Reviewed by K.S.Loganathan
Sucharita Dutta-Asane is a Pune based writer,editor and teacher. ‘These Tongues that Grow Roots’ is her second short story collection featuring 15 stories,some of which have appeared in anthologies in recent years. The stories deal with the themes of violence and social injustice, memory , fury and the helplessness of the weak and the marginalised caught “like a deer in the headlight’s cone”.
Lockdowns feature in two of the stories- ‘Interlude ‘ and ‘ Pinki’. In one, a lonely widower visits his father’s grave to seek company and in the other, an itinerant labourer pays a visit to a sex worker at the time of social distancing.These give fresh insights into life at the time of the pandemic.
Violence at the time of Partition and Naxalism continues to be Sucharita’s focus in three stories . Familial ties and reactions to events feature in six stories. Of these, ‘Petni’ and the inappropriately titled ‘War 2’ are memorable.
Sucharita’s prose has been commended for the innovative use of language. She has also been praised for tackling personal trauma with empathy. But the writing style is not uniform and some stories are replete with choppy sentences and narrative gaps which are a strain on the reader. Many of the titles do not capture the essence of the story and do not stick with the reader if one wants to recall a story .Nevertheless, there is enough meat in the writing , and some of the stories, especially those concerning contemporary relationships, are memorable.
Thanks to the author for arranging for a review copy of the book from the publisher.
