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The Loneliness of Hira Barua

Arupa Patangia Kalita,

Ranjita Biswas (Translator)

3.77 · Rating details · 43 ratings · 14 reviews

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Published July 9th 2020

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Lists with This Book

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The Loneliness of Hira Barua by Arupa Patangia Kalita

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Mar 25, 2021 Vikas Singh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-book

Arupa Kalita Patangia is known for her fiction writing in Assamese. She has more than ten novels and short story collections to her credit. In 2014 she won Sahitya Akademi award for her short stories collection- Mariam Austin Othoba Hira Barua. According to the Sahitya Akademi, these short stories reflected the humanitarian outlook and sincerity of the author and her lucid style of writing and the suggestiveness in the language are remarkable in themselves. It termed the collection as an importa ...more

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Aug 19, 2020 Chitra Ahanthem rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Loneliness of Hira Barua: Stories by Arupa Patangia Kalita and translated by Ranjita Biswas, a collection of 13 short stories looks at how strife and conflict affects the common people breaking up close knit communities into opposing groups, how sudden social and cultural changes breaks families and societies. The author keeps women and girls at the center of each story: their fortitude, the burden of shame they have to bear in case they veer far from social conventions, the baggage of humil ...more

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Nov 04, 2020 Uzma Shamim rated it it was ok

Being a stranger to Arupa Patangia Kalita’s earlier works and having heard so much about her, when I came across this translated collection of stories so poignantly titled The Loneliness of Hira Barua, I was naturally intrigued. The final convincing aspect was of course the fact that these stories were about women.

These stories started well, though I was constantly aware that a translation meant that I was missing out on some originality that would always be out of my reach. I could easily make Being a stranger to Arupa Patangia Kalita’s earlier works and having heard so much about her, when I came across this translated collection of stories so poignantly titled The Loneliness of Hira Barua, I was naturally intrigued. The final convincing aspect was of course the fact that these stories were about women.

These stories started well, though I was constantly aware that a translation meant that I was missing out on some originality that would always be out of my reach. I could easily make out why her works are appreciated for their rootedness, for being as ambiguous as they are visceral. I found the vividness of the landscape in the personal in Ayengla of the Blue Hills, felt the kind of sadness mostly felt in childhood in Suagmoni’s Mother and the blunt, almost unforgiving portrayal of class realities in The Auspicious Day. I particularly have a lot of respect for the manner in which the stories deal with the idea of class, there is no forgetting but rather a certain harshness which denies any attempt at concealment. The Auspicious Day was especially discomfiting. The author goes beyond confining herself to physical depictions of conflict and shows the ruptures in what might appear to some as inane domesticity. An air of loneliness, nostalgia and a certain heaviness surrounds the entire text but it’s the kind of heaviness that most people would relate to which is what makes it more striking. This identification and assurance (even of sadness) are probably what attract me to South Asian writing. However unfamiliar the ethos might be, it’s never alien.

Sadly, the stories soon took over a cadence of horrible binaries: the Virginal woman and the Promiscuous one, the ‘traditional good’ woman and the ‘modern destroyer’ of families. I do understand that modernisation as understood in its most nascent form can be detested by people but to show women as being the bearers of its destructive energy is repulsive. The story A Cup of Coffee from Aunt Brinda depicted a ‘modern woman’ (immensely objectified) in western clothes and cigarettes who unilaterally destroys a bright dutiful boy of a very dedicated (of course) mother. There was also an erasure of any sense of agency for young women. If they were ever shown alone, they were almost always shown as potential victims. I soon grew tired of this didacticism and struggled to get past the latter half of the collection. While the rootedness appeared appealing at first, the fissures erupted soon because nothing can ever be too solid in its place. If is it, a rot is inevitable.

I appreciate the women I met in this text, I really do. Survival is circumstantial and sometimes almost defiant. However, I refuse to believe that they were always the meek creatures they were shown to be, a mere shadow of the men in their lives. I just wish we could have met the other side too. ...more

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May 12, 2021 Divya Pal Singh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Despite lyrical sentences like

Beyond the stretch of green fields, the hills take on the hue of peacock feathers. The paddy fields, the sky and the hills dazzle the eye. Occasionally, a rainbow arches right across the sky. The river borrows a bit of the rainbow and mixes the colours on its own liquid palette. When the river flows through the leafy banks of trees, it turns green; the sky adds a tinge of orange in the afternoon; amid the sand banks, it looks brown and sombre. From time to time,

...more

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Sep 16, 2020 Pretty Little Bibliophile rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: assamese-original-translated, indian-literature, ne-literature

The Loneliness of Hira Barua is a collection of 15 short stories by Arupa Patangia Kalita, translated from the original Assamese মৰিয়ম আষ্টিন অথবা হীৰা বৰুৱা, by Ranjita Biswas. It is a collection of tales set in the beautiful land of Assam and a wonderfully visual one at that.
At the core, these stories all revolve around women in various stages of life - young Mainao, the outspoken and righteous Surabhi Barua, married Nibha-Bou, to Kuntibala who showers love blindly upon her son, Brinda khuri, ...more

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Feb 09, 2021 Soha rated it really liked it

When simple writing meets provocative thoughts. Delightful, poignant and short!

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Aug 14, 2021 Sukanya Gogoi rated it really liked it

I had made it a point in the beginning of this year to explore as many stories I can, fictional and non-fictional accounts, oral narratives and folklore based on my region. My inquisitiveness took me to a number of libraries and bookshops to collect Assamese literary gems and I successfully got my hands on a number of books written in Assamese. Those books however lay unattended till date due to other commitments that came in the way. I’ll definitely catch up with my huge Assam pile before the y I had made it a point in the beginning of this year to explore as many stories I can, fictional and non-fictional accounts, oral narratives and folklore based on my region. My inquisitiveness took me to a number of libraries and bookshops to collect Assamese literary gems and I successfully got my hands on a number of books written in Assamese. Those books however lay unattended till date due to other commitments that came in the way. I’ll definitely catch up with my huge Assam pile before the year ends.TBH the size of the pile intimidates me. So I tried to divert myself from that huge TBR and picked up this relatively small collection of translated short stories which I finished in a few hours.

‘The Loneliness of Hira Barua’ the title of the book, is one of the 15 stories and happens to be my favourite of all. I’ll get back to that again. But let me just point out a few things I didn’t like about Patangia’s writing. There were two stories in particular that I didn’t like at all, which kind of read like traditional values slapping modernity in its face, misrepresenting women as perpetrators, criticising women for being non submissive, making independent choices and not adhering to norms. I wonder if that was the author’s intended style of writing but the tone of the message certainly determined my comprehension. I don’t think the translation is to be blamed. It would’ve read worse to me in Assamese.

If I disliked this about the author, I also appreciate her for incorporating the raw essence of Assamese culture in most of her stories.
The first 5 stories are clustered as ‘Her stories’, plainly women centric. All of them equally heart rending. The Girl with Long Hair was especially haunting, which vividly reflected the patterns of discrimination operating against women in society. The story of Surabhi Barua in particular showed how women’s independent thoughts are trivialized and condemned , how women are systematically subordinated, how they are targeted to be silenced if they dare voice out their opinions. Patangia also gives a voice to women trapped in conflict ridden regions.

There are stories of women being raped and tortured by forces in power. There are subtle references to the psychological impact of violence on women in ‘Ayengla of the Blue Hills’. Patangia also focused on the conditions of the Assamese middle class , shedding light on the ordinary everyday practices of Assamese people, reflecting the temporal pattern of life in general.

I’ve already mentioned my favourite short story. It made me cry like a baby all throughout. I wish I could hug Hira Barua’s dog Sonali, fondly called sonamoni. I am an overthinker and just like Hira Barua feared that her life was beginning to resemble a lonely Englishwoman’s, I worried if I end up like Hira Barua. On a lighter note, I’ve comforted myself with positive thoughts. Our situations are different, the choices at our disposal are different which changes the whole story, isn’t it? ...more

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Jun 10, 2022 Khyati rated it liked it

It’s a collection of 15 short stories amalgamating the culture and customs with the lives of people living in interior parts of Assam. In majority of the books based on North-Eastern states of India, the main theme is social and political disturbance; which is important in terms of social awareness.

However, any state’s identity is beyond the social/political upheaval its going through and this book brings the beautiful aspects of one such state on a reader’s platter.

The stories revolve around ...more

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Apr 19, 2021 Geeti Mohapatra rated it liked it

Since the author wrote it originally in Assamese, it was meant for the Assamese audience, who know the history of unrest in the hills and are familiar with the feeling of living in a disturbed area. This makes it a little difficult for an outsider to relate to the stories. The stories were poignant and had a lot of mundane details about the lives of its characters. Those details however weren't boring at all. Also, I felt some of its allegorical prose, which was intended to be very powerful and ...more

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Nov 22, 2020 Sanjay Chandra rated it really liked it

A collection of 15 short stories by the Indian author, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner. The stories are diverse - mostly about the trauma of the violence for the innocent people in Assam. Then there are stories about the loneliness of the old, many of them not from that part, but settled there - not wanting to go back to their native places. The old find themselves single in the winter of their lives, their children or other relatives having gone out to earn living. Heart touching stories.

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Jun 03, 2021 Aruna Kumar Gadepalli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-read, bought-in-2021, fiction, indian-writers, my-collection, translated-books

15 Stories that are translated into English deal with various aspects of life, society, and culture of Assam - Urban as well as Rural.

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Jan 17, 2021 Rajashree Chowdhury rated it really liked it

The review of this book can be found on my blog. The following is the link:

https://mycanopyin.wordpress.com/2021...
...more

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Mar 12, 2021 Apurva Nagpal rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: translated-books

The Loneliness of Hira Barua by Arupa Patangia Kalita is a collection of short stories translated from the Assamese by Ranjita Biswas.

These stories revolve on multiple themes, both socio political and personal; dealing with trauma and grief, family and patriarchy, sometimes creating a web of memories and sometimes blending traditional folklore with storytelling.
I found some stories deeply moving and poignant, like the opening story from this collection about a group of women who resort to a shel ...more

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Dec 23, 2020 Barsha Roy Chowdhury rated it really liked it

There is an air of nostalgia and sombreness in the way Arupa Kalita weaves each story. The Loneliness of Hira Barua is a collection of 13 very beautiful and eloquent short stories, centering women and their emotional turmoil. This book has been translated from Assamese by Ranjita Biswas and is considered a huge contribution to the Assamese literature. These stories of the past- the trauma, the hardships, the baggage, the loneliness- they carry an essence of traditional folklore of Assam.

Arupa Ka ...more

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About Arupa Patangia Kalita

Arupa Patangia Kalita

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Arupa Kalita Patangia (aka Arupa Patangia Kalita, Assamese: অৰূপা কলিতা পতংগীয়া) is an Assamese novelists and short story writer and known for her fiction writing in Assamese. Her literary awards include: the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad award, the Katha Prize and the Prabina Saikia Award. In 2014, she received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for her short stories book named Mariam Austin Otho ...more