Ty dny v Praze – Varma Nirma (2023)

The book Those Days in Prague contains translations of five texts by Indian writer Nirmal Varma. All the texts are connected, among other things, by taking place in Prague in the 1950s and at the end of the 1960s. It is evident throughout the book that Nirmal Varma quickly grew fond of Czechoslovakia, especially Prague, after his arrival in 1959. The central part of the book is the novella A Few Days, which faithfully captures the Prague environment of the 1950s and the student life of foreign scholarship holders at that time. The main character of the novella, Raina, whom the younger Nirmal falls in love with, was forced to work in Cologne during the war. She tells a bit about it, but probably not very willingly. However, Nirmal eagerly listens to her story and reflects on it. What likely intrigued him the most was how the war could distort human lives. Raina's husband was unable to reintegrate into peaceful life after the concentration camp, and Raina, alongside him, was not able to either. She travels, taking with her a child she raises alone, but she does not pay much attention to it. She is used to short acquaintances and farewells. When they have to part, she does not suffer as much as Nirmal. Perhaps she does not suffer at all. Nirmal associates these character traits with the experienced war. Hints of this thinking also appear in passages when he spends time...