Saga of a Feminist Writer 1

 In 1981, my first Odia short stories collection ‘Sukhar Muhan Muhin’ (‘Facing Happiness’) was published. Neither I had prepared its manuscript nor was it known to me. Veteran publisher Sahadev Pradhan, the proprietor of Friend’s Publishers anthologized it with my short stories published in an Odia literary magazine ‘The Jhankar’. Publisher inaugurated and presented this book to me in the reception party of my marriage with Jagadish. The writers who were witnessing that event marked the inaugurated book an all time historical one by signing their autographs on it. It is needless to say that by that time Jagadish made him established as an iconic  figure in Odia fiction writing and also made  me celebrated among his readers as a       legendary female character Goutami in his   fictions.

 At the middle of Jagadish’s novel ‘Knishka-  Kanishka’, its main female character  Goutami turned to a stone sculpture. This  was symbolic representation of my mental  status in just post marital period. Marriage  was a major set back for me. I found myself  in totally different socio cultural back  ground and the alienated environment of coal fields area also made me more exiled. The image of Jagadish in my pre marital life was no more and I encountered a husband Jagadish, who was very much different from his lover’s image. Sexual affinity seemed to me more a marital rape and slowly I grew a temporary frigidity and infertility in me. I tried to paint my experiences, observations from life in my Odia stories like ’Nija Gahirare Nije’, 'Dura Pahadara Chhabi’ and ‘Bipanna Samayara Chinha Bada Byaktigata’ etc. These stories have been anthologized in my collection ‘Nija Gahirare Nije’.

Marriage brought two different realizations for us. When jagadish, a known bohemian and nihilistic person turned to an optimistic one, I turned in to more a nihilistic. The changes in me, I think, drew me more towards feminism. My story ‘Dura Pahada ra Chhabi’ was on my end of fascination in conjugal affinity, “Bipanna Samayara Chinha Bada Byaktigata’ was on her developed frigidity and ’Nija Gahirare Nije’ was representing a will to escape from these marital hegemonies. I think, Sanjay- Goutami’s wedding turned me more a feminist.

But feminism, or distinctively Western feminism that time didn’t like the idea of mother hood and I wanted to be a mother. I was under treatment of Dr. Sukumar Mitra, a famous gynecologist of that time in Odisha and delivered our first child in 1985. These consequences and the want of motherhood made me to think and accept feminism differently from western perspective. While Jagadish was busy with painting Goutami’s transformation to stone in Kanishka- Kanishka’, I wrote my stories on new ideas of feminism which are totally separated from Western radical views in my different stories, and were anthologized in the book ‘Amruta Pratiksha Re’, (later it was published in English as ‘Waiting for Manna’). Jagadish was awarded by Odisha Sahitya Akademy for his novel in 1990, where i got this award in 1993 for my above mentioned book.

After my marriage with Jagadish, my in laws expected that I would change my surname according to Jagadish. But at that time I was some how known to Odia readers and I was able to create an identity of myself as a bold and serious female writer. My first anthology of short stories had also been published, It seemed to me that changing my surname might be a denial status to my writings which I had been produced before my marriage. It seemed to me change in surname certainly be the change in identity. I denied changing my surname and thankful to Jagadish that at that time he stood beside me and supported my reason for not to change my surname.

One of Jagadish’ elder brothers asked me: What is the identity of a woman more than her husband’s identity?

One very eminent poet and another a female editor of female oriented magazine also asked me to change my surname as they thought that would be beneficial for my kids’ marriage in future.

I kept my daughter’s name without any surname attached to any caste or religion.

I think to be in love with any one and to change one’s identity for love is not same thing. If it would be then why any husband can never think to change his surname according to his wife? Is it expected that a woman should only show her love through obligation socially?

Recently I found a survey carried out by Facebook in May found that more women are changing their name on marriage: some 65% of married women in their 20s and 30s still do, and 80% of women in their 60s. (See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/16/changing-your-last-name_n_3287883.html)

Is it not about 'embracing feminism' or the female mass still subjugated with patriarchal milieu as suggested by Simone de Beauvoir in her book ‘The Second Sex’ in last century?

At

What is the essence of being a woman?

Jaydeep Sharangi: What is the essence of being a woman?

Me.: Many times I have stated that I differed from Simon de Beauvoir in her 'Other' theory where she says “one is not born but rather, becomes a woman.” I think a woman is born as a woman. There are inherent physical, behavioral, emotional, and psychological differences between men and women and we affirm and celebrate these differences as wonderful and complementary. These differences do not evidence the superiority of one sex over the other but rather, serve to show that each sex is complemented and made stronger by the presence of the other. As a different unit, similar to man, the female mass has their right for equity as well.

The real essence of women I think lies with femininity, which has often been misquoted by our feminists. For many feminist thinkers, after marriage a family breeds patriarchy. Happily married women are considered false and double-crossing. The titles of popular feminist books from the early movement highlight the split between gender feminists and women who chose domesticity. Jill Johnston in her Lesbian Nation (1973), called the married women are heterosexual females 'traitors'; Kate Millett in her Sexual Politics (1970), redefined heterosexual sex as a power struggle; whereas in Kathrin Perutz's Marriage is Hell (1972); and Ellen Peck's The Baby Trap (1971), argued that motherhood blocks liberation of a woman. These feminists always try to paint the marriage as legalized prostitution; heterosexual intercourse as rape; and they come to the decision that men are the enemy; families are prisons.

Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer were against marriage in their earlier thoughts. But they tried to skip from their anti marriage ideas in later period. Marriage is a three-sided arrangement between a husband, a wife and the society. That is, the society legally defines what a marriage is and how it can be dissolved. But marriage is, on the other hand, for partners of marriage; it is more of an individual relationship than a social matter. This is the main reason of crisis. Individually, I think marriage must be taken out of the social realm and fully back into the private one. The society should withdraw from marriage and allow the adults involved to work out their own definition of justice in the privacy of their own homes.

Our feminist thinker always tries to skip the idea that offspring begging is a natural instinct of a woman and it is related to our ecological and environmental situation. Anything against it may resulted to disaster. We find a woman has to pass through a different stage in her life span and there is a phase where a woman feels an intense need of her own offspring. Feminists of second wave feminism have always tried to pursue a woman against the natural law because it is seemed to them that motherhood is barricade for the freedom of a woman. But if the woman has her own working field, doesn’t have it mean that her working assignments would demand more of her time, of her sincerity and of course of her freedom? If a woman can adjust herself and can sacrifice her freedom for her own identity at outside her home, then why she shouldn’t sacrifice some of her freedom for parenting when parenting is also a part of one of her social identity? And it could also be solved by rejecting the patriarchal role of parenting. We have to insist the idea of the division of labor in parenting. This equally shared parenting is now common in Western, but still in South Asian countries we find it as a taboo factor rather because of economic inequality between men and women, our crazy work culture, and the constrictions that are placed on us by traditional gender roles.

The conflict between American mother-daughter feminists Alice Walker and Rebecca Walker is well-known chapter for Western feminism. Alice Walker, the mother, the second-wave feminist, obviously had anti-motherhood ideas as the other western feminists of her time. But Rebecca Walker, her daughter and a feminist of third wave discussed in her book Baby Love about how motherhood freed women like herself from their roles as daughters, and how this provided the much-needed perspective to heal themselves from damaged mother-daughter relationships and claim their full adulthood. What happened? This latest article is mired in unresolved childish hurt and anger (especially in the chapter “How my mother’s fanatical views tore us apart”), which would be all well and good except that she strikes out at her mother by striking out at feminism. I personally think the bitterness between her and her mother, as any woman who has ever fallen out with her mother knows, is a very painful experience and note to self, one that probably shouldn’t be written about too much in public.

In her book Baby Love, Rebecca Walker writes directly about unadulterated excitement and pride about becoming a mother. Rebecca argues that motherhood frees us from childhood. It is the most important step a woman can take because it creates another human being and because it makes a woman an adult. I found this to be true for myself. In one of my stories, ‘Waiting for Manna ‘(1989), published much more before Baby Love, where I want to discuss the queries after a lifetime of wondering whether to have children, wondering if the sacrifices are worth it, wondering if life is full to bursting enough already -- how does our generation of women decide to have children?

So, for me the essence of being a woman lies with the real femininity she possesses.

< An excerpt from my conversation with Jaydeep, recently published in the book ‘Portrayal of Women in Media & Literature’ (ISBN:978-93-82647-01-0), edited by Arvind M. Nawale, Shivani Vashist and Pinaki Roy and published by ACCESS (an imprint of Authors Press, Delhi))>

Making of a Novel: Creativity Versus Narratology

“With a novel, which takes perhaps years to write, the author is not the same man he was at the end of the book as he was at the beginning. It is not only that his characters have developed--he has developed with them, and this nearly always gives a sense of roughness to the work: a novel can seldom have the sense of perfection which you find in Chekhov's story, The Lady with the Dog.” ― Graham Greene

When Saptarshi Mallick requested me to write an essay on narratology of novel, I hesitated most to accept his request, because as a student and teacher of literature what I would write may not be believable for me as a creative writer. This may seem to be contradictory for a critic, but this is the fact for which I had to add the second part in this essay. First part may appear to readers as more academicals, more clumsy and more a word game, as it bears so many references, quotations and frankly speaking the portion is over burdened with other’s opinion. Those, who are not interested in theorists’ word game may skip it voluntarily. But I can assure, the words of second part of this essay ascend from my experience and conviction and Graham Greene’s quotation from which I have started second part of my essay, seems to me as my own words coming down from Greene’s pen.

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Writing a novel is a very complex process, where an author has to practice two contradictory actions at a time. One is alienation and other is penetration. In alienation, the author has to alienate the characters from himself with a sense of objective correlativity, restricting his own emotions, considering the character as an outward object, predetermined to correspond to the preexisting idea in its living power. The other way is to penetrate at the same time and assimilating author’s own experience, feelings and emotions in to the characters. In this way creating an emotion through personal factors (penetration to character) and evidence linked together with forming an objective correlative (alienation) should produce an author’s detachment from the depicted character and unite the emotion of the literary work. Thus a character develops an identity, which can construct a significant characterization for a novel.

An Intimate Conversation with Sarojini Sahoo

“When your novel The Dark Abode (Gambhiri Ghara in Odia), first published in Odisha, it was asserted as an obscene one by some groups of readers and critics. But later this novel was translated into English, Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam and was much acclaimed. Do you think Odia readers are lacking of good readership?” asked Dr. Meena Soni, an avant garde writer of Hindi in a published interview.

(Dr. Meena Soni)                         (Dr. Sarojini Sahoo)

And below is my answer:

मीना: आप का चर्चित उपन्यास गंभीरी घर विभिन्न भाषाओं में अनुदित हुआ है. हिंदी में बन्द कमरा शीर्षक से प्रकाशित हुआ है. इसके अलावा अंग्रेज़ी, मलयालम, तथा बांग्लादेश से बांग्ला में प्रकाशित हो कर देश -विदेश में लोकप्रिय हुआ है. पर जब ओड़िया में उसका प्रकाशन हुआ था तब उसे ‘अश्लील’ करार दिया गया. क्या आप मानती हैं कि ओड़िया पाठकों में कुछ कमी है जो उन्हें अंतर्राष्ट्रीय स्तर तक नहीं पहुँचने देता?

सरोजिनी: ऐसा नहीं है कि ओड़िया पाठक ने उसे नकारा है. आज भी गंभीरी घर एक बेस्ट सेलर माना जाता है. ओड़िया साहित्य से परिचित ऐसा कोई भी न होगा जिसने मेरा वह उपन्यास न पढ़ा हो. असल में उपन्यास में सेक्स को गौरवान्वित कभी नहीं किया गया है. यह वस्तुतः एक सेक्स- विरोधी उपन्यास है, जिसमें सेक्स से ऊपर उठकर प्रेम को पहचानने की बात कही गयी है. उपन्यास का दुसरा केंद्र-बिन्दु है आतंकवाद. माइक्रो से मैक्रो लेवल में कैसे आतंकवाद मानव को एक असहाय खिलौना बना देता है, उसका वर्णन है. इन सारी बातों को अनदेखा कर जो मेरे उपन्यास में अश्लीलता ढूँढते हैं, उन्हें क्या कह सकती हूँ?

मीना: गंभीरी घर उपन्यास दरअसल एक पाकिस्तानी मुस्लिम चित्रकार और भारतीय गृहिणी महिला के बीच इन्टरनेट के जरिये पनपे प्यार की कहानी है जिसपर हिन्दूवादी संगठनों ने एतराज भी जताया है. इस प्रसंग पर आपका क्या कहना है?

सरोजिनी: फंडामेंटलिज़्म हमारी सोच को इतना घटिया बना देता है कि हम किसी भी सुन्दर चीज को अपने सांप्रदायिक-स्वार्थ से ऊपर उठकर नहीं देख पाते. जब गंभीरी घर का बांग्ला अनुवाद बांग्लादेश में लोकप्रिय होने लगा तब ओडिशा के अध्यात्मिक गुरु बनने का ढोंग रचने वाले एक प्रमुख साहित्यकार ने मुझसे प्रश्न किया था कि क्या अगर नायक हिन्दू और नायिका मुसलमान होती तो क्या यह उपन्यास बांग्लादेश में इतना लोकप्रिय होता? अब इन्हें कौन बताये कि उपन्यास लिखते समय यह प्रश्न कदापि मेरे मन में नहीं आया था कि नायक और नायिका का धर्म क्या होना चाहिए. दो देशों के बीच कटुता के माहौल में भी प्रेम का बीज उग सकता है- यही था प्रमुख थीम जो आगे चलकर राष्ट्र बनाम व्यक्ति के प्रश्न पर उलझ गया.

Read full interview from: 

सरोजिनी साहू से एक अन्तरंग बातचीत

JOURNEY OF 'SENSIBLE SENSUALITY'

Glad to find that Patrick Jemmer compared my thoughts on ‘other theory’ with Simone De Beauvoir’s in Page 22 of ‘Engage Newcastle Journal Volume 1’, published by Newcastle Philosophy Society, UK.

http://books.google.co.in/books?id=YlN_kz8th4cC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Glad to see that my profile has been included among 50 Philosophers of 21st Century, prepared by Italian philosopher Alexandros G. Sfakianakis.

Sfakianakis (pen name: Germs.Sporoi) has tried to find 50 successors of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the German Philosopher and author of FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF THE METAPHYSIC OF MORALS, in 21st Century.

Besides me, Vandana Shiva is only Indian in that list.

http://pravilnoli.ru/pravilnoli/germs-sporoi-immanuel-kant-8d

The names which are included in Germs.Sporoi's list are: Mark Sacks,Sarojini Sahoo,Mark Sainsbury (philosopher),Nathan Salmon,Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez,Michael Sandel,David H. Sanford,Fernando Savater,Geoffrey Sayre-McCord,Thomas Michael ("Tim") Scanlon,Richard Schacht,Jonathan Schaffer,Theodore Schick,Tad M. Schmaltz ,David Schmidtz,Michael Scholar,Egbert Schuurman,Roger Scruton,Neven Sesardić,T. K. Seung,Michael J. Shapiro,Jeremy J. Shapiro,Stewart Shapiro,Gila Sher,Vandana Shiva,Thomas Lloyd Short,Theodore Sider,Peter Simons,Irving Singer,Peter Albert David Singer,Lawrence Sklar,John Skorupski,Brian Skyrms,Peter Sloterdijk,John Jamieson Carswell "Jack" SmartBarry Smith (ontologist),Michael Andrew Smith,Tara A. Smith,Joseph D. Sneed,Philippe Sollers,Timothy Sprigge,Kyle Stanford,Jason Stanley,Bonnie Steinbock,Hillel Steiner,Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer,Bernard Stiegler,Harry Stopes-Roe,Mauricio Suarez,Richard Swinburne,Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas

Link to my book 'Sensible Sensuality':http://www.amazon.ca/Sensible-Sensuality-A-Collection-Essays/dp/8172735413 

JOURNEY OF TWO STORIES

Journey of a Story-1

In 1989, I wrote a short story ‘Rape’. Actually this was written to read in a workshop arranged by 'Bharat Bhavan', Bhopal. The condition was, a Hindi version of the story should be read on a seminar and the participant would discuss on it. So, I wrote the story and Jagadish translated it into Hindi, which later published in Samakaleen Bharatiya Sahitya, a journal of Sahitya Akademy.

At Bharat Bhavan workshop, the story was highly appreciated and one of Marathi participants translated it into Marathi and it was also published in a Marathi journal. So, before it got published in Odia, it was already translated into Hindi and Marathi, And when it got published in Katha, an Odia fiction oriented magazine, it created an unexpected storm. Some Odia writers and readers blamed me with an allegation to promote obscenity. The controversy has still been remembered.

This story was translated into English and was anthologized in Harper Collins Book of Oriya Short Stories. Later it was translated into Assamese, Telugu and Malayalam. In 2005, when I was in a literary tour to Bangladesh, ‘Pratham Alo’, an established daily of Bangladesh, published Bangla translation of that story in its page to introduce and welcome me to their country.

Other Hindi and Bengali translations of this story by Dinesh Kumar Mali and Arita Bhoumik Adhikary have been anthologized in my Hindi and Bengali short stories collection Rape Tatha Anya Kahaniyan and Dukha Apramita respectively.

After 16 years of debut of this story, a young writer of Odisha once phoned me in a midnight in drunken state and rebuked me with vulgar slang and obscene words. He asked me which sexual urge made me to write this story.

In 2012, it was translated into Spanish and was anthologized in a short story collection. I am yet to get complimentary copy, but have read its reviews from different international journals.


And now, in 2013, I received a complimentary copy of SHAKTI, a French translation anthology of short stories written by 12 Indian women writers, starting from Ashapurna Devi of Bengali to Urmila Pawar of Marathi. I feel glad to see that Jean Claude Walter has translated my story ‘Rape’ as ‘Le Viol’ there. The book is edited by N. Kamala and Clarie Barthez and it has been published by Goyal Publishers and Distributors Pvt Ltd, Delhi.

Journey of a Story-2

1992

I wrote a story in Odia titled 'Dukha Apramita’ which was published in ‘Jhankar’, a reputed magazine of Odisha.

2006

The story was included in my Odia anthology Dukha Apramit published by Vidyapuri, Cuttack.

2008

Ipsita Sarangi, a very sensitive poetess of Odia translated it into English and was anthologized in my second English short stories collection Waiting for Manna.

2008

Dr. Gopa Nayak translated it for Muse India under the title ‘Misery Knows No Bound’ and was published in its 22nd issue:http://www.museindia.com/viewarticle.asp?myr=2008&issid=22&id=1315

2009

Maithili version of that story was first published in e journal Videha and later was published in print magazine ‘The Sadeha’. Gajendra Thakur was its translator. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/videha/gMwd1dKL2ho/q8C1Edk73QIJ

2009

This story was translated into Bengali first by Mahbub Anindo and was anthologized in Aloklata, published by Bangla Prakash, Dhaka in 2009. Later it was also published in his blog at http://pateswary.blogspot.in/2013/06/blog-post_16.html

2009

Dinesh Kumar Mali translated it into Hindi and published it in his blog ‘Sarojini Sahoo Ki Shreshtha Kahaniyan’http://sarojinisahoostories.blogspot.in/2009_06_01_archive.html

2010

Arita Bhowmick translated it for second time and was anthologized in my Bengali short stories collection Dukha Aparimita, published by Anupam Prakashani, Dhaka.

2012

Hindi translation of this story by Dinesh Kumar Mali was included in my Hindi short stories collection Rape Tatha Anya Kahaniyan, published by Rajpal & Sons.

2013

Chicheng Hsu, a famous contemporary Chinese poet, writer and translator translated it into Chineses and was published in Jume 22 issue of ‘Square’, the literary supplement Weekly of Keng Shen Daily News. http://www.ksnews.com.tw/newsdetail.php?n_id=0000440927&level2_id=118

DHARSHITA: A Bengali version of Sarojini Sahoo's Odia story

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CHOWKATH: A Bengali version of Sarojini Sahoo's Odia story

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My Story Series-9 // Conjugal Vignette

My mother didn’t want the maid servant working for us anymore. But we were not ready to get rid of her. In fact, we all had become so dependent on her we thought we could not manage without her. There was no pump in the well and the cooking was done by burning wood. The maid would cook and fill up about fifty buckets of water in the tanks in the bathroom, kitchen, and even for the dishwashing. She would wash the clothes and the dishes, fry rice, and even comb our hair. She would massage our bodies with mustard oil. She would stitch buttons and quilts. She would water the plants in the garden. She would sometimes cut wood into small pieces to be burnt for cooking. She was like a machine ready to work as soon as you switched it on.  Yet my mother didn’t see her in that light.

My mother knew the reason behind our desire not to throw her out. She knew her children would not agree with her. Sometimes, she would fight with our father and leave the house and go to her sister’s who lived in the other corner of the town. She would stay at her sister’s place for the whole morning or sometimes the whole afternoon and then her sister and her husband, my uncle and aunt, would console her and bring her back to our house. Once she locked herself in a room. My father was so angry that he punched the door hard enough for the nails to come out and half of the door was hanging out. I was not at home when that incident happened but my younger brother, who was in seventh grade during that time,who could not ride a bicycle properly, pedaled it to my college that day. He waited for a full forty minutes until my class finished. I was scared to see him because my mother was always threatening she would take poison. My younger brother told me about my mother’s brooding and my father breaking the door. I immediately took a rickshaw and came home. When I came home, my mother was eating her wet rice in a corner and my father was reading the newspaper on his bed.

After that, many unpleasant incidents took place. Once I was awoken by the sound of glass bangles. At three in the morning my mother was filling up the tanks in the bathroom and the tank for dishwashing with the water from the well.

“What are you doing?” I had asked her.  “Why are you filling up the tanks at three in the morning? Are you mad? Who wants you to do this?” I took away the bucket and the jug from her hand. She would not give them to me. She did not lose her temper; neither did she cry. On the other hand, she told me, “None of you really listens to me because you have to fill up the tanks, wash the dishes, and mop the house.”There was a strange wetness in her voice; more than the tears in her eyes. I sat down with my hands on my head. I could not understand what had to be done.

My mother would talk about her misery to all our neighbours just like Mrs.Chowdhury did. She could never understand she should not be talking about her private life in public. She could not understand everyone was laughing at her.

Once, she was shouting at my father at the top of her voice. I could not tolerate anymore and tried to put my hand in front of her mouth and stop her. She pushed my hand from her mouth and saidto my father, “Go ahead. You can hit me.” My father’s image was slowly and steadily getting tarnished and we could not do anything about it.

One day, I realized why should there be so much fuss over a maid. Someone else can be employed in her place. I called the maid and told her to go back to her village. We would pay you all that we owed her and on top of that, we would give hera hundred rupees more.

“Aunty is just creating a mountain out of a mole hill,” she said and started crying out loud.

“No one wants you to worry about that,” I said.

It was my final year before I graduated from graduate school. My younger sister was doing her undergraduate workand my younger brother was doing his secondary school finals.I asked myself then, why do such strange incidents take place? Why does a smooth simple life suddenly become complicated? Why does it all get changed in a span of a few seconds? Why does trust, built over years, suddenly dissolve? Why does a person who was so dear suddenly becomes a stranger? These questions came back tohaunt me when I thought of my mother and saw Mrs.Chowdhury in front of me.

I freed my hands from Mrs.Chowdhury’s grip and said, “I am connecting you to the General Manager. You tell him everything. He is your husband’s superior so he can drive some sense into your husband.”

( Read full story from http://scentofownink.blogspot.in/2013/04/my-story-series-9_30.html

CALL FOR PAPERS

ESTEEMED FRIENDS,

KINDLY GO THROUGH THE CALL FOR PAPERS POSTED BELOW.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Name of Book

Dr. Sarojini Sahoo: Trendsetter of Feminism

Edited by

K. V. Dominic

Published by

Authorspress, New Delhi

Original scholarly and unpublished critical articles on the works of Dr. Sarojini Sahoo are invited for the book Dr. Sarojini Sahoo: A Trendsetter of Feminism which will be edited by me and published by Authorspress, New Delhi by the end of this year. The submissions shall not be less than 2000 words and more than 6000 words. The anthology welcomes the submission of papers that meet the general criteria of significance and theoretical excellence. Authors are requested to emphasise on theoretical paradigm and feminine issues raised by Dr. Sahoo against the backdrop of proper objectification of suitable primary materials and documents. The papers should not be published in parts or whole or accepted for publication elsewhere. The documentation style to be used in the articles is strictly MLA style 7^th Edition. The paper shall be accompanied by a declaration stating that the article is original, unpublished and no part of it is plagiarized. The submissions shall be sent by email to the editor. Email Address:prof.kvdominic@gmail.com

Last Date for Submission: 31 July 2013.

The contributors will receive a copy each free from the publisher.

A Note on Dr. Sarojini Sahoo

Well known for her frankness, Dr. Sarojini Sahoo is a prime figure and trendsetter of feminism in contemporary Oriya literature. For her, feminism is not a gender problem or any confrontational attack on male hegemony. She accepts feminism as a total entity of female hood, which is completely separate from the man's world. She has an avant-garde idea in feminism. Kindle magazine from Kolkata, has enlisted her name among 25 exceptional women of India in its March 2010 Issue. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/27460652/Kindle-Small-Book-56-Pages-240210)

She writes with a greater consciousness of women’s bodies, which would create a more honest and appropriate style of openness, fragmentation and non-linearity. Her fictions always project a feminine sensibility from puberty to menopause. The feminine feelings like restrictions in adolescence, pregnancy, fear factors like being raped or being condemned by society and the concept of a bad girl etc. always have thematic exposure in her novels and short stories.

She writes her critical appraisals in English and her creative stuff in Odia. Sensible Sensuality (ISBN: 978-81-7273-541-8) is her famous collection of essays published by Authorspress, New Delhi. Her other works including novels and short stories in English are as follows:

The Dark Abode (2008) (ISBN 978-81-906956-2-6), English translation of her Odia novel Gambhiri Ghara has gained a reputation for its feminist outlook and sexual frankness. The novel has also been published from Bangladesh in Bengali as Mithya Gerosthali (2007) (ISBN 984 404 287-9). Prameela K. P. has translated this novel into Malayalam and has been published as Irunda Koodaram by Chintha Publishers, Thiruvanthapuram. Rajpal & Sons, Delhi has published its Hindi version as Band Kamra (ISBN 978-81-7028-954-8).

Besides her two short stories collections in English, such as: Sarojini Sahoo Stories (2006) (ISBN 81-89040-26-X) and Waiting for Manna (2008) (ISBN 978-81-906956-0-2), she has published a bunch of short stories at her blogScent of Own Ink at: http://scentofownink.blogspot.in/

If a contributor needs Dr. Sarojini Sahoo’s novel and short story collections for primary source material, kindly write to me. I will request Dr. Sahoo to make the material available to him/her.

With Love, Regards, and Wishing you a very Happy Day,
Your Loving Friend,

Prof. Dr.  K. V. Dominic
(English poet, critic, short story writer, editor)
Secretary, Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors and Critics (GIEWEC)
Editor and Publisher, International Journal on Multicultural Literature (IJML) (ISSN 2231 - 6248)

Editor-in-Chief, Writers Editors Critics (WEC) (ISSN 2231 - 198X)
Publisher, New Fiction Journal (NFJ) (ISSN 0976 - 6863)
Address: Kannappilly House, Thodupuzha East P.O., Idukki Dist.,
Kerala, India, Pin: 685 585. Phone:  91+9947949159
Email: prof.kvdominic@gmail.com 

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