Editor's Note
HOMEWe are offered a window into the male psyche through the stories in Out of Print 52.
The works range from views of traditionalism and patriarchy, to factionalism, opportunism, trauma, the tragedy of being left behind and the effect that aggression and its attendant anxieties have on the sensitive.
Aotemsu Jamir takes us into a wild view of Naga life and politics. Through the unruly characters and outrageous events that pepper ‘The Verminator’, we arrive, eventually, at the scene of a public debate where one of the characters, confronted by the divisiveness that dominates the people of the region, has a drastic reaction.
In Maaz Bin Bilal’s ‘Underwear’ we are introduced to the mindlessness of violence as a young man in the hills recounts, to a group of city friends, the vicarious details of how he and a group of young men attacked another.
Two stories, set in Kashmir, open a view of life in the Valley. Younis Ahmad Kaloo’s ‘Aunt and Niece’ gives a sense of the paranoia and anxiety that pervades the region, even as some semblance of daily life re-establishes itself. In Ghulam Mohammad Khan’s ‘Flag Vendor’ news of a distant war plays into a family’s struggle to survive even as a young man must try and understand his father’s motivations. Both stories are rich with visual descriptions of street and town.
In Ankush Banerjee’s ‘Air Your Bones with My Heart’ a survivor from a conflict region must deal with his trauma. As protagonist and wife engage, separately, in the process of bringing a working rhythm to their lives together, the cause of the trauma, revealed in the course of the narrative, forms an oppressive background.
Another story where the main characters internal thought processes are excavated and laid bare in their vulnerability is Nandini Devdutt Tripathy’s ‘Tattaiya’. Living alone in the outer suburbs of a big city, a lost young man encounters another life in his barren living space.
Manju Kak’s ‘May I Have Your Autograph Please!’ presents one side of a dialogue, where an autograph seeker approaches a young poet who has just won an award. Through the course of the conversation, the vulnerability of the older man is revealed as he runs through his life as a writer.
Kailash Wankhede’s ‘The Round Table’, translated by Bharathbhooshan Tiwari follows a group of four friends who wander in and out of the boundaries of their neighbourhoods with carefree abandon. Written with intention, their play reveals their individual natures; when they arrive at a confrontation about a mango tree, the engagement between the all the individuals who enter the fray peels back layers of caste prejudice, injustice, patriarchy and rebellion.
Out of Print continues to post updates on the Out of Print Blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The list of stories is presented on a plain background this time, to mark the forthcoming transition to a new website. This will most likely be our last time on the current website and we wished to showcase the cover design, by Yamuna Mukherjee that uses images from a piece of Kalamkari or crafted-by-pen fabric depicting stories from Indian mythology.