Colin Hodgson

Satvinder's Story Colin Hodgson First edition

"Hell is just a little piece of heaven gone wrong, and hell exists in East Bengal in ever increasing quantity. Get out while you still can." Field Marshall Gnuru, Chak Sahasa, 1971.

Satvinder Nair was a lecturer at the Dhaka University, and amidst a cauldron of religious intolerance he believed that he could change the World through his secular teachings. One day he discovered just how wrong he was.

After surviving the great cyclone of 1970 he found himself missing, presumed dead; a good way to remain as the authorities added his name to the list of dissident lecturers. He was forced to leave his wife and children, and run away in search of a new life. With two orphans from the great cyclone he found an enclave where they could live in relative peace irrespective of religion and where nobody else would venture; the residents of Chak Sahasa shared their existence with man?s worst nightmare. Ostracised by the rest of society he found that he really could change the World, at least for some.

Satvinder?s Story follows the life of a Hindu in a Muslim country which was about to explode into a bloody and inhumane civil war. How many times can a man run away?

?The past is never dead, in fact it?s not even past.? Kolala Nouka, Char Monpura, 1970.