“Oriental Tales: Selected Bangla Fiction” -- By Helal Uddin Ahmed

Helal Uddin throws light on the many aspects of Bangladesh's Oriental Society, through his compilation of "Oriental Tales: Selected 
Bangla Fiction". 

The collection of twelve translated stories was originally written in the second half of the 20th century and it includes stories by many well known authors such as Syed Muztaba Ali, Humayun Ahmed and many more. The first three stories are by Balaichand Mukherjee who was a noted fictional writer of West Bengal (pen-name "Bonophool"). Credit is due to the compiler for being able to translate the stories without compromising Bonophool's precision in writing such short stories. The first three stories focus on the human experiences of gaining maturity ("Death of a Reader"), self-preservation ("Jagob") and regret ("Dual Dreams"). These three are then followed by East Bengal's noted humorist, Syed Muztaba Ali's "Saline Water". Set in the early 1900s, this heartfelt story is about a sailor's journey by sea to the land of dreams America in search of prosperity which turns out to be futile. Compiler Helal Uddin also includes three translated stories by noted fictional writers, Humayun Ahmed and Jharna Das Purakayastha. The stories are woven around the emotions of anguish and loss that people experience at the loss of a loved one and how altruism is at times repaid with indifference in a community respectively. This is followed by Nayan Rahman's narration of an adolescent girl's experience with sexual violence and how she plots her revenge on the perpetrator ("The Target").

Amongst the twelve stories, two of Helal Uddin's own stories are also included; "Oriental Tale" and "Paradoxical Project. The first one narrates a resolute man's struggle in overcoming depression and injustice that he was subjected to by an unethical society and the latter is a satirical interpretation of the drawbacks and inconsistencies in the development projects of Bangladesh. The final story is Sisir Chowdhury's "Lost in Limbo" portrays a man's strife with constant absolutism and perfidiousness in an Oriental Society.

The compiler hopes that the twelve translated stories will aid readers to have an idea of the human emotions experienced by the people and the mechanisms of living in Oriental Societies as that in Bangladesh.