By Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee
She has been the IAS Officer of the 1979 batch always on the move from Manipur to Mumbai looking after administration and social reforms. Writing fiction was for her no less a duty but a passion and being an Administrative officer she never forgot her obligation to place vital human feelings over the dry and drab social codes. This truth is the truth of life and love. Clark Zlotchew once said, “Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being ‘false, untrue,’ yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction.” Nothing can be more true than this about the stories of Vandana Kumari Jena and her latest book – ‘Over the Edge’ has this two inches ivory of truth in nearly each of the stories it comprises.
Here the writer mesmerizes the readers by creating a stirring mélange of thrill, suspense, agony, and ecstasy. In the stories, a reader enjoys the eclectic mix of love and longing, recriminations and regrets, murder and mayhem. Some stories are pregnant, some are edgy, and others are whimsical as claimed in the introduction to the book. Over the Edge is a riveting collection of short stories which cover a wide range of emotions and feelings. The stories are short and crisp, often with a twist in the tale, which retains the interest of the readers. The stories are contemporary and usually set in an urban setting. The writer draws upon her wide experience to craft her stories. The stories, “The Ambush, and Blood Wins” for instance are based in Manipur where she has spent many years. Although the book is a work of fiction her characters appear to be drawn from real life and that is why the book will captivate readers. Every aspect of human nature is touched. While the emotions she portrays are complex, her style is simple and lucid and her language has a smooth flow. A most important feature is that without being a hardcore theorist as a feminist, she often inked her stories from a woman’s perspective, chiefly because she understands and empathizes with them maintaining an artistic distance. Stories entertain and never for a single moment cease to edify. There are a huge amount of comedy elements mingled with the tragedy that makes the readers laugh and cry in turns. While the incidents she depicted make one smile tears trickle down their cheeks at the same time. Great writers are not preachers nor do they sympathize by ignoring the personal bearing, they empathize and Vandana Kumari exactly did that in the 24 stories of the collection. Her favourite stories are Surabhi, Coma; A Storm is Brewing, Over the Edge, Ghost story, Queen for the day, Burning Bright, and The Quest.
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In the story, Eureka Moments, Neena a character taken from real life is liked by the readers for their jubilant attitude and unnerved excitement. Take for example the first titular story Over the Edge not just haunts, it rides the reader’s consciousness about unhappy marriage when Manisha weeps at the end saying, “I don’t know who the tears are for myself, for Rahul, or for my unborn child, my baby who will never know his father.” The assaults and attempts of Rahul who once used to stand behind the Jasmine bush for her in the college hostel, are simply unexpected and the agony of a simple girl who wanted love and flowers for her happiness. The graphic description of two dhabas Olympian Heights and Louisa Point shows mastery of the narration with casual but interesting remarks stitched to it such as in the description of the washroom, Swachch Bharat is really at work. She also focuses on how many die in taking selfies and again this is used for committing suicide or murdering the unwanted child of the beloved. In the second story, A Storm is Brewing, written in the same first-person narrative, the use of imagery is sheer beauty.
In literature, nature is used to reflect human emotions and this pathetic fallacy is so deftly used, and the fantastic longing for love reached a climax in the stormy night made so clear in the line, “I felt fulfilled at last,” and here genuine love for her sister’s husband is celebrated in the candid confession. “I will yearn for Mohit every night,” and here the last line is a superb example of poetic love.
Vandana Jena’s artistic forte consists of her poetic profundity. Women falling and losing life in taking selfies is almost an obsession with her and in many stories, she makes it a focal point. But she goes beyond this in ‘Ghost Story’ in which she philosophically says, “Death always comes as an end to everyone. To some, it comes unexpectedly. It is often underserved.” What a range she can move to in the story ‘Queen for a Day’ where the dreams of a toilet cleaning girl are sketched in such a heart-touching way and the character of the guardian angel that Kriti met in Jaipur flight. Sometimes her whole story comes down to one single sentence as in ‘Burning Bright,’ – ‘I had a wife and the rest of the story is a continuation. (The author is an Associate Professor and Head Post Graduate Department of English as well as a Trilingual writer. He can be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com)
