Description

Dwellings Change an English translation of Sahitya Akademi award-winning Bengali novel, Bari Badle Jai by Ramapada Chowdhury Separating himself from the joint family that includes his parents, Dhruva the protagonist rents a flat. The novel depicts a vivid analysis of the peculiar relationship between landlord and tenant, Dhruva’s humiliations at the hands of the landlord makes him feel that the relation is akin to that between zamindar and subject. Goaded on by his wife Preeti, and constantly witnessing the humiliations faced by other tenants in and around Calcutta, Dhruva decides that he must purchase a flat. Circumstances begin to favour him, obtaining a loan amount and luckily getting a plot of land he eventually manages to build himself a two-storied house Certain practices which Dhruva had hitherto thought of as corrupt do not seem to be wrong any more because of his self-interest. Family members begin to treat Dhruva and Preeti differently as they cease to be tenants. Dhruva’s pride soon changes to arrogance and he begins to avoid tenants in the new locality. The novel beautifully maps the psychological changes within the protagonist, as he changes his dwelling.