What do you think?
Rate this book
Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell
Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell is an extraordinary novel, a biography of Manto and Ghalib
and a history of Indian culture rolled into one.
Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, ‘I discovered Rabisankar Bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country.�
Rabisankar Bal’s audacious novel, told by reflections in a mirror and forged in the fires of hell, is both an oral tale and a shield against oblivion. An echo of distant screams. Inscribed by the devil’s quill, Dozakhnama is an outstanding performance of subterranean memory.
and a history of Indian culture rolled into one.
Exhumed from dust, Manto’s unpublished novel surfaces in Lucknow. Is it real or is it a fake? In this dastan, Manto and Ghalib converse, entwining their lives in shared dreams. The result is an intellectual journey that takes us into the people and events that shape us as a culture. As one writer describes it, ‘I discovered Rabisankar Bal like a torch in the darkness of the history of this subcontinent. This is the real story of two centuries of our own country.�
Rabisankar Bal’s audacious novel, told by reflections in a mirror and forged in the fires of hell, is both an oral tale and a shield against oblivion. An echo of distant screams. Inscribed by the devil’s quill, Dozakhnama is an outstanding performance of subterranean memory.
465 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 28, 2012
20 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Rabisankar Bal
27books68followersরবিশংক� বল পশ্চিমবঙ্গের খ্যাতনাম� কথাসাহিত্যিক� জন্ম ১৯৬২ সালে� বিজ্ঞানে স্নাতক� ২০১১ সালে দোজখনামা উপন্যাসে� জন্য বঙ্কিম স্মৃতি পুরস্কার পেয়েছেন।
গল্পগ্রন্থ
দারুনিরঞ্জ�
রবিশঙ্কর বল এর গল্প
আর্তোর শে� অভিন�
জীবন অন্যত্�
ওই মণিম� তা� কাহিনী
সেরা ৫০ টি গল্প
উপন্যা�
নী� দরজা লা� ঘর
পোখরান ৯৮
স্মৃতি � স্বপ্নের বন্দ�
পাণ্ডুলিপি কর� আয়োজ�
মিস্টা� ফ্যান্টম
বাসস্টপে একদি�
মিলনের শ্বাসরোধী কথ�
নষ্টভ্রষ্ট
এখান� তুষা� ঝর�
দোজখনামা
আয়নাজীবন
আঙুরবাগানে খু�
জিরো আওয়া�
কবিত�
ত্রস্ত নীলিমা
ঊনপঞ্চাশ বায়ু
প্রবন্�
সংলাপে� মধ্যবর্তী এই নীরবতা
কুষ্ঠরোগীদে� গুহা� সংগী�
মু� আর মুখো�
জীবনানন্� � অন্যান্য
সম্পাদিত গ্রন্থ
সাদা� হোসেইন মন্ট� রচনাসংগ্রহ
জাহি� সোহা� : মানে আম� বলছি এই কারণ� যে, আমাদের বাংলাদেশ� রবিশংক� বলকে চেনা হচ্ছ� দোজখনামা দিয়ে� এটাক� আপনি কীভাবে দেখবেন? মানে এখানেও একটা ট্যা� আছে।
রবিশংক� বল : এট� বল� কঠিন, তব� যদ� বল� তব� আম� বল�, আমার "মধ্যরাত্রি� জীবনী" উপন্যাসট� পড়� উচিত, "বাসস্টপে একদি�" উপন্যাসট� পড়� উচিত, "এখান� তুষা� ঝর�" উপন্যাসট� পড়� উচিত� "স্মৃতি � স্বপ্নের বন্দ�", "ছায়াপুতুলে� খেলা" অবশ্যই� এই কট� লেখা অন্তত। আর "পাণ্ডুলিপি কর� আয়োজ�" এই লেখাটা�
গল্পগ্রন্থ
দারুনিরঞ্জ�
রবিশঙ্কর বল এর গল্প
আর্তোর শে� অভিন�
জীবন অন্যত্�
ওই মণিম� তা� কাহিনী
সেরা ৫০ টি গল্প
উপন্যা�
নী� দরজা লা� ঘর
পোখরান ৯৮
স্মৃতি � স্বপ্নের বন্দ�
পাণ্ডুলিপি কর� আয়োজ�
মিস্টা� ফ্যান্টম
বাসস্টপে একদি�
মিলনের শ্বাসরোধী কথ�
নষ্টভ্রষ্ট
এখান� তুষা� ঝর�
দোজখনামা
আয়নাজীবন
আঙুরবাগানে খু�
জিরো আওয়া�
কবিত�
ত্রস্ত নীলিমা
ঊনপঞ্চাশ বায়ু
প্রবন্�
সংলাপে� মধ্যবর্তী এই নীরবতা
কুষ্ঠরোগীদে� গুহা� সংগী�
মু� আর মুখো�
জীবনানন্� � অন্যান্য
সম্পাদিত গ্রন্থ
সাদা� হোসেইন মন্ট� রচনাসংগ্রহ
জাহি� সোহা� : মানে আম� বলছি এই কারণ� যে, আমাদের বাংলাদেশ� রবিশংক� বলকে চেনা হচ্ছ� দোজখনামা দিয়ে� এটাক� আপনি কীভাবে দেখবেন? মানে এখানেও একটা ট্যা� আছে।
রবিশংক� বল : এট� বল� কঠিন, তব� যদ� বল� তব� আম� বল�, আমার "মধ্যরাত্রি� জীবনী" উপন্যাসট� পড়� উচিত, "বাসস্টপে একদি�" উপন্যাসট� পড়� উচিত, "এখান� তুষা� ঝর�" উপন্যাসট� পড়� উচিত� "স্মৃতি � স্বপ্নের বন্দ�", "ছায়াপুতুলে� খেলা" অবশ্যই� এই কট� লেখা অন্তত। আর "পাণ্ডুলিপি কর� আয়োজ�" এই লেখাটা�
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 16, 2015
I read this on my Kindle and only now, as I sat down to write this review, did I find out that the book was more than five hundred pages long. I have never read anything as copious as effortlessly. This book is a dream. A reminiscence of two men's lives and the country they belonged to, Dozakhnama is as poignant as it is surreal. It has an infidel's soul and feels like a book written for doomsday itself.
Kudos to Arunava Sinha, for the impeccable translation.
Gratitude to Rabisankar Bal, for one hell of a story.
Kudos to Arunava Sinha, for the impeccable translation.
Gratitude to Rabisankar Bal, for one hell of a story.
October 2, 2024
I cannot� It’s overwhelming and when you read it and after you read it� the stories, the characters they make you reel� they live inside you. This is the first story of Rabisankar Bal that I have read and I can say for sure that I am a fan of his writing. I still cannot believe whatever I read and the emotions it has evoked. It’s simply astounding. “All reality becomes fiction�. Indeed�
Read
July 29, 2023ہوئی مدت کہ غالبؔ مرگیا، پر یاد آتا ہے
وہ ہر اک بات پر کہنا کہ، یوں ہوتا تو کیا ہوتا
"Dozakhnama" only the title can arise the excitement within you, that what could it be about? A novel by Rabisankar Bal, it's originally written in Bengali language, and Alas! I couldn't read it in its actual language. But thanks to Arunava Sinha, who translated this asset for us.
"Dozakhnama" a discourse in hell by the 2 of my most favourite, magnificent, and elegant personalities, Asadullah khan Beg Aka Mirza Ghalib & Sadat Hassan Manto.
Hell is used here metaphorically for showing the infernal biographies of these two legends. So the story begins when the narrator got to know that Sadat Hassan Manto, his favourite story writer has written a novel about Mirza Ghalib, as Manto was the biggest fan of Ghalib, he was very much influenced by Ghalib so he write the whole book on Ghalib which was never revealed to anyone. Now the book is in Urdu, for that the narrator went to a Lady to learn Urdu in order to read that novel. But later he realised he couldn't have that much stamina to learn a whole new language and then to read the book. So he asked Tabassum Mirza, her teacher to translate whole novel for him.
The story starts within story, it is the conversation between two differnt from the graves who belong to differnt era and differnt times.
So it's the dastan ishq, merriments, sufferings, miseries, and frets of Ghalib and Manto.
An enigmatic yet a didactic compilation of two souls, whose words would never die after the centuries. What they have suffered what they have heated how the life has offered them the thorns on every step none could understand. Because none is Ghalib and Manto, their pains are minced in their words , the words which could never be forsaken ever.
یا رب زمانہ مجہ کو مٹاتا ہے کس لیے
لہو جہاں حرف نہیں ہوں میں
Ghalib has affected many lives but Ghalib was also influenced by The great 18th century poet Meer Taqi Meer, during Ghalib' s personal life journey, he quoted him as Meer Sahib a lot. Ghalib always says Meer' s shair oftenly
ریختہ كے تمہی استاد نہیں ہو غالب
کہتے ہیں اگلے زمانے ميں كوئى مير بھی تھا
So when you are reading Ghalib so closely you would feel that Meer is the part of Ghalib's shairs too. This is one of the detailed conversation of two intellectuals where they take you to Calcutta, Lukhnow, Delhi, Bombay , Agra, Mughal Rule, Birtish invasion, Sepoy mutiny, and partition of India and Pakistan. Being in one place Ghalib shows you the whole Empires of India and its turmoil where you could meet Kelly, Umrao Begum and the whole histories of Ghalib. He lets you to peep into his miserable life, where he suffers and drag his hellish life. The only pen could help him, the only source of his survival, he uses his pain and let's come out all miseries.
جی میں کیا کیا ہے اپنے اے ہمدم
ہر سکون کا تابہ لب نہیں آتا
Ghalib recites Meer' s shair on every situation of his life. The writers often suffer, coz they don't have anything to sell except their words and emotions but their price can never be given to them or the World could never estimate the prize of their words.
Sadat Hassan Manto, the most honest, outspoken and straightforward person, who saw every shape and every face people in his devastating life. Manto who travels from Bombay to Lahore, who sees Ismat Chughtai, Ashok Kumar, Noor Jahan who has met divergent personalities, but among all he was the loneliest and miserable person in his times. Who could only speak through his short stories, who would love to talk on prostitutes and whores who only wants to show the real face of the society. Manto is very lovable towards all the woman who are forced by society and converted to prostitutes. Manto who have gone to jail many times for his obscene writing, where he says, "I couldn't stop writing because I'm not afraid of showing this society the mirror, If you cannot bear these stories then the society is unbearable".
It's the julgulbundi of frets, where both the writers are stubborn, both think they have suffered more but their comparisons is indifferent, they both have lived very complex lives, where their sufferings are unbearable and incomprehensible by the World.
They are very much different, yet same, the problem is their suffering are the cause of themselves which couldn't be diminished by anyone else.
Even their wives couldn't deem them, they are curse for their families they are curse for themselves. They both are divergent through era and age but they are akin through miseries, therefore they opt one another's company to lighten their sorrows.
One needs an eye to understand the ishq of their writing, what they write everyone had opposed to them. These two intellectuals never get appreciation in their lives, rather they are criticised, they are cursed they are detested by society and even by their families. The depth of their words is magical, we couldn't understand their emotions behind their words, but their words were their breathe,
عالم حسن ہے عجب عالم
چاہیے عشق اسے بھی عالم سے
میر
It's all the Dastan of Ghalib & Manto, though it has very common stories of their life those who have already read Ghalib & Manto, they read the similar content in it, those who haven't read any of them, the book is the complete information of Ghalib & Manto.
Their Dastan,
A dastan is not exactly a novel. In a Dastan story never ends, whereas a novel has a beginning and an end.
So Ghalib & Manto's Dastan would never be ended it would always remain as new as young generations. Alas!!! Those legends would never get that much appreciation but they make themselves immortal, death could have ended their lives but their memories their words would live forever.
کریں کیا کے دل بھی تو مجبور ہے
زمین سخت ہے آسمان دور ہے
Ps: when i started it, I wanted to complete it so quickly and when it is completed I feel why it is completed ? But this is one of the best novel of my life, where I could read and re-read my beloved, Meer, Ghalib Manto. I love all very much and even I could read them again, because their effective words have the same nectar always.
وہ ہر اک بات پر کہنا کہ، یوں ہوتا تو کیا ہوتا
"Dozakhnama" only the title can arise the excitement within you, that what could it be about? A novel by Rabisankar Bal, it's originally written in Bengali language, and Alas! I couldn't read it in its actual language. But thanks to Arunava Sinha, who translated this asset for us.
"Dozakhnama" a discourse in hell by the 2 of my most favourite, magnificent, and elegant personalities, Asadullah khan Beg Aka Mirza Ghalib & Sadat Hassan Manto.
Hell is used here metaphorically for showing the infernal biographies of these two legends. So the story begins when the narrator got to know that Sadat Hassan Manto, his favourite story writer has written a novel about Mirza Ghalib, as Manto was the biggest fan of Ghalib, he was very much influenced by Ghalib so he write the whole book on Ghalib which was never revealed to anyone. Now the book is in Urdu, for that the narrator went to a Lady to learn Urdu in order to read that novel. But later he realised he couldn't have that much stamina to learn a whole new language and then to read the book. So he asked Tabassum Mirza, her teacher to translate whole novel for him.
The story starts within story, it is the conversation between two differnt from the graves who belong to differnt era and differnt times.
So it's the dastan ishq, merriments, sufferings, miseries, and frets of Ghalib and Manto.
An enigmatic yet a didactic compilation of two souls, whose words would never die after the centuries. What they have suffered what they have heated how the life has offered them the thorns on every step none could understand. Because none is Ghalib and Manto, their pains are minced in their words , the words which could never be forsaken ever.
یا رب زمانہ مجہ کو مٹاتا ہے کس لیے
لہو جہاں حرف نہیں ہوں میں
Ghalib has affected many lives but Ghalib was also influenced by The great 18th century poet Meer Taqi Meer, during Ghalib' s personal life journey, he quoted him as Meer Sahib a lot. Ghalib always says Meer' s shair oftenly
ریختہ كے تمہی استاد نہیں ہو غالب
کہتے ہیں اگلے زمانے ميں كوئى مير بھی تھا
So when you are reading Ghalib so closely you would feel that Meer is the part of Ghalib's shairs too. This is one of the detailed conversation of two intellectuals where they take you to Calcutta, Lukhnow, Delhi, Bombay , Agra, Mughal Rule, Birtish invasion, Sepoy mutiny, and partition of India and Pakistan. Being in one place Ghalib shows you the whole Empires of India and its turmoil where you could meet Kelly, Umrao Begum and the whole histories of Ghalib. He lets you to peep into his miserable life, where he suffers and drag his hellish life. The only pen could help him, the only source of his survival, he uses his pain and let's come out all miseries.
جی میں کیا کیا ہے اپنے اے ہمدم
ہر سکون کا تابہ لب نہیں آتا
Ghalib recites Meer' s shair on every situation of his life. The writers often suffer, coz they don't have anything to sell except their words and emotions but their price can never be given to them or the World could never estimate the prize of their words.
Sadat Hassan Manto, the most honest, outspoken and straightforward person, who saw every shape and every face people in his devastating life. Manto who travels from Bombay to Lahore, who sees Ismat Chughtai, Ashok Kumar, Noor Jahan who has met divergent personalities, but among all he was the loneliest and miserable person in his times. Who could only speak through his short stories, who would love to talk on prostitutes and whores who only wants to show the real face of the society. Manto is very lovable towards all the woman who are forced by society and converted to prostitutes. Manto who have gone to jail many times for his obscene writing, where he says, "I couldn't stop writing because I'm not afraid of showing this society the mirror, If you cannot bear these stories then the society is unbearable".
It's the julgulbundi of frets, where both the writers are stubborn, both think they have suffered more but their comparisons is indifferent, they both have lived very complex lives, where their sufferings are unbearable and incomprehensible by the World.
They are very much different, yet same, the problem is their suffering are the cause of themselves which couldn't be diminished by anyone else.
Even their wives couldn't deem them, they are curse for their families they are curse for themselves. They both are divergent through era and age but they are akin through miseries, therefore they opt one another's company to lighten their sorrows.
One needs an eye to understand the ishq of their writing, what they write everyone had opposed to them. These two intellectuals never get appreciation in their lives, rather they are criticised, they are cursed they are detested by society and even by their families. The depth of their words is magical, we couldn't understand their emotions behind their words, but their words were their breathe,
عالم حسن ہے عجب عالم
چاہیے عشق اسے بھی عالم سے
میر
It's all the Dastan of Ghalib & Manto, though it has very common stories of their life those who have already read Ghalib & Manto, they read the similar content in it, those who haven't read any of them, the book is the complete information of Ghalib & Manto.
Their Dastan,
A dastan is not exactly a novel. In a Dastan story never ends, whereas a novel has a beginning and an end.
So Ghalib & Manto's Dastan would never be ended it would always remain as new as young generations. Alas!!! Those legends would never get that much appreciation but they make themselves immortal, death could have ended their lives but their memories their words would live forever.
کریں کیا کے دل بھی تو مجبور ہے
زمین سخت ہے آسمان دور ہے
Ps: when i started it, I wanted to complete it so quickly and when it is completed I feel why it is completed ? But this is one of the best novel of my life, where I could read and re-read my beloved, Meer, Ghalib Manto. I love all very much and even I could read them again, because their effective words have the same nectar always.
November 6, 2016
One of those books which get written so rarely that you feel grateful about it. A very different way of putting a biography out , the idea is so difficult to pull off and the finesse with which Rabisankar Bal pulls it off , its just incredible. And to think that its a translation and not exactly the true version is mind boggling.
Coming to the book , its very very different from what i have read in the past. The idea seems a bit off to start of with, you are making to great writers of two different genres from two different period of time talk to each other from their graves. But as soon as you get a bit into the book you realize that Manto and Ghalib were not that different from each other. What with the abject poverty both faced through out their life, their unmatched passion and dedication their craft, carrying the weight of aspirations and ego of their own (with Ghalib with him being the Mirza , with Manto being a writer way ahead of his times) and their perseverance to ensure they could just about live off. Both life were marred with extraordinary events - the 1857 revolt , the 1947 partition - which made them loose their one true love - Ghalib's Delhi with its bazaars,the dastangos, the masnavis's and Manto's Bombay , the film people, the brothels and the many ladies from his stories and above all his Ismat.
You can call this a biography of two personalities who were so flawed to their core but at the same time so brilliantly above their peers. They had their issues but they were so open to the issues around them probably more awake then their sober peers. It just not dwell into the stories and facts but more into the personalities , their frailties , their mistakes and the decisions. You see two trapped souls into the traditions, fighting to be free , in so much pain and yet fighting on.
A couple of aspects i absolutely loved includes the back and forth between Ghalib and Manto. Now you need to remember this never happened, this is the author's imagination , he is dwelling into their personalities to come up with the responses and this is so coherent and so incredibly real you feel like this discussion indeed happened. The other thing is the blunt portrayals of characters - there is no white and black character - their are shades of complete black to glowing whites . You hate Manto when he buys a bottle of whiskey when he is down to nothing in Lahore but you simple adore him when he tells the story of Nesti to Raja Sahib and defends why we need some one to talk about the brothels and the huge stories in its womb.
To think , its a translation and not the real version is incredible. Both the translator and author have done a tremendous job. The writing is fluid, the context relevant even today a 70 years later to Manto and 170 to Ghalib and a tremendous insight into the cultures of bygone eras.
I am grateful for some one to have recommended this , highly recommended.
Coming to the book , its very very different from what i have read in the past. The idea seems a bit off to start of with, you are making to great writers of two different genres from two different period of time talk to each other from their graves. But as soon as you get a bit into the book you realize that Manto and Ghalib were not that different from each other. What with the abject poverty both faced through out their life, their unmatched passion and dedication their craft, carrying the weight of aspirations and ego of their own (with Ghalib with him being the Mirza , with Manto being a writer way ahead of his times) and their perseverance to ensure they could just about live off. Both life were marred with extraordinary events - the 1857 revolt , the 1947 partition - which made them loose their one true love - Ghalib's Delhi with its bazaars,the dastangos, the masnavis's and Manto's Bombay , the film people, the brothels and the many ladies from his stories and above all his Ismat.
You can call this a biography of two personalities who were so flawed to their core but at the same time so brilliantly above their peers. They had their issues but they were so open to the issues around them probably more awake then their sober peers. It just not dwell into the stories and facts but more into the personalities , their frailties , their mistakes and the decisions. You see two trapped souls into the traditions, fighting to be free , in so much pain and yet fighting on.
A couple of aspects i absolutely loved includes the back and forth between Ghalib and Manto. Now you need to remember this never happened, this is the author's imagination , he is dwelling into their personalities to come up with the responses and this is so coherent and so incredibly real you feel like this discussion indeed happened. The other thing is the blunt portrayals of characters - there is no white and black character - their are shades of complete black to glowing whites . You hate Manto when he buys a bottle of whiskey when he is down to nothing in Lahore but you simple adore him when he tells the story of Nesti to Raja Sahib and defends why we need some one to talk about the brothels and the huge stories in its womb.
To think , its a translation and not the real version is incredible. Both the translator and author have done a tremendous job. The writing is fluid, the context relevant even today a 70 years later to Manto and 170 to Ghalib and a tremendous insight into the cultures of bygone eras.
I am grateful for some one to have recommended this , highly recommended.
January 25, 2025
This book is by far the best example of magic realism that I have read in Indian literature. Although the English translation by Arunava Sinha is fantastic, the original in Bengali by Rabishankar Bal is a true classic. This book will make you mark its pages in places, put it aside, think about what you just read, digest it and then move on. More than once. Deeply evocative, emotional and magical, it is a re-telling of the personal hells lived by Mirza Mohammad Asadullah Baig Khan Ghalib from his grave at the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliyah in Delhi and Sadat Hasan Manto in his grave at Lahore. This imagined conversation between Ghalib saab and Manto bhai interspersed with couplets of shayari and qissas from Manto's canon also manages to weave in the history of India between 1857 and 1947. But it is a book of passion and pain, love and longing. It focuses on the pain of the ransack of Delhi after the thwarting of the revolt of 1857 and the horrors of the raw carnage that the partition of India saw in 1947. Rabishankar Bal managers to put his fingers in pulsating rawness of wounds to gently ask if they still hurt. And boy, do they hurt!
February 9, 2016
The only grudge i have is that the sher/couplets should have been in hindi also. it would have been more satisfying.
December 7, 2018
Excellent Book.
September 19, 2020
Bookclub
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.