The Flute

'It had started again. That daily hullaballoo over the old broken flute. It was an ancient relic. Ailing, a memory of brass. The tip was fractured, the holes were uneven cavities; the time had come to dispose it off, out, near the garbage dump. The reason as to why Sulekha, the youngest wife had stubbornly clung on to it had always eluded and even confused her mother-in-law. This wasn't the first time an argument had broken out over it.'


Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay is mostly associated with Satyajit Ray's movie adaptation of his classic novel, Pather Panchali. But to readers of Bengali, Bandyopadhyay remains an icon. This is one of his stories, originally written in Bengali, translated in English by Utsa Bose.