Life-en-treats

Some months ago I traveled to Barcelona and stayed there at a youth hostel for four days. For nearly two nights the room heater did not work effectively and I had sleepless nights. I had ignored this, thinking it was a change of place that had kept me awake. On the third night, it was unbearable and I went to the receptionist to complain about the now dysfunctional heater. He was very worried about bending the rules and giving me another room. I persisted, saying I cannot sleep at all and he had to do something. He started to wonder what he could do and muttered to himself that he could not put me in the same room with the german boys who were drunk. And then that he could not put me in some other place because that was not safe either. And then he finally decided to put me with two other girls and I shifted my room overnight. I was surprised later on when the situation dawned on me. I could understand a little bit about the myths of sexual revolution in the west, the ideas we Indians ...

Mahashweta Devi's three new stories have been translated by Anjum Katyal and brought out by Seagull books under the title After Kurukshetra. There are three stories in this collection, all to do with the Kurukshetra battle of Mahabharata and its aftermath. The three stories sometimes read in an run-on fashion, picking from leftover themes in other stories. The first story is about five women from the janavritta who are asked to keep company with the pregnant Uttara, the young widow of Abhimanyu. Devi, much like in her other works, brings to notice, the ways of the marginalized, and opens our eye to their feelings, emotions and situations. Relevant snippets are: "The prostitute quarters, an essential part of war, now lie abandoned", "The chandals have no role in war, they arrive when the battle is over", "Was this some natural calamity? So many kings join in a war between brothers". “Five Women” captures through Uttara's eyes the different lifestyle...