Parallel Stories and Singhadwar

Real stories don’t have a beginning or an end. That’s because in real life, we are part of many events that are occurring simultaneously. In some, we are playing the part of a hero, in other stories, we are villains. In still others, the same people are insignificant bystanders. These lacunae in the linear narrative might be the reason for the genesis of the so-called parallel narrative, where this multidimensional aspect of individuals is taken care of. If I have to answer the question what is parelel stories to a laymen I would like to give example of Bollywood film ‘Life in a Metro’ or ‘Dus Kahaniyan’ where individual stories has intermingled in the narration just like life. Though not cent percent same this is the easiest and closest answer to the question asked..  Parallel narrative is an established style in Western literature as well as in cinema, but rare in Assamese language.

A Story named Sathor appeared in Prantik, the popular Assamese fortnightly in the year 2001 and over the years that piece had crafted it into a series of independent parallel stories. They have appeared in almost all the eminent Assamese magazines (mainly Satsori) as independent stories till the year 2012. If we closely observe the narrative structure of the stories together, we come to know that they are actually parallel stories. I have worked over the past fifteen years to join the divergent strands into a plot for what seems to be unique of its kind in Assamese literature - A chronicle of parallel stories, knitted together into a novel.  The Book has been named as Singhadwar (সিংহদ্বাৰ) or Heavens Gate and published by Bhabani Books.

The book deals with the depths of human psychology and tries to answer existential questions that have troubled the human race since eternity. It deftly entices the discerning reader with a highly experimental narrative, such as a journey through fictionalized art history, extensive graphics and some parts in graphic narrative