Book Review by Farah Imam
Title: Her Story: Beyond Dimension
Author: (Raina) Rituparna Khan
Publisher: Haoajan Publishers
Rituparna Khan, an academic professional and artist, devotes her collection of short stories, Her Story: Beyond Dimension, “to the strong and beautiful being underneath the sky who runs and propels the globe in the truest direction… The Woman.” The singular destiny and universal history of women across time and space echo forbearance, creation, nurture, passion, perseverance, and more through every odd of society, recalling Virginia Woolf’s words, “As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman, my country is the world.”
Her Story: Beyond Dimension is a collection of tributes to nine real-life historical revolutionary women whose contributions to society came at great sacrifice and were largely unsung in their time. Questioning the traditional realism, her stories offer multi-vocal, polysemous narratives with a story enclosed within a story and with exploratory, informative details about each influential historical woman character. In the genre of historical fantasy fiction, she highlights contributions as well as sacrifices of these remarkable women and synchronises historical and mythological facts with fantasy, offering us a compendium of breathtaking magical stories.
The short story ‘Myth to reality’ is a tribute to the last pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra VII Thea Philopater (70 BC – 31 BC). In the story, Orion Dasgupta was fascinated by the history and culture of Egypt and venerated the glorious queen to the point of obsession, so he readily agreed to the opportunity of his dream project of rehabilitation of dwellers in the vicinity of Aswan Dam over the Blue Nile. To his surprise, during his project, he encounters Cleopatra herself. An imaginative melding of magically connected experiences not only across time but also across identity is presented by the author when Cleopatra addresses him as her lover, Mark Antony. In the mythology, the enigmatic queen was estranged from her lover, Mark Anthony, at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. This encounter of Orion Dasgupta with Cleopatra as the incarnation of Cleopatra’s lover Antony is a wish fulfilment having a cathartic effect on him and breaks the curse of unrequited longing of lovers.
The cycle of history resonates in her short story, ‘Reni and Gauri’. This story is a tribute to Gauri Devi (1925-1991), the leading woman figure who advocated the Chipko Movement to prevent deforestation in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, India. Inspired by the story of bravery and courage of environmental activist Gauri Devi, the author reincarnates her as Reni. The voice of Gaura Devi inspires across time, speaking through Reni. Her voice testifies to the lineage of ordinary women who changed the course of history with determination and consciousness and would continue to fight for environmental protection. The author nudges us to refrain from hero worship and continue to have faith in the spirit and courage of the common man.
The story ‘Last Flight’ is a tribute to and inspired by the life and sacrifices of Neerja Bhanot (1963-1986), an Indian head purser who died while saving passengers on Pan Am Flight 73. The flight had been hijacked by terrorists during a stopover in Karachi, Pakistan, on 5th September 1986. The story, ‘Cosmic Connection’, pays tribute to the Indian-born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla. Riya is a teen aspiring to become a space scientist. On her thirteenth birthday, she is gifted a magical sojourn to Columbia, the space shuttle, where she meets Kalpana Chawla and her crew. To her surprise, Kalpana addressed her as her mother, urging her ‘to live my dream, live your dream, and live the dreams of numerous children, especially the girls to fulfil their dreams’, thereby motivating and inspiring the young teen and emphasising the connected nature of our experiences and journey.
The story, ‘Rendezvous with Reflection’ is a tribute to the legendary Anne Frank (1929-1942), author of Diary of a Young Girl, which documents her hidden life during the Holocaust. During the COVID quarantine period, the protagonist feels in a slump, perusing through the pages of Anne Frank’s book ‘Diary of a Young Girl’ multiple times, only to find Anne Frank herself conjured up in the mirror as her reflection. Often reality proves not too congenial to our existence; this doesn’t always leave us in despair because the imaginative and creative power of humans’ triumphs through tough times. The spectacle of Anne Frank leaves an imprint upon the protagonist.
The short story, ‘First Lady’, is a tribute to Dr Kadambini Ganguly (1861-1923), the first practising lady doctor of British and South-East Asia. She narrates her life of hardship and courage, where even in her early years she puts her life at risk to treat her ailing cousin suffering from cholera in an abandoned cow shed. This is a tribute to all the female doctors who have worked hard for the cause of people but instead faced prejudice and distrust due to unquestioned patriarchal assumptions of society.
Rituparna’s short story ‘A Self-Taught Artist’ is centred around Sunayani Devi (1875-1962), the first modern woman artist of the Bengal School of Arts. Hiya, a twelve-year-old daughter, has an fondness for painting. To the surprise of her mother, she etched perfectly a portrait of a woman gazing at the full moon from her terrace, the same picture that was found in the archive of Sunayani Devi in the wash technique, a technique in which she had no prior training. Possessed by the spirit of Sunayani Devi, she begins to narrate the story of the artist’s difficult and courageous life. Her voice is shared by the authorial voice that criticises the patriarchal culture with the inflamed rhetoric that is direct, empowering and persuasive.
In ‘A Mellifluous Evening’, Arun Chowdhury, a young man in his late twenties, trained in Hindustani classical music by his mother with no formal training or certifications, suffers from failures to make a musical career and struggles through paltry economic conditions. His icon is the famous Indian Thumri singer, Begum Akhtar (1914-1974), the queen of ghazal. Disheartened by the vagaries of life, a ray of hope illuminates his existence with the vision of Begum Akhtar’s spectre, and her mellifluous voice leaves him mesmerised. Only his love for music could sustain him in these trying times with an indomitable spirit.
Fantasy, in these stories, provides an outlet for the artiste within. It challenges the unified constrained self to go beyond limits in the realisation of their dreams.
In ‘A Liberated Soul’, while awaiting the second dose of vaccine during bitter COVID times, the protagonist meets a little girl seeking to sell a little bird to the only person who would readily set the bird free as a symbol of “a COVID-free world, a happy and free world of peace and liberty”. We hear the poignant, tragic story of Joan of Arc, who was burnt at stake in 1431 BCE, through the voice of the little girl who reveals the bird to be none other than Joan of Arc’s only friend, Balami.
Rituparna’s collection Her Stories: Beyond Dimension is a riveting and astounding read, gripping the readers to the edge of their seats with lore from mythology and history, with fantastical gymnastic poetic renditions of supernatural coincidences and timeless messages of consciousness and diligence for society. Each of her stories is also accompanied by the character sketch of the historical figures done by Juli Baruah, a renowned painter from Jorhat, Assam. History is not a dated, fixed historical time but returns to inspire, encourage and motivate.
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Farah Imam is an avid reader, passionate creative writer, poet, and literary critic. Her works are recognised in various publications.
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