Eureka Moments of Fiction: Vandana Kumari Jena’s Over the Edge

Most important feature is that without being a hard core theorist as a feminist, she often inked her stories from a woman’s perspective, chiefly because she understands and empathises with them while maintaining an artistic distance. Stories entertain and never for a single moment cease to edify. There is huge amount of comic elements mingled with the tragic that make the readers laugh and cry by turns .While the incidents she depicted make one smile tears trickle down their cheeks at the same time

Book Review

Title of the Book: Over the Edge

Name of the Author: Vandana Kumari Jena

Publisher: Rupa Publications India, New Delhi 2022

Pages 208 Price Rs. 295/-

She has been the IAS Officer of 1080 batch -- always on the move from Manipur to Mumbai looking after administration and social reforms. Writing fiction was for her no less a duty but a passion and being an administrative officer she never forgot her obligation to place vital human feelings over the dry and drab social codes. This truth is the truth of life and love. Clark Zlotchew once said, “Fiction has been maligned for centuries as being false, untrue, yet good fiction provides more truth about the world, about life, and even about the reader, than can be found in non-fiction.” Nothing can be more true than this about the stories of Vandana Kumari Jena and her latest book Over the Edge has this two inches ivory of truth in nearly each of the stories it comprises. Here the writer mesmerises the readers by creating “a stirring mélange of thrill, suspense , agony and ecstasy. “In the stories a reader enjoys the eclectic mix of love and longing, recriminations and regrets, murder and mayhem. Some stories are pregnant, some are edgy, others whimsical as claimed in the introduction to the book.

Over the Edge is a riveting collection of short stories which cover a wide range of emotions and feelings. The stories are short and crisp, often with a twist in the tale, which retains the interest of the readers. The stories are contemporary and usually set in an urban setting. The writer draws upon her wide experience to craft her stories. The stories, “The Ambush” and “Blood Wins” for instance are based in Manipur where she has spent many years. Although the book is a work of fiction her characters appear to be drawn from real life and that is why the book will captivate readers. Every aspect of human nature, is touched. While the emotions she portrays are complex, her style is simple and lucid and her language has the smooth flow. Most important feature is that without being a hard core theorist as a feminist, she often inked her stories from a woman’s perspective, chiefly because she understands and empathises with them while maintaining an artistic distance. Stories entertain and never for a single moment cease to edify. There is huge amount of comic elements mingled with the tragic that make the readers laugh and cry by turns .While the incidents she depicted make one smile tears trickle down their cheeks at the same time. Great writers are not preachers nor do they sympathise by ignoring the personal bearing, they empathise and Vandana Kumari exactly did that in the twenty four stories in the collection . Her favourite stories are ‘Surabhi,’`Coma’,’A Storm is Brewing,’’ Over the Edge’, ‘Ghost story,’ ‘Queen for the day,’ ‘Burning Bright’ and ‘The Quest’ .

In the story ‘Eureka Moments’, Neena, a character taken from real life is liked by the readers for the jubilant attitude and unnerved excitement. Take for example the first titular story. ‘Over the Edge’ not just haunts, it rides the reader’s consciousness about unhappy marriages when Manisha weeps at the end saying, ‘I don’t know who the tears are for – myself, for Rahul, or for my unborn child, my baby who will never know his father.” The assaults of Rahul, who once used to stand behind the Jasmine bush for her in the college hostel, are simply unexpected and the agony of a simple girl who wanted love and flowers for her happiness is heart wrenching. The graphic description of two dhabas Olympian Heights and Louisa Point shows mastery of the narration with casual but interesting remarks stitched to it such as in the description of the washroom,”Swachch Bharat is really at work” She also focuses on how many die in taking selfies and again this is used for committing suicide or murdering the unwanted child of the beloved. In the second story, A Storm is Brewing, written in the same first-person narrative, the use of imagery is sheer beauty. Some such aphoristic lines of poetic beauty, ’Some relationships are like the eucalyptus. They are not very sturdy either’. Comparison of human being with tree is not new in poetry but in stories it is something new. She weaves her stories of the identical twins having diametrically opposite features one impulsive, impetuous and outspoken while the other is sensitive and caring. Some complex issues related to surrogate love and unrequited love crop up in this wonderful story of psychological depth. The writer truly says, ‘Unrequited love is the best kind of love.” In literature nature is used to reflect human emotions and this pathetic fallacy is so deftly used …….and the fantastic longing of love reached a climax in the stormy night made so clear in the line ‘I felt fulfilled at last’ and here genuine love for her sister’s husband is celebrated in the candid confession, “I will yearn for Mohit every night’ and here the last line is superb example of poetic love “And every time a storm brews. I begin to hope.” Vandana Jena’s artistic forte consists in her poetic profundity. Women falling and losing their lives while taking selfies is almost an obsession with her and in many stories she makes it a focal point. But she goes beyond this in ‘Ghost Story’ in which she philosophically says “Death always comes as an end to everyone. To some it comes unexpectedly. It is often undeserved.” What a range she can move to in the story ‘Queen for a Day’ where the dreams of a toilet cleaning girl are sketched in such a heart touching way and the character of the guardian angel that Kriti met in Jaipur flight. Sense of humour is mingled with a tragic realisation: he felt as though he was Gregory Peck and she Audrey Heburn…except that Kriti was no princess”. Sometimes her whole story comes down to one single sentence as in ‘Burning Bright’: ‘I had a wife’ and the rest of the story is a continuation. ‘The Outsider’ is a long story and it too ends with the same line as that of Over the Edge, ‘I begin to hope”. Life has curves and loose traps, but it never stops anywhere. We must carry on. Each story is resonant with this positive vibe. When I used Chanel 5 in one of my poems my translator asked me if it is related to any TV channel. This is wonderfully clear in the story ‘Essence of Woman’ but it goes much beyond that. Each story of Vandana Jena deserves detailed analysis for their intense social meaning and focus on the human pulsation. After reading the last story of the volume, `The Iconoclast’ readers will search their image of iconoclast in Vandana Jena herself as she presents herself in spite of being preoccupied in the thick of administration nearly in all her writings from her first novel, `The Dance of Death’ in 2008 to her first collection of short stories, The Incubation Chamber 2014 ,The Future Is Mine,in 2015, One Rotten Apple in 2018 and her novel Clueless in 2019. In 2022 Over the Edge seems to be her most engaging fictional voice that will carve a sure niche for her in the world of Indian English fiction .

Dr/ Ratan Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor and Head, Post Graduate. Dept of English and Trilingual writer may be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com 

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