There are many eccentric characters in the stories of bilingual writer Manoj Das. The faithful old caretaker at a former king’s summer pala...
There are many eccentric characters in the stories of bilingual writer Manoj Das. The faithful old caretaker at a former king’s summer palace prepares to host a conference, only to learn that the guests who are coming are called “nudists.” Abolkar, whose name means “The Disobedient,” plants himself in people’s courtyards until they feed him. The pedantic Pratap Sinha insists on lecturing strangers about their habits.
A History teacher is obsessed with the Rajput king Prithviraj Chauhan and is convinced that he was one of his courtiers in a past life. The moneylender and “evil genius” Dabu Sahukar keeps an arsonist on his payroll. Vain and boastful Aunty Roopwati claims that all the political leaders of her time were in love with her. Together, they form a rich tapestry of ordinary and not so ordinary people.
But this book is really about ghosts. Stories called “The Misty Hour” and “The Dusky Horizon” bookend the collection. The titles offer a clue about the prevailing mood. On the cover of the Penguin edition published in 1994, the author Graham Greene blurbs: “Manoj Das…will certainly take a place on my shelves beside the stories of Narayan. I imagine Orissa is far from Malgudi, but there is...
