Aako Bako
Divya Prakash Dubey
2020
Hind Yugm
pp 160
Aako Bako is a collection of Hindi short stories that cover a range of contemporary issues largely revolving around relationships. The joy of reading Dubey’s works is in the refreshing take he brings to the everyday stories. Reading him is an acknowledgement of the beautiful stories that exist in each one of us. Or maybe the beauty is in the way he narrates them. His writing is powerful as it is subtle. He has the ability to capture in words those emotions and expressions that are usually expressed through touch or a look.
In this book, his writing addresses the complexity of relationships through various stories. The whole spectrum of relationships covered in Super Mom, Sugar Daddy, Kamra,… point towards the difficulty of labelling relationships and putting them in water tight compartments. I may be projecting what I feel but to me these stories, like his earlier works in Musafir Cafe, October Junction, and even Ibnebatuti, are as much about finding one’s identity in the meaning that relationships hold for us. The stories, Pen Friend, Bhootni, Kavitayen kahan se aati hain, Sanjeev Kumar, make you feel angry, sad, joyful, at various places. The emotions that the stories evoke are testimony to the power of his writing.
Dubey’s speciality is in his ability to capture and express nuances. He dedicates his book to his mother and acknowledges, Dipti, who I am presuming is his wife. In that one line, “Lo likh diya pehle panne par tumahara naam, ab Khush?” is a glimpse of the deepest comfort that a relationship can provide, the knowledge of unconditional acceptance. If you look closely, you will find this search for comfort in many of the characters that Dubey writes about in his various books. It is definitely a recommended read.