Bhupinder Singh Maan

Bathinda, Punjab, India

‘Laal Ratta' (‘Crimson Red Shawl’) short stories are set in diverse geographical areas ranging from Punjab to Kashmir, and Nepal to northeast India. Sexual betrayal, political corruption, caste and class conflicts, rural-to-urban migration, and the psychic and emotional costs of modernity are the connecting themes. Mann’s portrayal of the quiet violence inflicted on women and the landless poor is gut-wrenching.

These stories demonstrate Mann’s range, social conscience, and structural ambition. The title story, ‘Laal Ratta’ is a Kashmiri pashmina shawl, which Rashid had given to Kamal to place on the grave/shrine of his sweetheart Taro, a young woman whose love, destroyed by the on-going conflict and occupation of Kashmir. The shawl, soaked in the "red of love," serves as the story's governing image: beauty, mourning, and desire woven together. Eventually Kamal fulfills this errand. He carries the shawl to Taro's grave — and experiences a release that the story presents as a form of catharsis for both the living and the dead. ‘Happy Ending’ is a playful story centred around Krishna, a trekking guide in Nepal. His romantic escapades with foreign women tourists on the trail explore fidelity, freedom, and commodified intimacy.