Reader's Diary #668- Manik Bandopadhyay: Primal Passions

Inspired by last week's Amazing Race visit to Bangladesh, I went in search of Bangladeshi short story authors. Fortunately, I was able to find a whole bunch at Banglapedia, the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, my first Bangladeshi short story turned out to be a very nasty piece of work. Not written poorly, just nasty in terms of its characters and arguably its cynicism.

"Primal Passions" by Manik Bandopadhyay begins with a man named Bhikhu who finds himself injured and alone during monsoon season after a heist with his gang has gone wrong.

Despite the mention of a gang and heist, I mistakenly began to root for Bhikhu. He's sleeping outside in a storm, fending off snakes and insects, he's thirsty, and the wound in his arm has turned septic. I guess I wanted it to be a Jack London sort of tale, but set in south Asia instead of the Yukon. How wrong I was.

About three quarters of the way through the first page (it's 3 pages long) I began to realize how despicable Bhikhu really was. And just about everyone else. But so what if Manik Bandopadhyay didn't work for the Bangladesh department of tourism, is the story a good read?

Somewhat, in a driving by a car accident sort of way. You didn't see it happen but you see the result and try as you might, it's hard to look away. The descriptions are well done but there's little build-up or climax. In the final paragraph Bandopadhyay refers to a civilized world. Until then, I wasn't sure he believed one actually existed.

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