The Changeover (Kalantara)

The Changeover (Kalantara) one of the successful novels of Mohanty is written in the background of one devastating cyclonic storm that occurred in 1971 in Odisha. In the novel the author is particularly sensitive to the sordid reality that surrounded the village life in post-independent societies. The degradation of human conduct and erosion of societal values and constraints and a resultant conceptualisation of a cosmic cataclysm as a definite conclusion to these evils is the underlying framework of this novel. The storm that blew through the landscape therefore finds an analogue in the minds of men which is presented as salubrious and having the qualities of cleansing and purifying a stained soul. There is an epical sweep and magnitude in the description of the storm which points out the depth of the author's intense experience that occasioned many a poetical passages in the novel. However the lyric intensity is never lost and beautifully sustained till the end. Nature in the novel assumes the status of a character promoting mental metamorphosis which informed the lives of each and every character in the novel. The illusoriness of human suffering aggravated by the natural calamity makes them to look for a metaphysical solution in the holy texts and scriptures.