On a Truck Alone, To McMahon

Nabaneeta Dev Sen b.1938 is one of the most versatile Bengali female writers of India today. Her spontaneity, unique style of expression, vast and varied experience of life are evident in her poems, short stories, novels, features, and essays. Her wit and humour, sense of detachment together with heart-to-heart sensibility give her writings a personal touch that is hard to ignore. Some of her well-known works are Bama-bodhini, Nati Nabanita, Srestha kabita, Sita theke suru. An internationally known poet, she is widely respected in the academia as well. She was a professor of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University in Calcutta and is the founder secretary of the Indian National Comparative Literature Association. Dev Sen has served on many boards and committees in different capacities. She was the Member, Advisory Board for Bengali, Sahitya Akademi in 1978-1982; and Member and Convenor, Bharatiya Jnanpith Award Language Advisory Committee, 1975-1990. She has received many awards including the Gouridevi Memorial Award; Mahadevi Verma Award, 1992; Celli Award from Rockefeller Foundation, 1993; Sarat Award from Bhagalpur University, Bihar in 1994; Prasad Puraskar; Sahitya Akademi Award, 1999. Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English. Thirty-one of his translations have been published so far. Twice the winner of the Crossword translation award, for Sankar's Chowringhee (2007) and Anita Agnihotri's Seventeen (2011), respectively, and the winner of the Muse India translation award (2013) for Buddhadeva Bose's When The Time Is Right, he has also been shortlisted for The Independent Foreign Fiction prize (2009) for his translation of Chowringhee. Besides India, his translations have been published in the UK and the US in English, and in several European and Asian countries through further translation. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, and lives and writes in New Delhi.

Prologue

Taking the Flight
The Book of the Gathering
The Book of the Forest
The Book of Kaziranga
Dark Shadows in the Forest
The Great Brahmaputra
Jeep Babu
For The Sheer Joy of It
Who Wants to Cross Over?
A Heart Filled with Light
The Book of Preparation
The Inner Line
Enter the Dragon
Never Shall I Leave You, My Love
If My Best Efforts Go Unanswered
I Must Go, I Must Go
Mr Sen and Mrs Sen
Elephant! Cheetah! Jackal!
Madras Hotel
Late at Night, a Sliver Moon
Funeroo Coming Your Way Tonight
The Night Leaves Us Behind
Wake Up, Miss Muffet
Fikar Not
Of Man and Trout
Nuruanang Inn
Caught in the Heartless Beams
Andhe kinare andhe rate jaayen toh jaayen kahan
One, Two, Three, Four, There's the Bed, There's the Door
First Day, First Light
Hello, Mrs Lalwani
Tawang Gompa
Ani-Gompa
The Inimical Number Three
Beyond Reach
STD!
The Return Journey
Lama Mia!
Do Not Go into the Dark, Girl
Now That's a Feast
The Land of Draupadi
Room within a Room
Who's There? Who's There?
The Birds, They Are Singing
In Every Life, in Every Generation, Endlessly
Breakfast Is Ready
The Picture-maker
A Hudred Miles a Hundred Miles
Twilight in the Afternoon
Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai
Dwa Suparna

About the Author and the Translator