RESTLESS WATERS OF THE ICHHAMATI

Restless Waters of the
Ichhamati is a celebration of flora and fauna, particularly of the profusion
of commonly found plant life that flourishes in most regions of Bengal. The
gaze of a slow-moving attentive river-farer brings into view glimpses of
vibrant plant life, traces of human habitation and changes of sky and water
in the course of seasons. These are signs, evoking the flow of time in which
generations unknown have lived and those unborn will live along the
Ichhamati’s banks as it wends its way through Jessore district towards the
Bay of Bengal. Born of this tension between the ephemeral and the forever,
the novel’s own riverine course dispenses with chapter breaks—a writer’s
decision that the translation follows.