Black Ice by Mahmudul Haque, translated from Bengali (Kalo Borof) by Mahmud Rahman, is drawn from the author’s real experience of the Partition, though on the eastern side of the border. Everybody has faced trauma, and everybody has been scarred, indelibly. Even after the liberation, in newly formed nation of Bangladesh, the memories remain and rattle.
The main protagonist, Abdul Khaleq, is a teacher in a decrepit old college located in the countryside close to a village. When he takes it upon himself to document the past, the memories coalesce with the scars, open up a world where he recalls the first love of his boyhood, the girl who spoke to the fish and the birds, his parents’ home and all the people who went in and out of those doors. He recalls the days of communal strife, the aftermath, and depression sets in. His wife does not empathise with his obsession with the past, and advises the couple on a last-ditch effort at salvaging their present.
Black Ice by Mahmudul Haque,
translated by Mahmud Rahman
HarperCollins Publishers
Rs.199