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| Chha Mana Atha Guntha |
While browsing through the books at a bookshop day before yesterday, it came as a big but a pleasant surprise when I stumbled upon 'Six Acres and A Third' -- the english translated version of the famous Odia novel 'Chha Mana Atha Guntha' by Fakir Mohan Senapati (I had not the faintest knowledge about its existence before, that there could be an English translated version of the novel as well), and so I needed no second invitation to buy it at once. It couldn't have come at a better time either, when just a few days back I have myself finished translating one of his stories
'Patent Medicine' into English for our e-magazine, all thanks to BL Nani for giving me the honour (the opportunity to translate the story).
Well, my first brush with
Fakir Mohan Senapati was perhaps in my 7th Standard at school, when we had 'Dak Munshi' as one of the chapters in Odia Literature. That was such an emotional and moving tale about the relationship between a poor father (Hari Singh) and his English educated son who had started neglecting and looking down upon his own father! And then after all these years, came my way the pleasure to translate 'Patent Medicine' ~ a really funny story about a couple ~ for our e-magazine "Aama Odisha". While I was working on it though, I came across some other famous stories of Fakir Mohan Senapati through the book 'Galpa Swalpa'. But I had never read this classic novel 'Chha Mana Atha Guntha' ever before, though I have watched the Odia movie (acted and directed by my mother's maternal aunt - Mrs. Parvati Ghosh) based on the story quite a number of times. So this English translated version of the novel came as both a pleasant surprise as well as with a profound feeling of unalloyed satisfaction.
'Chha Mana Atha Guntha' or 'Six Acres and a Third' is one of the most ingenious and moralistic novels ever written in the history of Indian literature and the translators Mr. Rabi Shankar Mishra, Mr. Satya P. Mohanty, Mr. Jatindra K. Nayak and Mr. Paul St-Pierre have really done a very commendable job in keeping the inimitable, subtle satirical style of Fakir Mohan Senapati intact.
Set in 1899 during the times of feudal rule, the story's plot basically revolves around the wicked zamindar Ramachandra Mangaraj and how he first beguilingly tricks a simple-minded weaver Bhagia, making him to mortgage his six and a third acres of flourishing land and eventually grabs it. Since Bhagia fails to repay the loan, Mangaraj then gets his house pulled down and grabs that land and his cow "Neta" as well whom they treated as their child, leaving Bhagia and his wife Saria nowhere to go. Bhagia turns into a lunatic with grief on losing everything he had while his wife Saria gets murdered by Mangaraj and his conniving maid Champa. Though Mangaraj succeeds in usurping both "Neta" as well as the "six and a third acres" of land, but very soon the Law of Karma catches up with him, his fortunes decline and he gets doomed for his misdeeds. First he loses his wife, then gets imprisoned on charges of Saria's murder, his zamindari is taken away from him and given to a lawyer and all of his property is auctioned off. Finally Mangaraj breathes his last as he continued to be haunted by Saria's seemingly frail figure looming over him and saying, "Give me my six and a third acres!"
Quoting a beautiful line from the book -
"No one can escape his karma; one will suffer or prosper accordingly. No one can see a seed in the soil, but who can fail to notice it once it grows into a large tree?"
My Rating : 5/5
