RATNO DHOLI: THE BEST STORIES OF DHUMKETU COMPILED AND TRANSLATED FROM THE GUJARATI BY JENNY BHATT

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BOOK NAME: RATNO DHOLI: THE BEST STORIES OF DHUMKETU

AUTHOR NAME: DHUMKETU (TRANSLATED FROM THE GUJARATI BY JENNY BHATT)

GENRE: SHORT STORY COLLECTION

PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS INDIA





As someone who enjoys writing and reading short stories, discovering Dhumketu’s collection of short stories has been a blessing. A prominent figure in Gujarati literature, Gaurishankar Govardhan Joshi, aka Dhumketu, has revolutionised Indian literature with over 600 short stories and 30 historical novels. I can only imagine the amount of potential and hard work that went into such ginormous figures. 


Ratno Dholi is a collection of thirty of his best stories, translated with sincerity and perfection by Jenny Bhatt. The collection begins with the most poignant tale titled ‘The Postoffice’, where a man’s wait for a letter from his abandoned daughter evokes a sense of empathy and fondness for the characters in less than three pages. From the very first chapter, the book draws your attention towards and gradually moves on to deeply engrossing and moving stories based on Gujarati culture and geopolitics. 


While some stories were unique and terrific, certain others did not have the same impact on me. Either I couldn’t grasp the ending well, or the translation wasn’t refined enough to bring out the true emotions it should have evoked. However, these stories were far fewer in number than those in the former category. 


Special mention to the cover and title, which are based on one of its short stories, ‘Ratno Dholi’, which is also my favourite one from the collection. This tale of love and loss between Ratno, the drummer, and Sundari, who dances to his tunes, has managed to stay with me out of all the stories. There’s also an exploration of humour, anger, betrayal, vengeance, repentance, and every other human emotion from a multifaceted perspective. 



This is a part of BlogchatterA2Z2026 challenge.

#penbooksandscalpel

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