Hello Friends,
This blog is my response to the task assigned to us by our Prof. Dr. DilipSir on our reflection on two Gujarati stories by Mahendrasinh Parmar taken from story collection "Polytechnic" (2016) which was also shortlisted for Sahitya Akademi Prize in 2020.
Click here Mahendrasinh Parmar
Short Story click here to see original text
My Reflections on reading the story "Intellectual Indubhai"
This story Intellectual Indubhai is a beautiful story telling about the life of a Professor and one incident that is heart touching and we Indians who give lots of respect to our Guruji but some don't give, this is observed in this story. Initially we see a very powerful Professor who teaches the things not only for exam, but the values which are necessary to live a meaningful, fruitful and purposeful life. We see how Indubhai protects the girl when a boy tries to harass her. We see how he won't tolerate any kind of misbehaviour in class. So Intellectual Indubhai is what we can say like our Professors who teach us in our colleges.
One day when he goes to Mumbai along with his wife, behind his home that is locked is burned due to some communal problems, trains are burned, 90 people are live burned in fire.
My Question is where has humanity died?
Is there any religion that teaches to kill other humans?
Is there any religion telling us to get happiness by bringing pain to others?
The Answer is Big NO. Then for what are people fighting for? This things are done by the students of Professor Indubhai in this story. When he tries to stop them then they reply is that show all your Amitabhgiri in college, if you love your life then don't interfere here. This words no self respected professor can tolerate. Here we see the tears in the eyes of a professor, pain in his heart, that how his home and books which are more dear to him than his own life are burned to black ashes. But we should remember that even if for a moment Professor Indubhai might be disturbed very much mentally but
"Man can be destroyed but he cannot be defeated. "
For a while Indubhai is unable to accept that how his own students can do that, but good that they are just students and not his own children. So only then Professors feel that when students disobey they don't need to feel bad and they love their own children more than their own students. It's the behaviour of students that don't allow the profesors to love them as much they love their own children. Students themselves only define themselves through their behaviour and they set their own limitations.
In this story community also plays a vital role, majority ones try to overpower the minority people. It hurts a lot when the Professor who has taught to the students and same students when show a very inhuman, devil like behaviour, then we feel that even animals are more loyal than some such heartless humans. Such people lead to the regress of the society and country at large. But rightly said we cannot convince each and every individual to follow the right path which is beneficial to the entire human kind. Infact when teachers teach very few students are able to learn what the teacher is trying to teach them. On the name of religion these people try to create havoc in the society.
Analysis
The story is told in a very simple, natural gujarati language. We feel the liveliness with the expressions used by the writer. We feel as if the writer is communicating with us. To write a story in such a format is also a art. It also reflects the gujarati culture which is very friendly, homely and welcomes all with that sweet words, we find that feelings like guests are God. "Athithi devo bhava." Such feelings are observed in Gujarati homes, cultures, families and people in general. So gujarati language here plays a vital role in reflecting the gujarati culture worldwide.
"ISI no Haath" A short story written by Mahendrasinh Parmar
Click here for ORIGINAL Story ISI no Haath
My Interpretations of the story
In this story ISI no haath, we can get many interpretations and all are correct in one way or another.
☆ We see first of all that a temple is built on the land of university. Religion and superstitions are already prevailing in our country since many years but for the development, progress, for good health and hygiene what we need more is the education among the people rather than temples. We need educated youth rather than temple devotees. We need people to think rationally rather than blindly following some odd rituals. We need more PG scholars, more people who are highly educated for the progress and development of our new generations, because when parents will be educated having good jobs that help the children better education, more facilities, more motivation children can get from parents to study and live a better and more meaningful life. So definitely it's clear that we need university rather than a temple.
On the contrary, those who favour religion and want to build a temple than they should choose some another place rather than disturbing the place of university and education. Religion has importance but not at the cost of education.
In this story we see that religious leaders have forgiven the three people who are unable to bear the deeds done by religious people. These three people are not able to tolerate the extent to which religion is disturbing the business of common people so they're drawn towards doing crime of blowing a bomb just to make people aware of what's going on in the temples and surroundings. Religious people do all kinds of business from education, food stalls, helmet business, medicines, all kinds of daily needs they sell, they even accept old newspapers and rubbish and people happily agree with all that in the name of religion. But due to all these the business of common people comes to a halt. It's like as if one rich people does all the business and so small people common people and their little business comes to a standstill. This should never happen. We as people in society should understand this and we should give encouragement to small people and their small business that they're doing. We should buy things from such common people rather than big firms as far as possible. Or else the balance of society may ruin, rich will become more rich and poor will become more poorer. Normally when people who understand this things will help common people and encourage their business but we need to write such stories so this type of awareness spreads among people and the crimes can be avoided. Because when a common man suffers then he is drawn towards crime just to get the basic needs of life such as food, clothing and shelter. So behind many crimes the people are just struggling to get the basic human needs. We should understand the problem from the root and should try to solve it by helping such business or small scale home industries. Big firms are there to earn huge profits but common people are struggling for their livelihood. We should understand such basic things in life. We as human beings should encourage the motto of "Atmanirbhar Bharat". We should prefer to use Indian made goods, we should encourage home industries in women are working hard to earn for their daily needs. So it's good to buy goods prepared in India by our Indian people. This will help the encouragement of business done by middle and lower class people to come up in life at least they'll survive the basic needs of life.
This type of new trends are also seen in schools also. Schools provide textbooks, notebooks, stationary, school bags, uniforms everything, so this kills the business of other professions that are related to school. Basically the job of school is to teach students and not to provide all goods. Similarly in hospitals, they provide their own medicines so they can get profit from that also. So this decreases the business of common medical stores and so they are drawn to sell other grocery items and a medical store becomes general store too. So in order to earn more people do interfere in other businesses also and this creates imbalance in the society. There are some societal flaws which we need to solve and live a more peaceful life by spreading happiness among all. We cannot remain happy when others in our surroundings are suffering.
Our university in real life shows more big heartedness by allowing a temple to develop on it's land. Our university has shown more kindness and forgiveness which is rather expected from the religion.
"Education is to forgive
And
Religion is to give."
God of Mercy
Help me to forgive.
Past hurts have festered and left deep scars on my heart and soul.
Present resentments make it hard to savour the life I have been given.
Let me forgive so I forget the need to carry these burdens any longer.
Let your healing grace wash over me and bring me peace, hope and gratitude for the gift of letting go.
Amen.
The only thing we need to say is that our university has forgiven the temple makers, so we too need to forgive. But always remember that religion also teaches us some important values. If some good points if we're to see then we can say that Aksarwadi temple is one of tourist destination of Bhavnagar city, known for its beautiful gardens, all religion people can go and spend their time enjoying there in its premises. Some things we need to accept when we are unable to change them. Either one of them need to understand this, in this case University has shown more understanding and maturity. Otherwise there are other temples also of same community in Bhavnagar and that also very big ones. Recently another big one is also is in process of construction near the outskirts of the city in chitra. So hope some day they will understand the importance of university it's education and may give us our land back or some another way we may find to compensate for the loss that University is facing due to it.
1,748 Words.