Translation Fiction: Lalsalu (The Red Cloth)

Lalsalu is a novel by Syed Waliullah published in 1948 by Comrade publishers. It is a classic of modern Bengali literature. Waliullah was conferred Bangla Academy Award for this debut novel in 1961. By 1981 the book’s 10th edition was published. Lalsalu, was inspired by a shrine covered with red cloth that he would often pass when he lived in Mymensingh. Waliullah is often considered the pioneer of existential analysis of the characters psyche in the literature of Bangladesh. This is part 1 of a two part translation covering roughly the act 1 of the novel.

Mundane 6

This is part of a series of Micro Fiction based on the mundane slices of my daily life here in Bangladesh.
I get off the bus at Uttara and walk into the golden afternoon. Pedestrians splash through the mirage pools on the asphalt. I get on a rickshaw.

“Number 2 of 11.”

He starts paddling.

“Annyeong hashimnikka.”…

The Passerby

(I wrote this for Rochelle Wisoff’s FridayFictioneers as a 100 word story. But the premise and the themes demanded expansion.)
The old man first sees the boy on the front stairs. Later that day he was seen wandering the halls of the old Zamindar Bari by Piku…