A Journal of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

Book Review
HER PIECE OF SKY : A CRITIQUE
Subhash Sharma
‘Her Piece of Sky’ is a collection of contemporary short stories
edited by Deepa Agarwal. It includes only women Hindi short story
writers (eleven in number) probably with the perceived notion of
feminist literature, But, nay, the editor claims not to be confined
to the stretches over the courtyard. Rather her intention was to
cover ‘the variety of voices in contemporary women’s writing in
Hindi’ (P.2). Hence along with six older women story writers, she
has included five younger ones ‘ who are making waves and whose
work is exciting, new, complex and multilayered’ (P.3). At first
authors suggested their stories, then the editor made her choice
and finally the translators selected. Thus there is no specific theme
of this anthology – and this is both its strength and weakness.
The first story entitled ‘the cremation ground’, by the legendary
story writer Mannu Bhandari, is the best story of the collection.
It has a philosophical and aesthetic flavour because the prime dialogue
takes place between the cremation ground and the hillock adjacent
to it. The story begins with the recitation of Kabir’s couplet by
the ‘dom’ (guard of cremation ground): ‘jehi ghat prem na sancharai,
soi ghat jan masan’ (The heart devoid of love is like a cremation
ground). The cremation ground expresses its sorrow to the hillock
that the more it loves humans, the more they hate it. A youngman
suddenly started weeping bitterly there as his wife had died and
her corpse was to be cremated there. He was not only remembering
his wife there the next day but also expressing that he could not
live without her as his life had become meaningless and pleasureless.
156 :: January-March 2012