Somlata Acharya Chowdhury

We market our picture perfect, Facebook-savvy lives, as we navigate our fabulous body-doubles past other people’s walls, collecting friends, being successful, living the life. Online, we are happy. Online rocks. It’s Offline that sucks - as we shut our laptop, shut our Bedroom door, rest our head on our pillow and sink into the familiar discomfort of being our unattractive, unaccomplished, pitiful selves. This is the allegorical “Bedroom” – our most private space where we retire to, night after night. Where we let our guards down and dare to be at our ugliest worst.

The plot starts with a British family visiting the rural places of the Sunderbans. Resham, a fatso, pale but jovial woman in her late 20s, carries out the responsibilities of a tourist guide to the Brits. Five years ago Resham’s husband had gone to the jungle to fetch honey but had not returned. Hence it is believed that Resham now belongs to the clan of widows whose spouses have unfortunately fallen prey to the tigers. Resham and all the other women like her live on the edge of a village, their locality is called Vidhva Palli, or “abode for the widows”. The government is educating the women to make them independent. They are providing English education so they can become guides to curious tourists and Resham is clearly one of the best in the business. The climax of the story is stitched with a sequence of multiple mind-boggling situations. Will Resham be able to have a successful love story with Himon? Who's Dakshin Ray /Khoda Badshah /Jahangir?