"Bitch" by Mrinal Pande

"Bitch" by Mrinal Pande (2004, 3 pages)

A Wonderful Story by a Leading Hindi Advocate of the Rights of Women

"Bitch" by Mrinal Pande is another great short story from the pages of The Little Magazine,  the  premier online and print literary and cultural magazine of South Asia.  

Mrinal Pande (1946, Madhya Pradas, India) has had a very distinguished career as a print journalist.    She is currently the editor of a major newspaper and has her own TV show.    She has served on numerous commissions on the rights of women and children.   She has taught at several major universities.    She is the daughter of the very famous writer, Shivani (on whom I will, I hope, eventually post).   She is married and has children.    She published her first short story when she was 21 and basically has been writing ever since then.   She writes in both Hindi and English.    

"Bitch" (written in English) at once caught my eye as I was looking through the many short stories online at The Little Magazine.   It is about a conversation a between a woman who hosts a TV show (as the author does) and her maid about an article they saw in the newspaper about a four year old girl whose parents married her to a dog in order to ward off the evil eye from their family.  You can read it in just a minute or two.    It told me a lot about how ordinary Indian women seem to feel about marriage.   The maid can speak a bit boldly as she is herself a grandmother.   (The maid likes her employer because she does not follower her around as she cleans or inspect her bag when she leaves.   I just finished The Help last night and this story could be out of an Indian version.)

The TV commentator is trying to tell her maid what a shameful even illegal thing the parents have done in marrying a four year old girl to a dog.   The maid thinks it is perfectly OK and feels a dog is a step up from most men.   I really liked this exchange:

"“But don’t you see it is illegal? The police —”

“What police?”
“The local police.”
“No, no, why should the police bother?”
“Because you can’t marry off a girl before she’s eighteen. It’s the law.”
“So? She’s not married to a man.”
“Gauri, don’t you see? Her parents could still go to jail for this.”
“Who will speak against them? The dog?” Gauri collapses in laughter.
“It is no laughing matter,” I say. But I, too, am laughing.
“Oh Ma, at least he won’t come home drunk and beat her. Or arm-twist her family for a wrist-watch or a bicycle, or get her pregnant as soon as he can, and then run off with another woman. A son of a bitch is better any day, Ma, any day, than the son of man.”
“But the girl...”
“What about the girl? She looks happy. She must have eaten her fill of sweets, been dressed in new clothes. What more can a girl want?”
“But why should she be married to a dog before she knows what marriage is all about?”

The maid then begins an  account of  the terrible events of her marriage.   

"Bitch" is a really fun, beautifully written story that packs a lot in its few pages.   I liked the spirit and admired the strength of character of the maid and her ability to keep laughing.     If you like The Help (I for sure did and will post on it soon) you will like this story.   I read it three times I liked it so much.    

Mrinal Pande has another story in The Little Magazine that I will, I hope, eventually read and post on also.    

You can read it online HERE

As I take my first tentative footsteps into the South Asia Short Story Reading Life Project  (by which by my definition I will mean India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh for now) I am realizing it is not just three countries here but the remainder of dozens and dozens of languages, states and cultures that must be considered.      One short story or author will lead me to another.    

I will sort of be focusing on stories about the lives of women and children, the effects of the 1947 partition of India and the lingering effects of British colonialism.    My first self indulgent objective is to enjoy myself!  

I am very open to reading suggestions and corrections from those more experienced in this reading area.    

I will still continue on with all of my old interests.   So far all of the Indian authors I have written about have been highly educated and deeply into the best literature of the European tradition.    Some write their stories in English, some in one of the many languages of South Asia.    Some stories sound like they could be the plot of a modern TV show, some come from 5000 year old traditions.    I will probably like almost all of the stories I post on as I tend not to post or even finish a work I do not like.   

  

Selina Hossain -(বাংলাদেশ)-A Leading Bangladesh Author

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"Honour" by Selina Hossain (3 pages, 1982)

A Very Powerful Story About the Lives of 

Ordinary Women in Bangladesh

Selina Hossain (1947) was born in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.    She has had a very productive and distinguished literary career.   Since writing her first  novel while still in college she has written twenty one novels and edited many works dealing with the rights of women and children.   Her many short stories have been published in four collections.   She  has also published many essays on a wide variety of cultural topics.    She is considered a  leading advocate of the rights of women and children in Bangladesh.      She is  on the board of directors of UNESCO, was recently named secretary-general of Transparency International Bangladash and was the director of a very well known school.     She also has the normal responsibilities of family life.     Much of her focus is on the lingering affects of England's rule of the Indian Subcontinent and on Pakistan's treatment of Bangladesh during the 1971 war for the independence of Bangladesh.   (Estimate of deaths from this war run up to 2,000,000.)     She has received many awards and is considered a strong candidate for the Nobel Prize.    Her books have been translated into English, Russian, French, German and several Indian dialects.    She is deeply into the reading life.

"Honour" (written originally in Bengali-translator unknown)  gets off to a stunning start.   I will let the story speak for itself:


"Maleka was murdered by her husband Latif, who slit her throat open. Then he beheaded her corpse and threw it into the Jaliabeel river beside Bakoljora village. Her body sank like a stone, then bobbed up again. Two days later, when it began to rot, the vultures arrived. Maleka’s two brothers tried to tow the body down from Jaliabeel to Durgapur Ghat. But it was so badly decomposed that a burial was no longer possible. The brothers cut it loose, letting the current of the Shomeshwari River take it. They were quite melancholic for a while, but they returned home rather satisfied with their handiwork."
.
Maleka, a Muslim girl, got neither a funeral nor a burial. As a child, she had learned to read the Holy Quran from a moulvi saheb. Every year, during the month of Ramadan, Maleka completed one reading of the entire Quran. She would fast right through the month as well. Her faith was without blemish.


The cool waters of the river awoke the soul of Maleka.   She did not know where to go.   She is not a sinner (her husband's accusations were groundless) so she will not go to hell but her lack of a proper death ceremony will keep her out of heaven.     She begins to be seen about the village and at the house of the family of her husband.    She was a second wife and now her husband's first wife is terrified she will be murdered also.    (Everyone, including the police knew of the murder but no one comes to investigate the killing.)   Then she sees Maleska.   When she runs screaming to her husband, he knocks her to the ground and kicks her until she passes out.   We then learned the husband somehow thought his second wife had made sexual advances toward his first wife.   That fantasy is why he killed her.


Maleka goes to her families house (of course no one can see her) she hears her sister in law say that she got what she deserved.    Her brother agrees they are best rid of her.    


Maleka goes to the market and listens to a loud policeman telling a story:


 “You people must remember the incident at Durgapur. A man brought the head of his elder brother’s wife to the police station. He said that he had killed the whore in order to protect their family honour. Just think, gentlemen, what nobility of character!”   The policeman is then reminded that this man was tried and hanged for this.   He at once says it is because they still live under corrupt laws from the days of British rule.   He says that if they lived under honorable laws the man would be celebrated.


There is more in this story than I have told.   In just a few pages Hossain brings a very ugly world to life for us.   


This another story from the pages of The Little Magazine,   a very high quality literary and cultural publication based in Delhi and dealing with pan-South Asian issues.    


I have begun a new area of reading for me, The South Asian short story.    I am very excited by this.   I would welcome suggestions and guidance from those with experience in this reading area (I would not call it a genre).      If you want to read some stories on your own, you will find about 45 of them through the web page of The Little Magazine.     There are cultural parallels to the Irish Short story in that both are set in cultures that partially define themselves through their rejection of colonial Britain.   There are other similarities that interest me also but that will wait.      


I will to some extent focus on stories about the rights of women and children and stories that deal with the effects of the British rule of India.    I have links to 100s of stories already.   


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