Aju Mukhopadhyay’s Short Stories: A Multicoloured World

Abstract

Aju Mukhopadhyay is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of contemporary Indian English Literature. He is a magnificent literary artist, in fact a versatile genius. As a visionary poet he has enraptured the hearts and minds of millions of poetry lovers, both in India and abroad. He is a profound critic, and his insightful critical studies are highly valued in the literary world. His essays on various subjects have made a mark in every field. He is a great storyteller too, both in English and Bangla, and the range of his short stories has baffled the fiction lovers. Like his previous volumes of short stories, the present collection too offers a large variety of subjects and feeds the craving of every set of readers. Aju’s world is so vast that you cross the national boundaries many times to peep into a new world. You open the window to a new story and step into a different world altogether. “In the Company of William, Samuel and Dorothy”, Aju takes us to the Lake District of England to enjoy the company of the great Romantic poets, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge and Dorothy Wordsworth. His description is so vivid that you really feel you are watching everything happening before your ‘fleshy eyes’. In the next story “They Came Down from the Roof of the World”, the writer takes you indeed to the roof of the world, Tibet and the Tibetan Cause. Tibet and New York come alive before you and you partake in the stormy scenes, the rebellion, the persecution, the great Dalai Lama escape and the aftermath.

Full text

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(Vol. V & Issue II (June) 2020) (ISSN-2455-6580) www.thecreativelaucher.com
The Creative Launcher
An International, Peer Reviewed, Refereed, E-Journal in English
Disclaimer: For Any kind of confirmation and Authentication visit the website of the journal.
Aju Mukhopadhyay’s Short Stories: A Multicoloured World
Dr. O. P. Arora
Poet, Fiction Writer, Critic
A Veteran Professor for decades;
An Academician, India
DOI: 10.53032/tcl.2020.5.2.04
Aju Mukhopadhyay is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of contemporary Indian English
Literature. He is a magnificent literary artist, in fact a versatile genius. As a visionary poet he has
enraptured the hearts and minds of millions of poetry lovers, both in India and abroad. He is a
profound critic, and his insightful critical studies are highly valued in the literary world. His
essays on various subjects have made a mark in every field. He is a great storyteller too, both in
English and Bangla, and the range of his short stories has baffled the fiction lovers. Like his
previous volumes of short stories, the present collection too offers a large variety of subjects and
feeds the craving of every set of readers. Aju’s world is so vast that you cross the national
boundaries many times to peep into a new world. You open the window to a new story and step
into a different world altogether. “In the Company of William, Samuel and Dorothy”, Aju takes
us to the Lake District of England to enjoy the company of the great Romantic poets, William
Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge and Dorothy Wordsworth. His description is so vivid that you
really feel you are watching everything happening before your ‘fleshy eyes’. In the next story
“They Came Down from the Roof of the World”, the writer takes you indeed to the roof of the
world, Tibet and the Tibetan Cause. Tibet and New York come alive before you and you partake
in the stormy scenes, the rebellion, the persecution, the great Dalai Lama escape and the
aftermath.
Keywords- Global Outlook, Human Relation, Environment, Galaxy, Nostalgia
Aju Mukhopadhyay’s stories encompass the entire world, visible or invisible, worldly or
ethereal, real or mystical. “Neither a Utopia Nor a Dystopia” apparently deals with the

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(Vol. V & Issue II (June) 2020) (ISSN-2455-6580) www.thecreativelaucher.com
The Creative Launcher
An International, Peer Reviewed, Refereed, E-Journal in English
Disclaimer: For Any kind of confirmation and Authentication visit the website of the journal.
environmental issues, but at the same time it is a great social treatise on the parent-children
relationship, and highlights the pathetic condition of the parents when their children emigrate to
foreign countries in search of money. No holds barred. Terrorism too has been thoroughly
analysed in “Chased in Turn” where violence is ingrained in the young minds: “Yes, you should
have anger and hatred enough, even causelessly, if you wish to kill and go forward.”(17) The
fate of the terrorist teenagers is pre-decided: “… that a suicide bomber is always destined to die
in action or refusing to perform must he or she die” (18) What kind of a world, the writer is
anguished to realize, we have created where the young people, instead of enjoying life, are
trained to kill and die. This is a striking tale of the teenagers getting trapped into the fold of
terrorist activities. By now it has been established beyond doubt that religious bigots and
antinational mercenaries catch them young and tap their immaturity to train them as suicide
bombers: “Kind of adventure, hope and don’t-care like idea was taking away their humanity.”
(19)
“What’s there in a name?” Shakespeare declared it long back, and Aju Mukhopadhyay’s
unnamed woman in the opening story, ”Flood Changed the Flow of her Life” is an epitome of
unnamed love. She doesn’t seek an identity, nor does she go back to her village when persuaded.
Her identity, she feels, was taken away and deposited by chance, outside the gate of the writer’s
joint family house. She was sixteen at the time, and the writer six, but even at that tender age he
was impressed and enamoured by the girl’s beauty. Despite being married, he has been in love
with her for the past sixty years, and she has wholeheartedly responded to it. It is stupid to ask
about the nature of this love—like the lady, this love too is unnamed, outside the conformist’s
comprehension. The writer rightly says: “… Relationships are so different, so varied that every
relationship has its separate nuance, smell and colour; it cannot be easily defined. There’s a
relationship within a relationship or relationships” (5). There are various shades of love, and this
can be comprehended only by those who have ever known love.
“Suicide on a Moonlit Night” is a tragic tale of two sisters entangled in a relationship
with the same man, Nabagopal. On the face of it, it is a love triangle where the younger sister,
Shreyasi, more beautiful than the elder one, out of jealousy, snatches away the groom from

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(Vol. V & Issue II (June) 2020) (ISSN-2455-6580) www.thecreativelaucher.com
The Creative Launcher
An International, Peer Reviewed, Refereed, E-Journal in English
Disclaimer: For Any kind of confirmation and Authentication visit the website of the journal.
Preyasi who is suffering from the congenital heart disease. Preyasi, in depression commits
suicide. But it is not a simple story as the writer goes deep into the psyche of woman and brings
out the selfishness and viciousness of modern age. Human relationships, even among siblings,
have lost their emotional bondage and everybody is a grabber here. It is a complex world, this
modern world, and nothing but self-interest motivates the heartless and soulless humans. Even
Nabagopal who later admits in his letter that he was in love with Preyasi, decides to marry
Shreyasi. Why? Sheer opportunism. After separation from her, his remorse and feeling of guilt
don’t look convincing at all. It is a masked world of pretenders and grabbers, and you change the
mask as it suits your requirement. Nabagopal too admits in his letter: “Perhaps it is beyond our
ken to explain how exactly one acts and reacts in a given situation” (50).
“Suicide on a Railway Track” is a story in an altogether different mode: mystery woven
into the legendary tales that are so commonly heard in almost every rural society. No rationality.
Nothing to do with science, nor reality. People go on narrating such tales—it feeds their hunger
for curiosity and otherworldliness. The twist at the end, the death of the sad and gloomy
nonagenarian neighbor of the writer, is remarkable and provokes the reader to think. “Empty
House” is full of suspense, mystery, and the curiosity to know ‘what happens next’. Aju
Mukhopadhyay is a master craftsman and this story leaves the reader stroking his head. Well,
such empty houses have been a great subject for the thrillers, particularly in films since the time
of “Mahal”.
Humour lends a unique charm to “Life Nostalgic” and the reader is bound to enjoy the
cheery sense of humour of Aju Mukhopadhyay that he abundantly displays here. The way the
huge body of Manmatha Roy Chowdhury with strong hands, “big face with bigger moustache”
scares his young beloved, Shodashi, amuses the reader. And his son, Balaram, who goes on
repeating the stories of his family to his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and of
course to their wives over and over again, becomes a butt of ridicule. The world has changed
from the colonial rule to the independent India, but his world has not changed. That makes him a
funny character indeed. The stories within the story, bribing the sergeant or the guard bringing
back the train on their bidding, would give peels of laughter to every reader.

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Disclaimer: For Any kind of confirmation and Authentication visit the website of the journal.
“Jungle Dream” once again portrays the environmental concerns of the writer who walks
unafraid through the jungle in the middle of the night. Poachers working for the industrialists or
big money have denuded the forests of India and played havoc with the lives of the tribals. The
writer’s beautiful description of the jungle at the night time fascinates the reader and he becomes
conscious that man’s greed has brought about terrible imbalances in nature.
“The Secret” the beautiful story that serves as the title for this fascinating collection, is
indeed full of secrets and suspense and arouses the curiosity of the reader to know ‘what happens
next’. When the writer meets Sony Dasgupta, his one-time flame, in Singapore, she refuses to
recognize him, and claims she is Ami Tan, and has never known or visited India. But later on she
visits them and tells the writer’s friend that she indeed is Sony and had run away from her
husband who had maltreated and tortured her. She told that she had per chance “come in touch
with a benevolent and well-to-do family of Singapore” which later on adopted her. When Sony’s
mother, Promila, was left destitute, after being duped of all her wealth and properties by her own
son, the writer narrated the whole story of her family to Sony. Though Sony never had good
relations with her step-mother, yet she generously made an offer to the writer for her mother: he
should make good arrangements for her stay and she would bear all the costs, but he should
never divulge her name to anyone. The writer makes a very good, rather luxurious, arrangement
for Sony’s mother and gets all the credit for taking care of a destitute. But Promila soon dies of a
heart attack. All the formalities for the dead are completed by the writer. But the secret of her
death is not revealed to Sony. Why? The secret of all secrets. Money continues to flow from
Sony to the writer for the upkeep of her mother who no longer exists. The last story in the
collection, “How Fast Man Adapts to Changes, How Fast He Forgets His Past” too bemoans the
story of loss of forests, wildlife and the natural ways of living: “… the mine-mafias, coal and
iron-mongers are exploring their chance of becoming billionaire at the cost of the common
people, nature and animal world like hawks in modern India.” (130) He bluntly questions the
concept of development: “Is it development, denuding all forest resources and uprooting native
people, killing flora and fauna?” (130)

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(Vol. V & Issue II (June) 2020) (ISSN-2455-6580) www.thecreativelaucher.com
The Creative Launcher
An International, Peer Reviewed, Refereed, E-Journal in English
Disclaimer: For Any kind of confirmation and Authentication visit the website of the journal.
The Secret is a very rich collection of racy, thoughtful and inspiring short stories. The
reader is bound to get enlightened on various issues that confront him every day. The vastness of
the canvas is simply baffling. Aju Mukhopadhyay is a great intellectual writer who not only
entertains but also provokes you to think.
Work Cited
Mukhopadhyay, Aju. The Secret. Global Fraternity of Poets, 2019.