MEG-14 BLOCK-6

 Unit-1 Indira Goswami -The Empty Chest

 Indira Goswami (14 November 1942 – 29 November 2011), known by her pen name Mamoni Raisom
Goswami and popularly as Mamoni Baideo, was an Indian writer, poet, professor, scholar and editor.
 Indira Goswami was born in Guwahati.
 Mamoni Raisom Goswami is popularly known, in the field of Assamese literature.
 She was the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983) , the Jnanpith Award (2000) and
Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2008).
 In 1962, she published her first collection of short stories, "Chinaki Morom", when she was a student.
 Goswami has suffered from depression since her childhood. Repeated suicide attempts damaged her
youth.
 After the sudden death of her husband, Madhaven Raisom Ayengar, in a car accident, after only
eighteen months of marriage, she became addicted to heavy doses of sleeping tablets.
 Short stories
 Beasts
 Dwarka and His Gun
 The Journey
 Sanskar
 Poetry
 Pain and Flesh
 Pakistan
 Ode To A Whore
 The Empty Chest (Udang Bakach)
 Translated By- Prodipta Birgohain
 The Empty Chest is based on a true story of a coffin found in a cremation ground.
 The sight of the coffin made the writer worried or sad and she created a life like personal
 Toradoi - The protagonist
 Saru Bopa- Lover of Toradoi
 The story was first published in an Assamese magazine in the nineties.
 The protagonist Toradoi lives in a shack near a cremation ground.
 One day she finds a bloodstained empty chest lying on the ground.
 On coming to know that it had carried the dead body of her lover Saru Bopa.
 She retrieves it and takes it to her Wooden House.
 Saru Bopa was the son of a zamindar ,where Toradoi had worked,
 Saru had died in an accident. Saru Bopa and Toradoi were in love with each other and he had vowed
that he would marry her. But he did not marry her and they get separated.
 She decorates herself and she sleeps inside the empty chest in order to relive her moments of love
with her lover until the reality dawns upon her.
 She comes to know through her policeman brother that Saru Bopa was not faithful to her as she
had thought he was and had planned to marry someone else.
 When this reality breaks upon her, she is stunned. But she recovers in a few days and with the help of
her two children she drags the empty chest outside and burns it down.
 Her husband is in jail for rash driving.
 Earlier, there used to be a man, . Haibor, the fire-wood seller, waiting for Toradoi everyday outside
her house for sleeping with her. but after that day when she was ready, she found that there was
actually no one.
 The Empty Chest represent the Emptiness of the Female _Toradoi.
 Toradoi is the victim of declining humanity as well as of male power structure. She is triply
marginalised: first as a woman, second as a low born and third as a poor. She lives on the
“fringes of the cremation ground under the shrine of Kamakhya” which symbolizes her being on
the fringe of the society.
  Haibor, the fire-wood seller, wants to take advantage of her loneliness and helplessness. Haibor is
an agent of patriarchy who shows no sympathy or remorse in asking her to keep her “door open at
night”.
 Toradoi had become the victim of this male dominated society and the so-called caste system. She
was deeply in love with a man from higher rank, who claimed that he too loved her and vowed to
marry her. But he could not marry her as she was from a lower caste and Toradoi was forced to
marry another man.
 The story is a satire on the present society, wherein a boy fools a girl in love and gets what he wants
and a brother, who cares more about his own monetary gain rather than about his sister’s sufferings.
No one understands the agony of Toradoi, who has to deal with poverty, feed her children and
suppress all her physical and emotional desires for the one whom she passionately desired.
 The title of the story The Empty Chest is symbolic. At the beginning Toradoi’s heart is full of love
for her lover. But when she comes to know the truth she is left with no feelings for him. Her heart
becomes as empty as the box.

Unit-2 Motilal Jotwani -Very Lonely She Akeli- Akeli Hoo-A

 Dr. Motilal Jotwani is a well known writer in Sindhi, Hindi, and English.
 Born in January 1936 at Sukkur, Sindh, he did post-graduate Diploma in Journalism from Punjab
University in 1959, M.A. (English Literature) in 1962 and PhD in 1973 from Delhi University.
 Dr. Jotwani is a distinguished poet, fiction writer and research scholar.
 Dr. Jotwani received the Hindi Akademi Delhi’s Kriti Award (1988) for his book Niyamit and the
Uttar Pradesh Hindi Santhan Sauhard Award (1990).
 He received the Ishwaribai Buxani Life-time Achievement Award, Dubai (2002) and Akhil Bharat
Sindhi Boli Sabha Literary Award Jaipur (2003).
 The President of India awarded a Padma Shri to Dr. Jotwani in the fields of Literature and Education in
2003. 
 Dr. Motilal Jotwani, 72, passed away in Poona, India in 2008 due to heart failure. 
 Works:
 Rishtaa Nataa (novel, 1982)
 Koth (novel, 1985;
 Aataman Je Naale Mein (autobiography, 1994)
 Short stories: Very lonely, She [Akeli Akeli Hoo-a
 Very lonely, She (Akeli Akeli Hoo-A)
 The short story Very Lonely, She was originally published in Sindhi.
 It was translated into English by – Dr. Nandlal Jotwani
 This short story is based on an autobiographical incident. Pooran Mausi and Manohar are taken
from life.
 Writer wanted to focus on the sense of utter loneliness experienced in old age, and the fine line of
distinction between loneliness and aloneness.
 very little happens in the story.
 A nephew Manohar on way back to Delhi pays a visit to her Pooran Mausi who is living alone in a
different town.
 She recalls a painful remark made by a close young relative.
 The nephew discovers that they also have been guilty of neglecting her. There are guilt feelings and
regrets.
 The story ends with the nephew reflecting on the web of human relationships and the difference
between loneliness and being alone.
 Clearly, most of the action in the story is psycho logical.
 The story is told by a third person narrator, Manohar.
 The narrative is simple enough.
 Manohar breaks journey at Agra to see his Mausi. Which means, he is a decent person who is not
entirely neglectful of relationships. But like everyone else he has got busy with his life in Delhi and
he and his family haven't kept much contact with her.
  An event in the family, like death, is generally an occasion for relatives to come together but when
his younger sister, Vimla's husband in Delhi died, they didn't let her know of the tragedy.
 Obviously they didn't consider her to be important enough to be informed. Manohar is reminded of
the serious omission on their part when Mausi enquires about Vimla's daughters.
 When the truth dawns on him, Manohar feels guilty and he doesn't have the courage to face her.
 Pooran Mausi is the main character. But she shares the importance with Manohar. Abandoned by her
husband as Pooran Mausi, she lived with her parents in Agra. But when her parents died, she was left
alone to fend for herself.
 She had been running a domestic school for women where she had been giving lessons in tailoring
and embroidery and etiquette.
 Latterly , because of old age she sold away the sewing machines and now lives on the income that
comes from rent of a portion of the parental house.
 She can't afford to have modem conveniences like a telephone or a television or even a newspaper.
 Pooran Mausi leads a lonely life. When Manohar remarks that she must be feeling very lonely, she
responds simply: 'Life becomes the way you mould it.' This suggests that she has come to accept
loneliness as a part of her existence and she has made peace with it.
 The short story, Very Lonely, She, though autobiographical in origin.
 It makes us realize the weakening of familial bonds taking place in cities and at the same time shows
us the consequences of this weakening in the life an old widow like Pooran Mausi who is trying to
survive with courage and self-respect.

Unit -3 Afsar Ahmed Headmaster, Prawn, Chanachur

 Afsar Ahmed was born 5 April 1959 , and died 4 August 2018
 He was an Indian Bengali writer. He wrote 27 novels
 He pursued his post graduate education from Kolkata University in Bangla.
 His first novel Ghor Gerosti was published in 1980.
 Ahmed's Awards and recognition
 Ahmed received Somen Chanda Puraskar from Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi in 1998.
 He and Kalim Hazique translated Abdus Samad's Urdu novel Do Gaz Zamin into Bengali titled
“Sare Tin Hat Bhumi”. He was awarded Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for this work in
2000.
 He also received Bankim Puraskar in 2009.
 He received Sahitya Akademi Award in 2017.
 Ahmed died on 4 August 2018 at the age of 59.

 Short Story by Afsar Ahmed: Headmaster, Prawn, Chanachur

 English translation by Chandana Dutta.
 Characters:
 Arupda - (Main Protagonist)
 Pramita - (Arupda's wife)
 Ananya – (Arupda's friend)
 This story aims to unfold the meaning behind the meaningless expressions and behaviour of
the protagonist.
 Everyone around him is able to find meaning and beauty even as he despairs.
 The title of the story in Bengali Arrthaheen Katha Balar Nirbharta literally means to be
dependent on the meaningless words.
 The story is about Arupda's response to the incidents that happen around him and his
perception of life in general.
 There is no cohesive plot, though there are incidents in it.
 You will come across quite a few references to death violence such as suicides, drownings, rapes,
dacoity, murders and police atrocities.
 Arupda the protagonist, is not only the first person narrator of the story.
 This story is about a man called Arupda pretending to be mad.
 This appearance of the madness is a kind of fight against the social decline, and violence that he sees
around him.
 Incidence 1- His wife Pramita and daughter Tinni arrive home from Tinni's school and ring the
doorbell. But instead of opening or asking them to push open the door and enter in, he lets them
think that he is busy with some work and therefore taking time to open latch of the door. The door
after they left. He had also seen Tinni and Pramita returning to the house from his balcony.
 After they have entered the house, he greets his wife with a hello which again is a pretense but which
Pramita takes as real. She retorts "don't be stupid" She has other things on her mind.
 She throws her concerns at him "Uff, once again today they could not rescue the child from the
manhole. Arupda, not acknowledging her talk returns to the door and pretends to latch an already
latched door.
 Pramita is astonished to know that the door was never latched by him and that he was pretending.
 When she questions him. Arupda is roused and his mind gets filled with a flood of images. He say
suddenly and without thinking, thus:
 Pramita says to Arupda "Hanh! I think I remember your saying one rain filled night someone
had fallen into the manhole. What a country. What a city, the height of being unsafe".
 Besides the child falling into a manhole incident, Pramita recalls two dacoities in the colony and
the police flushing out a headless body of a youth from a canal. The gruesome macabre
incidents keep coming at us.
 Earlier, a young girl from the Basti was abducted and gang-raped in the park nearby". And even
before that, about a month and a half ago, the police came to the S-7 flat of "theirs" to look for a
young boy whose limp body hung from a ceiling fan. The boy's name was Sanju. He was about-
twenty one years old and his parents we are told are practicing doctors.
 In E-3, Arupda tells us nine days before Sanju's suicide a young boy who came home for two days
from hostel swallowed thirty sleeping pills and died. Arupda's response to these unfortunate
incidents is not in the form of explanations, wonders, quizzing questions but meaningless
thoughtfulness.
 Now, read Sanju's suicide incident carefully to see for yourself the apathy of the police. Police
had heard S-7 instead of N-7, just two blocks away. To probe the suicide case in S-7 flat which is
Arupda’s house the police and walk with a loud heavy step usually in anger in to see the corpse.
Pramita resorts to self defenes by trying to explain the mistake of the officer in noting down wrong
house number, Arupda on the contrary uses his meaninglessness to provide police "with all the
evidence of a suicide in my bedroom". He even daydreams imagining his lifeless body hanging
from the ceiling fan of his bedroom.
 Another funny incident in the story is Arupda's purchasing a phone and getting it installed in
the house N-7 where the boy had committed suicide. The parents of the boy are made to understand
that the phone was ordered by the boy before his death. The phone we are told. Arupda revels in the
fact that the phone is making consolatory noises to Sanju's parents".
 Arupda's stage managed death is not without significance. He wants his madness to explode in an
arresting manner. He even stages an imaginary event of his death. The message of his own fake
death is somehow conveyed. We are not told how the news of his own death is conveyed to his
friend but the news reaches him and Ananya goes to the wrong address given by Arupda to his
friend Ananya. Ananya is made to understand that Arupda has hanged himself from the ceiling in N-
7. Ananya visits the doctors, the boys parents, mistaking for Arupda's parents, grieving, consoling,
shouldering the wails of the boy's parents. Ananya later coming out from N-7 passing by Arupda's
balcony sees him with a newspaper in his hand. Obviously, Ananya is shocked, a dialogue ensues
and to each of his perplexed questions, Arupda replies in three words. Headmaster, prawn,
chanachur.
 It is interesting to note that Arupda does not want to die. Rather he wants to live. He says that
Ananya could never comprehend his desperation to live alive. He wants to die without losing
consciousness.

Unit-4 Vijaydan Detha: The Compromise , Translated by Shyam Mathur

 Vijaydan Detha
 Born 1 September 1926 Borunda, Jodhpur State, British India (now in Rajasthan, India)
 Died 10 November 2013 (aged 87) Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
 Pen name – Bijji
 Occupation Writer
 Notable awards
 Sahitya Akademi Award for Rajasthani in 1974
 Bhartiya Bhasa Parishad Award in 1992
 Marudhara Puraskar in 1995
 Bihari Puraskar in 2002
 Sahitya Chudamani Award in 2006
 Padma Shri in 2007[13]
 Rao Siha 2011 by Mehrangarh Museum Trust
 Rajasthan Ratna in 2012
 The Compromise Summary
 This story is written by Vijaydan Detha. 
 This is a very interesting story about a boy and his search for a companion & a guide with himself.
 The Compromise by Vijaydan Detha as an allegory.
 The story is written in the style of an autobiography.
 The story is set in Jodhpur, and its events take place in the students' hostel of the Charans(Caste).
 Before going further, it is necessary to know that in Rajasthan the leaders of every caste have built hostels for
the students of their caste.
 The main character of the story, Aaskaran who is a Charan.
 The strange habit of the protagonist is that when he stands at the mirror he passes into a state of
dialoguing seriously and honestly with his image in the mirror.
 Whatever Aaskaran does, the Aaskaran outside the mirror quizzes the Aaskaran inside it.
 Aaskaran outside the mirror levels charges of various kinds against the Aaskaran inside, and, the Aaskaran
inside tries to clear himself.
 To the Aaskaran outside, the Aaskaran inside seems a being either horned like a goat, or long-eared like a
donkey. These images go away but the tension between the "two selves" increases day by day.
 The self-inside is told off roughly, is threatened every day.
 A point comes when Aaskaran outside has reached the limits of tolerance with his image inside. He wants to
settle things finally. They decide, eventually, to smash the mirror. and this way the Aaskaran outside stops all
talk and conversation with the one inside.
 A compromise is struck between the two and the story ends.
 In other words the voice of conscience is not active any more. It is stilled forever. The story teller makes his
appearance again here, and elaborates on the compromise.
 He tells us that in time Aaskaran has now become a police thanedar. And the rumour is, he says, that he has
made lakhs of rupees and become filthy rich. This is the last sentence.