What Are The Best Choti Golpo Books To Read?

When we talk about ‘choti golpo’ or short stories, we have a special place for them in our hearts. Since they are so short, you would expect them to lack emotion or even not give you any insight into the characters, but no, there is so much packed into these few pages. ‘Feluda Somogro’ by Satyajit Ray is a collection, but many of the stories have been written to stand alone. A perfect read for someone who has very little time, yet wants to read a brilliant and entertaining story full of mystery, action and humor. Later on, I discovered ‘Golpo 101’ edited by Anindya Chattopadhyay for various authors under the umbrella of ‘Golpo’. It’s a wonderful collection of Bengali short stories – scary and strange and even surreal at times, but mostly delightful and real.

Darker philosophical stories of life are often found in the works of Nabarun Bhattacharya. A raw and surreal read, Kolkata Noir is not for the faint hearted but it certainly leaves a lasting impression. If you are looking for stories of a different kind, Chhotoder Sarat Chandra offers his classic themes re-worked in the form of short stories which are perfect for a quick read during your hectic schedule. I have already talked about Chhotoder Sukumar Ray which is a wonderful collection of Ray’s nonsensical verse and stories meant for children but not at all created for the young minds alone! Choti golpo has a beautiful quality of capturing major incidents of our lives through small packages of writing and all these four books do it wonderfully.

I can think of many of these stories as being even better as films. For one, Satyajit Ray, the celebrated filmmaker, was a Bengali and thus drawn to Bengali short stories for source material. But many other Indian filmmakers have been drawn to Tagore’s short stories in particular for their blueprints for powerful and visual narratives. Tagore’s stories are highly economical in their descriptions of setting and of people, yet perfectly precise. His dialogue is loaded with subtext and thus “crackles” on the page. Reading his stories is like reading the blueprints for films – one can easily imagine the camera angles and lighting for each scene as well as the pacing of the dialogue. Some of the stories have already been so adapted into brilliant films.

One image from a story can be just as persistent as the plot or the message of the story. The Kabuliwala's hand with the henna stain. The way light filters through the trees in a story by Bibhutibhushan. The silence of the large mansion in ‘The Hungry Stones’. These images from literature are frozen like photographs in our minds. They come up before us suddenly and transport us completely to the world of the story. This is the poetic power of literature. The best short story writers are visual artists. They create scenes full of light and shadow and detail that stay with us long after we finish reading their stories.