Bøker av Mridula Garg

But the controversy also took this remarkably frank and sensitive exploration of love and desire to many thousands of readers. It became, and remains to this day, one of the most celebrated works of contemporary Hindi literature.

रचनात्मकता का पल्लवन बेल की तरह आधार चाहता है, भले ही कैसा भी हो बस आकाश की ओर अवलम्बित, जिसके सहारे ऊँचाइयाँ पाई जा सकें । मैं और मैं इन्हीं भटकाते आधारों का अन्तर्द्वन्द्व है । मृदुला गर्ग का यह उपन्यास अपने भीतर के जगत को सच की तपिश से बचाने की प्रवृत्ति को भी रेखांकित करता है, क्योंकि सत्य से साक्षात्कार करें तो भीतर अपराधबोध पनपता है और झूठ में शरण लेने की लालसा--- । मैं और मैं कहानी है मृदुला गर्ग के दो कलात्मक और सशक्त पात्रों-कौशल कुमार और माधवी-के बनते-टूटते सामाजिक और नैतिक आग्रहों की । लेखिका के अनुसार, क्या था माधवी और उसके बीच ? उसके नहीं, माधवी और उसके पति के बीच ? कौशल जैसे प्याले में गिरी मक्खी हो । उसे देखकर वे चीखे नहीं थे, यह उनकी शालीनता थी । मक्खी पड़ा प्याला अलग हटाकर अपने-अपने प्यालों से चाय पीते रहे थे । लग रहा था वे अलग-अलग नहीं, एक ही प्याले से चाय पी रहे हैं और कौशल छटपटाकर बाहर निकल गया है । भिनभिन करके पूरी कोशिश कर रहा है कि उनके सामीप्य में अवरोध पैदा कर दे, पर उसकी भिनभिनाहट उनका मनोरंजन कर रही है, सामीप्य का गठबन्धन और मजबूत कर रही है । जुगुप्सा, वितृष्णा, हिंसा कुछ भी तो नहीं था, जो उसके अस्तित्व-बो/ा को बनाए रखता । एक ओर कौशल का अपने अतीत के लिए समाज को दोषी ठहराना और इस तर्क की बिना पर समाज की भरपूर अवहेलना, वहीं माधवी का समाज की खौफनाक होती शक्ल में अपनी चुप्पी को जिम्मेदार मानना । बाद में कौशल की नजदीकी से वह स्वीकारती है कि सृजन के लिए सब कुछ जायज है, मानवीय रिश्तों का बेहिस्स इस्तेमाल भी--- ।

DeScriPtion'As far as writing about sexuality is concerned, as long as [women] write like men,everything is fine. There is a protocol about writing about sex. As long as you follow thatprotocol, you're fine. In Chittacobra, the problem that people had with the supposedlyoffensive pages is that this woman treats her husband as a body and reduces him to acommodity... This was very hurtful to male egos. Women are forever reduced to bodiesand commodities but women aren't allowed to do that to men, to their husbands. Ithink this is the reason everyone got so angry.'-Mridula Garg on the charges ofobscenity brought against her when Chittacobra was first published.In 1979, Mridula Garg released her third Hindi novel, Chittacobra, the storyof an intense love affair between a young Indian woman-disconnected fromher home, social milieu, marriage and husband-and a gypsy missionaryfrom Scotland. There was an uproar-the novel was branded obscene and thepolice came to arrest her. But the controversy also took this remarkably frankand sensitive exploration of love and desire to many thousands of readers.It became, and remains to this day, one of the most celebrated works ofcontemporary Hindi literature.Mridula Garg's brilliant new translation brings this extraordinary book-asbold and distinctive in literary style as in its theme-to a new generation ofreaders.

'Your story has left me gasping. Though I did not remember the ferocious details, I had a fairly strong recollection of the incandescent feelings expressed in it. But I wasn't prepared for the full burst of passion shown by the lovers, and the fitting, though brutal, end. […] When did you write it? No, don't tell me. I know you wrote it soon after I left India. But let me assure you, dearest Maya, that the passion still abides with me… or shall I say, with us…'Almost forty years after the end of their passionate affair in New Delhi of the late 1970s, Kevin, a vicar devoted to the political struggle for Scottish independence, and Maya, a reputed author of Hindi literary works, re-establish contact-this time over email. As they slowly re-weave the delicate tapestry of their connection with each missive, they share the stories of their histories, interests, desires and despairs with each other. Ultimately, Kevin and Maya must realize, each on their own, whether the strength of their remembered passion can match the four decades of quotidian life they have both since accrued.Written with grace and sensitivity, The Last Email is a moving account of two lives lived with passionate intensity, and steeped equally in love and in memory.