Six Stories – Bhagirath Mishra

About the Author

Bhagirath Mishra’s life has been diverse and eventful since childhood. He was born and raised in a remote village in Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal. Surrounded by palm groves, paddy fields, and neighboring tribal settlements, his village also had The Baitarani River flowing through its center. However, in the eyes of the villagers, the river was just a canal—the Baita Canal. There was only one primary school and sub-post office and only two grocery and goldsmith shops in the entire village. Belda Bazaar, 9 kilometers to the east, and Keshiari Bazaar, 9 km to the west were the closest bigger markets that had a lot of traffic there for two days a week. The only hope for transportation is the path built by the feet of people for ages. There are no government-run roadways.

About The Translators

Amita Roy, a former associate professor in English, is based in Kolkata. She is a translator, short story writer, reviewer, and poet. She has four volumes of translations, a collection of short stories, and a book of poems to her credit. Her translation of Abanindranath Tagore’s Khirer Putul (The Doll of Condensed Milk) has been inducted into the postgraduate curriculum of English Literature at Burdwan University. This book was also shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Award for English Translation in 2022.

Subhashis Gangopadhyay (b.14 November 1958) is a poet, critic, essayist, and bilingual translator who writes in both Bengali and English and has several books of poetry and prose to his credit. A co-editor of the well-acclaimed Bengali poetry magazine Kabitapakshik, his poems, translations, and literary critiques have been published in different Bengali little magazines, in e-zines like Translators Black Robert Journal, Kaurab, Moria, and in the Indian Literature— the Sahitya Akademi’s (National Academy of Letters) bimonthly journal featuring original works in English and English translations of works in regional Indian languages. The author is a retired government officer and a Chartered Accountant by profession for whom writing is a passion.

Mrinal Kanti Dasgupta (b. Feb-25,1941) was an honorary Professor of Plant Pathology, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. He has authored/ edited numerous books and proceedings, many reviews, and research papers in history, theory, experimental, and technological fields, besides technical, semi-technical, and popular science articles and extension literature. He also supervised several students to PhD. Besides his professional field, he wrote essays on science, agriculture, tribal risings and their significance, and contemporary issues, as well as literary essays and poems in English and Bengali. He has propounded the concept of Ecosociology to study cooperation and conflict, pluralism, and separatism in society, as well as man-woman relations from the perspectives of evolution and ecology. He has done, since 2003, translations and transcreations between Bangla and English. He has published a book of English translations of short stories. A transcreated story has been included in the Oxford India Anthology of Bengali Literature (OUP, 2010).