Opinions

 “...evocative...poignant”

                                                  - JayantaMahapatra

Realism with sparkling moments of drama, empathy with those injured and insulted and transporting the reader, like an able and suave guide, to the locale of the events, enrichDebabrataMadanray’s short stories with a distinct charm. The easy-flowing yet evocative diction the author employs in his original works in Odia may lose its appeal in translation; even then no discerning reader can miss its flavour. The pathos some of stories generate in their quite credible backdrop, burrow their way into the reader’s sensitivity and subbornly refuse to disappear for a long time.

- Manoj Das

The background of Portrait of a Tiger, a collection of short stories by DebabrataMadanray, is very different from almost all other volumes of short stories. Strange are its pictures, characters and incidents. Reality too is strange. Here one enters rural territory, city and also the life of tribal people. The reality of Portrait of a Tiger has transcended the limits of time past and present, memory and dream, the real and unreal, fact and fantasy. The book presents a symphony of strange contradiction, mysterious in themselves.

DebabrataMadanray is a highly acclaimed short story writer in Odia with twenty-five books to his credit. He works with the State Bank of India in Cuttack, and also edits Nabalipi, a premier Odia literary magazine. He has received the prestigious OdishaSahitya Academy Award for his short story collection Sahayatri.

e-mail: debabratamadanray@gmail. com