Book Review: There Was No One At The Bus Stop by Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Translated by Arunava Sinha

Book: There Was No One at the Bus Stop

Author: Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay

Translator: Arunava Sinha

Pages: 121

Price: INR 120 (Kindle version, paperback available @ 171)

'It was one thing to be alone by oneself, but quite another thing altogether to feel lonely even in the company of others.'

Debashish, a widower and father of a six year old boy Robi, falls in love with Trina. Trina, a married woman with two teenage children, reciprocates this feeling. But, the consequence of this forbidden relationship is harsh: she is shunned by her family, and in her own house, she lives like a stranger.

Debashsish, haunted by the suicide of his wife, avoids being in his own flat. Apart from Trina, the only comfort in his life is his son, Robi, who constantly misses his mother.

What’s the point of living like this when you don’t exist for your family, thinks Trina, and she finally decides to leave everything for good, and go to Debashish, who would be waiting for her at the bus stop.

But it’s a strange, strange day!

Is it so easy to cut all the ties? Would she be able to leave her life and live in the house of the man she loves?

There Was No One At The Bus Stop is a story that doesn’t really have many twists and turns, yet it keeps you engaged. It portrays loneliness so beautifully that you almost feel it; you don’t want to blame Trina or Debashish or Trina’s husband,  Sachin (who knows everything), or their children for what they are doing. To be honest, many times, I found myself feeling emotional - how Trina feels when she visits her children’s room after a long time, her moments with her son or husband. The emptiness Debashish feels when his son, Robi, isn’t around.

Reba, Trina’s daughter, seemed too mature and rude for a twelve years old girl, though. 

The narrative is a slow paced soliloquy, which I found deeply soothing. It’s an account of just one day, like any other day, but too intense for Trina and Debashish.

The book is translated by Arunava Sinha, one of my favourite translators. There’s something about his writing; it instantly pulls me in. The writing creates such beautiful imagery. 

The whole story unfolds in just one day, and I felt as though I was walking alongside the characters wherever they went. It was like nothing else existed except for them and that scorching afternoon and the quiet moonlit night.

It’s not a book that you finish quickly, even though it’s just 120 pages long; it’s something you savour slowly. I am very fond of Bengali stories and anything written by Arunava Sinha, so, not surprisingly, I loved this one too.. Also, I'd like to read more stories by Srishendu Mukhopadhyay. 

My only problem: there are no quotation marks for dialogues, which I generally find very disturbing.

If you enjoy reading slow paced, contemplative stories about human emotions and relationships, No One At The Bus Stop is definitely worth reading. 

I won this book as a prize for my entry in Bookish League blog hop, hosted by Ritu Bindra.

You can read my entry - 'The Classics Swap'.