Kolkata: Sahitya Akademi awardee Rahman Abbas' new novel "On the Other Side" unfolds a world of patriarchy, caste prejudice, religious intolerance and exploitation in the name of faith.
The novel covers the psychological dilemma of an enlightened, eccentric and liberal man from Mumbai living in an orthodox Muslim society.
In the novel, Abdus-Salam Kalshekar’s only aspiration was to publish his Dastan-e-Ishq, a seven-volume ‘Saga of Passion’, before his death.
While Salam could only complete three volumes, an author sets out to write a novel about Salam, unveiling the fifty-three diaries about the latter’s past amours that consume the saga. It also reveals a certain beloved whom Salam could never bring himself to write about.
While Salam’s life unfolds a world that is riddled with patriarchy, caste prejudice, religious intolerance and exploitation in the name of faith, the deeper conflicts of love and abandonment are revealed in this expertly crafted narrative, now available in an English translation.
An existential novel set in the context of Indian society, it raises questions not only about our lives but also about the form of the novel itself. It exposes the process of Islamization in Indian Muslim society in a unique way with undertones of both seriousness as well as humor.
This book has received the Maharashtra State Urdu Akademi Award for the year 2011. Now translated to English, it is currently on pre-order and scheduled to release across the country on 30th June, 2024.