Six Stories – Abhijit Sen

About the Author

Abhijit Sen was born on January 28, 1945, in Keora, a village in the Barishal district of present-day Bangladesh. In the early 1950s, his family relocated to Kolkata, where he began schooling. His educational journey saw him moving between Kolkata, Jhargram, and Purulia before returning to Kolkata. Despite the disruptions, he completed his high school and parts of his college education during this period. While working for a general insurance company in Kolkata, Sen pursued higher education, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in History. His work required extensive travel across various mufossil towns and villages in Bengal, an experience that profoundly influenced his literary works, grounding them in the soil and history of Bengal. In 1969, Sen made the life-altering decision to join the revolutionary Naxal movement. This choice led him to sacrifice his job, family life, and permanent residence in Kolkata. He later spent several years in Malda, in northern West Bengal, before recently returning to Kolkata. Sen’s first novel, Rohu-Chandaler Haar, was published in 1985 and later translated into English as Magic Bones in 1992, a collaborative publication by Abhinav Publications (Delhi) and Facet Books International (New York). The novel earned him the prestigious Bankimchandra Memorial Award in 1992. Additionally, he received the Saratchandra Memorial Award from the University of Calcutta in 2005. Most of the characters in Sen’s stories are drawn from his rich and varied life experiences, especially those during his travels through rural Bengal. His writings reflect a deep connection to the land and its history, resonating with authenticity and rootedness.

About The Translators

For most of her professional life, Madhura has been a teacher and an academic administrator at a school and welfare organization in Kolkata. Madhura’s journey in literary translation began after she completed a certification from the Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University. Since then, she has been actively involved in various translation projects. Her collaborative spirit is evident in her work with other passionate translators, leading to the formation of Translation & Beyond. This group is currently working on a project to translate a hundred African poems from English to Bengali, a testament to the power of collaboration in the literary field. She also participated in a translation workshop organized by The Antonym Collections, under the mentorship of V. Ramaswamy, to translate Abhijit Sen’s short stories. She is translating a biographical novel by Rupa Chakraborty from English to Bengali.

Rituparna Majumder is a PhD scholar in the Department of
English Language and Literature at the University of Calcutta.
Her research interests lie in Contemporary Global Fiction,
Posthumanism, Disability Studies, Queer Studies and Buddhism.
Her article was published in the book “Lekhalikhir Pathshala”
(Gangchil), edited by Dr Mrinmoy Pramanick. Her research articles
found space in noted national and international journals. She is an
avid reader and critic of poetry and music. She is a keen follower of
the ecology of her native place, Champahati, a semi-urban retreat
in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal.

Sarban Bandyopadhyay is an Assistant Professor of English at
Shri Mahanth Shatanand Giri College, Sherghati. He obtained
his master’s degree in English from Jadavpur University, Kolkata,
in 2014. He translates between English and Bangla. His fiction and
nonfiction translations from English to Bangla have been published
in the speculative fiction webzine Kalpabiswa.