Our Non-Veg Cow and Other Stories

In this volume, Mahasweta Devi reveals a fresh new face to those who know her only from her hardhitting socially committed writing—as a writer of delightfully whimsical and funny children’s stories. This is a side of her personality that young readers in Bengal have enjoyed and savoured for over thirty years. This volume consists of ten favourite stories, selected by the author from Sandesh, a popular children’s magazine closely identified with the family of the renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray who edited and illustrated it for years. These irresistible stories abound with unlikely and colourful characters: a vehemently non-vegetarian cow, the household pet, who wolfs down fried fish and gets drunk on local spirits; an irrepressible prankster of a brother who gets himself and everyone else into trouble with his mischievous tricks; a father who thinks nothing of filling the entire house with hens and chickens while on an economic drive, and a teeming assortment of others like Chittu, the little creature who changes into a pebble or a mongoose at will. Mahasweta Devi is one of India’s foremost writers. Her powerful fiction has won her recognition in the form of the Sahitya Akademi (1979), Jnanpith (1996) and Ramon Magsaysay (1996) awards, the title of Officier del’Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres (2003) and the Nonino Prize (2005) amongst several other literary honours. She was also awarded the Padmasree in 1986, for her activist work among dispossessed tribal communities. Paramita Banerjee who has translated these stories has several translations to her credit. Nabaneeta Dev Sen who has written the introduction, is herself a well-established writer of poetry and fiction.