Review and Comments on The Dark Abode (Gambhiri Ghara ) :

Gambhiri Ghara or Mithya Gerosthali is a very simple novel with a very simple plot creating very simple impressions outwardly. But any reader can identify all these simplicities as the special features of this female author of Orissa, or India, or the world. Yes, the inner web that the story of the novel revolves around, indeed evolves, involves the whole Indian nation and even goes beyond national territory. Truth be said, the novel does have an international perspective also.
(The Daily Star : Largest Circulated Daily From Bangladesh : Saturday, March 29, 2008)

Gambhiri Ghara is one of the much acclaimed novels of Sarojini Sahoo. It was first published in a magazine in 2005. The next year it appeared in the book form and was an instant success. Its Bengali translation has also gained immense popularity among the Bengali readers. The novel deals with the process of evolution of infatuation into love. It begins with questioning the mere physicality of man-woman relationship and transports the reader into the higher planes of platonic love. Kuki, the central character of the novel, is a Hindu woman from India who falls (and then rises) in love with Muslim artist of Pakistan. The unusualness of the socio-cultural background of these two characters is portrayed in a sensitive and convincing manner to reach a conclusion that such barriers of background may never bar the free flow of love between two hearts. One comes across two sets of roles that Kuki plays in life- one that of a lover, and the other, a wife. She subtly balances these two attributes of her character while at the same time highlighting the superiority of a wife in pragmatic world. The novel is a powerful as any of Sarojini Sahoo’s most popular short stories. Like in her all other masterpieces, here also she does not betray her characteristic of being a feminist writer of Orissa.
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In translation Sarojini’s appeal remains as effective as in her original creations. A Bengali translation of her novel Gambhiri Ghara entitled Mithya Gerosthali and published recently in Bangladesh received overwhelming response from the readers there. Click here

I would like to refer another powerful feminist Indian Writer Sarojini Sahoo .I have gone through her novel "Mithya Gerosthali "(translated in Bengali) and found a tremendous significant voice with a poetic sensibility.Readrs should inquire about her . Click here

The novel is not mere a love story . Though love is a part of the novel, but it deals with a wider aspect. It is all about the providence of a woman in India, it also portrays a story how a perverted man becomes slowly as a perfect man, it describes the relation between the ‘state’ and the ‘individual’ and comes in a conclusion that ‘the state’ represents the mood and wish of a ruler and hence ‘the state’ is a form of ‘an individual’. More over it has a broad spectrum out look on terrorism and state sponsored anarchism. I have not received such overwhelmed reader’s response in my long years of writing and I think, this is not because of the mere romanticism or sexual embellishment of the novel, but the struggle for a greater human value certainly made the novel a success one. Click here

Here Sarojini deals with the question of terrorism. There is often discussion about terrorism caused by an individual or by a group. Society rarely discusses terrorism caused by a state. What is a state? Is it a group of people that resides within a political and geographical boundaries? Are a state’s identity, mood and wishes separate from its ruler? Is the wish of George W. Bush not considered as the wish of America? Has it reflected the mood and wish of the people of America? So, every time, the state’s arranged anarchism or terrorism is merely a reflection of a terrorism caused by an individual. The great truth lies beneath Safiq, as a terrorist develops from the mind of a military man. Click here

In her novel ''Gambhiri Ghara'' she describes an unusual relationship between two people, a Hindu house wife of India and a Muslim artist of Pakistan. It is a net oriented novel. A woman meets a very sexually experienced man. One day he asks if she had any such experience. The woman, Kuki, scolds him and insults him by calling him a caterpillar. She said without love lust is like hunger of a caterpillar. Gradually they become involved with love, lust and spirituality. That man considers her as his daughter, lover, mother, and above all these as a Goddess. They both madly love each other, through the internet and on the phone. They use obscene language; they kiss each other online. Kuki does not lead a happy conjugal life though she has a love marriage with Aniket. The novel is not limited to only a love story. It has a greater aspect. It deals with the relationship between State and individual. Safiq, who is not a Muslim by temperament, and as a historian, thinks the Pakistan of today has separated itself from its roots and looks towards Arabian legends for his history. He protests that the syllabus of history for the school would start from seventh century AD, not from the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. This broad Safiq was once arrested after the bomb blast of London for allegation of being associated with the terrorist. But is it a true fact? Later Kuki came to know that Safiqs is trapped by a military junta. The ex-lover of Tabassum had revenged on Safiq by arresting him with an allegation of terrorism.

Here Sarojini deals with the question of terrorism. There is often discussion about terrorism caused by an individual or by a group. Society rarely discusses terrorism caused by a state. What is a state? Is it a group of people that resides within a political and geographical boundaries? Are a state’s identity, mood and wishes separate from its ruler? Every time, the state’s arranged anarchism or terrorism is merely a reflection of a terrorism caused by an individual. The great truth lies beneath Safiq, as a terrorist develops from the mind of a military man.

Her novel ''Gambhiri Ghara'' proved to be a bestseller in Oriya literature. Her novels have gained a reputation for the frankness about sexuality and of feminist outlook. This novel has been translated in to Bengali(Bangladesh) under the title of "Mithya Gerosthali"(ISBN No :984 404 287-9) and has been published by Anupam prakashani, Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2007 .