Collected works: Novel: Vol.1
ISBN: 81-7401-918-9
Year of Publication: 2019,
Price: Rs.450/-
Published by: Friends Publishers, Cuttack 753 002
More about the Book
Panchaparba is the first volume of collected works of Gourahari Das which contains 5 novels They are Chhayasoudhara Abasesha, Nija Sange Nijara Ladhei, Eithu Arambha, Apananka Ajnadhina and Kete Rangara Jibana.
Gourahari’s novels have a feminist perspective in terms of their thrust on the marginalisation of women, their bold confrontation with hostile forces, their assertion of personal freedom and their triumph over oppressive male oriented social practices and prejudices. Chhayasoudhara Abasesha(The longing of a shadow mansion) portrays the trials and tribulations of an ordinary woman, Minu, who is forced into traumatic experiences after her marriage with an aged and impotent widower. Unable to bear the agony and torture of the in-law’s family she runs away and by a strange turn of events finds herself in a red light area. But the same Minu sacrifices her life when another girl is forcibly brought to that place.
Nija Sange Nijara Ladhei (Fighting with one’s own self), centres round Draupadi who is an eye witness to a murder in her neighbourhood. She knows the murderers but remains quite as the criminals intimidate her and threaten to kidnap her son and from the school and kills him. One day such a thing happens which changes her perspective. Kete Rangara Jibana portrays interesting trajectory of two women. Eithu Arambha narrates the story of Urbasi who confronts hostility from her parents because she is a girl child, and from her in-laws because she cannot stand her husband’s infidelity and profligacy.
