Oblivion and Other Stories

<p><i>Oblivion and Other Stories</i> is an anthology of twenty short stories by Gopinath Mohanty the doyen of Oriya (now Odia) literature. The stories written across a half-century (1935-1988) sample his oeuvre of writings and the variety of his themes-from 'Dã' (mid-1930s) to 'Oblivion' (1951) to 'The Upper Crust' (1967) to 'Lustre' (1971) and 'Festival Day' (1985).<br>They capture the forgotten others the banality of marginal living on life's edge-of the poor the tribals and ordinary people-invisible in the feudal landscape of Orissa in the twentieth century.<br>Originally written in Oriya by the Padma Bhushan awardee these have now been translated for the first time into English and recreate the social life of mid-twentieth century India.<br>The embellished past in the stories is not one of nostalgia but a full-toned portrait of society. Marginalization is the running thread: dispossession disenfranchisement class/caste social exclusivity and lack of education.</p>