Rabi Pattanayak was born in 1936. He is a contemporary short-story writer with an outward looking attitude to life. His notable collections of short stories include: Andhagalira andhakara, Asamajikara daeri, Ragatodi, Srestha galpa, Hiranya garbha and Amarilata. Almost all his stories deal with contemporary life on varied themes and provide a cross section of society. These stories may be put in three groups, dealing with the problems of the individual, social and religious problems, and the problem of alienation.
In the first group Rabi’s subjects are love and sorrows of life. Love is depicted mostly as physical love (‘Ragatodi’). At times he probes religious faith and metaphysics also while exploring the theme of love. In the second group of stories he writes about people who live in towns and whose attitude is largely conditioned by sophisticated living. The characters seek interaction with one another but the social situation inhibits self-fulfilment. His central theme in this group of stories is a pitiless exposure of the ills of modern industrial civilization.
The stories coming under the third group deal with the modern individual who may have many associations but is always on the move and ever lonely. Sometimes the writer introduces a conflict between the individual and society. The character is afraid of the forces of existence that threaten him, and finds his life absurd and meaningless. Rabi Pattanayak analyses the psyche of his characters, and depicts human condition through various images. In the psycho-analysis of characters he often uses Freudian and existential references.
Many of Pattanayak’s short stories are concerned with monotony in daily life. Sometimes the description is like a cinematic depiction of everyday life. In language the writer offers a wide variety, ranging from colloquial speech to modern and scientific vocabulary. His stories, on the whole, appeal more to the emotions, except the ‘mini-stories’ which make their appeal to the intellect. In his latest collections he has concentrated on the theme of time and eternity.
Odia Books By Rabi Pattanayak
Andhagalira Andhakara
Ragatodi
Srestha Galpa
Hiranya Garbha
Amarilata
Asamajikara Daeri,
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