Sunderban Delta Publication

Voices of socially disempowered hegemonic positions Gautam Maitra, a bilingual writer is a prolific storyteller in weaving stories that are a kaleidoscope to life with objective experiences only to give us a myriad vision of the Indianness that strives for existence. Set in the turmoils of South Asia, Floating Towel and a dozen Short Stories visualizes the trajectory of family relationships, disenchantment, violence, greed, the changing lifetimes and abject senselessness of fanaticism. It is a fabric of a middle-class person namely Budhu, an archetype, an epitome of normalcy – a person so deeply rooted in the attitudes, customs and feelings of a native Bengali middle-class man that it could essentially be an alter-ego of any Indian Joe. Maitra’s Floating Towel and a dozen Short Stories, a compilation of various short stories that were written across the span of two decades, is divided into twelve chapters with the life and times of the protagonist Budhu in the depiction of existential

Sunderban Delta Short Story Series                                                                             Copyright © 2019 Gautam Maitra Cover Design and Illustration © Jayanti    CONTENTS       Foreword I   Introduction iii 1 Floating Towel Pg 1 2 The Two Strings Pg 8 3 Question Paper Pg 16 4 A Date with the Lost World Pg 20 5 A Bizarre Talking Competition Pg 32 6 The Land of the Blue River Pg 41 7 The Search for Oasis Pg 45 8 Reflections Pg 54 9 Economy Class Traveller Pg 57 10 Just Two Days , More ! Pg 64 11 A Ghetto’s Cab Pg 73 12 Revelation P