my Bengali friends jump in and shoot me, I regret to say that still haven't learned Bangla hence I had to make do with the translation but let me tell you that this was a simply brilliant translation and I am totally sure that it doesn't miss out on anything from the original (so is my wish actually).
its like once you climb a mountain, all you want to do is to do nothing and enjoy the few, simplicity is the key here. I reached that point in my life (say reader's life) that I just wanted to pick up a very simple book and enjoy it without putting much pressure neither on my heart nor on my brain. Usually this happens when I either read a horror from someone of King's caliber or hard hitting literature types from someone like Joyce And when I am in the search of simplicity, I don't look too far but get a PGW or a Satyajit Ray or a Premchand or one of the only six from my favorite author Nuala O Faolain but at this point of time I was totally out of stock from any of those and me the miser wanted to keep it cheap hence was on the lookout for books selling under 100/- a piece. Guess what, I got two terrific classic Bengali Literature books in Hindi and both from the great Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Now that name, the moment someone tells my mom that I read and blabbered about a Sarat Chandra classic, she will own me back saying "Whose son is he after all?" and I hardly give her any opportunity these days to do that, so there was no better time for me to pick a few from Bengali Literature in Hindi, give them a read and repair my own mother tongue a bit too. You may not believe me when I tell you this that the book was hardly 120 pages, I thought it will be a breeze to read but with chaste Hindi, it wasn't a cake walk for me as I expected. Yes Yes! before any of my Bengali friends jump in and shoot me, I regret to say that still haven't learned Bangla hence I had to make do with the translation but let me tell you that this was a simply brilliant translation and I am totally sure that it doesn't miss out on anything from the original (so is my wish actually).
Parineeta (The Married Woman) is a very straight forward and simple story of a teenage orphan girl Lalita. Who lives with her father's friend who himself is a very poor man who is totally hand to mouth and with the load of four of his own daughters and fifth is recently born at the very start of the story. The sorry state of affairs in her uncle's house is so heart-touching and with Sarat Chandra's pen it sounds even bleaker with no hope of a future, their rich neighbor and their son Shekhar comes as a respite in her life. Lalita and Shekhar are more like an elder brother and sister from the very start of their life, she has a free hand in his life, can visit him anytime, be in his room, even uses his pocket money for her own expenses and her uncle's too. Shekhar never questions her, even as they grow a few years and the life changes around them, they do not change. The story has a twist when a third person comes in their subtle lives and changes it once and for all. Who is that person and how the equation changes is why you should read the book. Also, how a teenage girl becomes a Parineeta without officially getting married is the high-point of the novel, being a hardcore romantic from heart, it worked so beautifully for me and I kept cursing Shekhar throughout for not listening to his heart and give up so much in the name of stupid ego. But that's what this story is all about, a man's foolish ego, a woman's self respect, commitment, sacrifice, love and so much more. Fortunately with these masters the best part of the story is that there are no villains, it is rather the situations which play a spoil sport and no story goes straight anywhere. And that is the best thing about these classics I believe.
It will not be an exaggeration if I say that I have read a lot of classics from Hindi Literature in the past but no other story comes any closer to this one, when it comes to understand what goes inside a woman's heart (and head too). I was totally floored by the simplicity of it all yet the way Author decides to make it more complex, leaves no stone upturned in keeping the reader hooked in a huge dilemma asking "Why O Why, spare them please". On top of that the timeline of the story is early 20th century, on one side we have the Lalita and her uncle at the rock bottom of the economical chain and then we have Shekhar belonging to a super rich family, the severe divide yet the strong connection. How it all pans out in the end is what you have to read the book for. And please do not tell me and make me more jealous if you have already read the original Bangla version I will be super jealous of you. But if you haven't read it, I suggest you take a break and get it ASAP.
I will be super jealous of you. But if you haven't read it, I suggest you take a break and get it ASAP.
One special thing that I noticed for the first time by any Author, I have never experienced this kind of scenario ever in any kind if literature. There is this situation where a funeral is taking place and the author decides to say "No point getting into the details of the funeral as you can very well assume what all will take place, I will save a few pages by not going into details" 
and he does the same while his characters attend a typical Indian wedding I was in splits by his simplicity and confidence that his audience will know what he means hence he saves his as well as our precious time too . Have you ever read something like this in any books that you have read in the recent past?
and he does the same while his characters attend a typical Indian wedding I was in splits by his simplicity and confidence that his audience will know what he means hence he saves his as well as our precious time too . Have you ever read something like this in any books that you have read in the recent past?
Movie adaptations: Unfortunately I just couldn't lay my hands on the Bimal Ray classic from 1953 with Ashok Kumar as Shekhar and Meena Kumari as Lalita. May be this weekend I will try a little harder and get the movie on Netflix or Amazon prime. I watched the 2005 film directed by Pradeep Sarkar with Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt and Vidya Balan in lead. Individually it was a good movie but when it comes to adapting the Sarat Chandra story, they changed it so much that no point comparing it with the book (in other words - it's a heartbreak). a
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