It is a hauntingly beautiful book written by one of the finest Indian writers of our times and is not the one to be missed

Lost Men, I was—time and again— reminded of Enrique Vila Matas’ Bartleby & Co. The novel based on “writers of No” talks of authors who abandoned flourishing careers for no apparent reason. While some started sketching (furniture!), others made use of illegible language if they ever chose to write. Could we call such men lost? Perhaps, we can. In Bartleby & Co, the narrator mentions Swiss writer Robert Walser’s quote, one which he picked up from one of Walser’s books—“Over the now darkened landscape treks a solitary figure”. Chakraborti’s lost men, like Walser’s, appear to be trekking on a similar landscape. One which was not dark to begin with, but is now bereft of light. These are lost men; those who do not know where their journeys would end. “When did I go to sleep and where have I awoken?” asks one of Chakraborti’s protagonists. The answer, however, is not sought, for lost men care not about of what lies at the end of the road—it is the journey that counts. In the first short story, the main protagonist is stuck in a meaningless bowling game with an unwarranted foe. The banker, the deliberate antagonist, wants him to join in a game where they bowl stones at each other. The banker continues to hurl stones at the protagonist, who is stuck in what can be only called a rock and a hard place. Whatever happens is as ambiguous as a dream. Standing two streets away from his house is a lost man who cannot find his way, and no matter what lane he chooses, he is bound to be hit by a stone. I was not aware of Chakraborti’s style, not having read his previous works. After reading the first few stories (such as the one mentioned above), I can only conclude that Chakraborti is an ‘absurdist’. How else can one explain the irrational behaviour of Chakraborti’s characters if not by absurdism? Take the story—The Third Behind Us—where the main protagonist lands himself in the middle of an already-commenced cricket match. There comes a point where he cannot make runs and cannot get out, much like Sunil Gavaskar who scored a painful 36 and miserably failed to get out in the 1975 World Cup Match. The protagonist, who lives and breathes each agonising moment of the match, also has forgotten about an otherworldly visit he’s been paid. When he does realise or remember, it is a little too late. Chakraborti, however, is not just an absurdist. If we read carefully, there is yet another pattern masterly woven into the stories. While they all seem tad inconclusive, in a subtle way they have all reached their ends—not the end of the saga per say, but an end of a trail of thoughts. Those looking for reason—even a plot—in this collection will be disappointed, to say the least. Chakraborti, clearly, is not interested in building a plot, or giving the stories a pace. For those who like to delve deeper and read more between the lines, there is a treasure trove of discoveries in this collection. These are cleverly-knitted tales. Tragedies, often hiding behind comic situations. The humour is always dark and witty, and it grows on you. The stories are so cleverly-knitted that they are as frustrating to the readers as they are to the protagonist. Some are delightfully nostalgic, and some seemingly optimistic. In City Lights, a man by happenstance meets his childhood physician and is taken on a bus ride round his own city, to get reintroduced to his lost childhood. The very same evening he visits another familiar scene, one whose description he had read in letters exchanged with a friend as a boy. A tale of finding oneself, perhaps? I leave the conclusion to you—the reader. There is a lot of sadness and a sense of loss hidden behind the dark, humourous layers of fine writing. Chakraborti is not afraid of exploring the grey shades of his characters. What is remarkable is the manner in which he does it—with an almost deceptively simple narrative and dark, yet subtle, humour. After finishing the book, if its characters come to haunt you, do not be surprised— for some stories live beyond the pages. And Chakraborti has created a few such stories.