Author : Gulzar

Translated from the Hindi ('Athanniya') by Sunjoy Shekhar

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Pages: 218

 

The reputation of a 'short story' in literature is quite questionable. Often defined as 'the poor cousin' of the more 'opulent' novel, a short story is like a struggling artist striving for a moment of glory.

 

As an introduction note to his book of short stories- 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman', the much celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami wrote, "If writing novels is like planting a forest, then writing short stories is more like planting a garden. The two processes complement each other, creating a complete landscape that I treasure." In India, it was during a session titled 'Kahani Kisko Kehte Hain? Script, Story, Screenplay' at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2012 that poet and lyricist Gulzar had presented a valid argument against marginalisation of short stories in literature and explained how a river cannot boast of its affluence unless there is a confluence of tributaries that flow into it. Thanks to them and many such writers that short stories are (re)gaining prominence among the present generation of readers. And Gulzar's latest collection of short stories, 'Half a Rupee Stories' offers us yet another treasure trove of tales waiting to be opened and devoured.

 

Usual stories, unusual writing

When it's Gulzar, even the ordinary assumes a larger-than-life yet real status of its own and something which is a 'unique' incident or an experience is narrated with a kind of unusual simplicity that it appears like an everyday occurrence. This is best explained if we pick two stories out of the twenty five in the book. The story 'Hilsa' for instance begins with a happy scene where we get a glimpse of a Bengali couple engaged in a discussion on the beautiful eyes of the Hilsa fish. As the wife dresses it for the afternoon meal, her husband shares a trivia on why one "shouldn't eat fish in the months that do not have the letter R in them," the reason being those are the months in which the fish breed. Everything seems fine until the innocent reader reaches the climax and is caught off-guard. The 'mesmerising' eyes of the pregnant Hilsa that we'd started marvelling at, in fact, serves a metaphor to describe the eyes of a dead pregnant woman, gang-raped in the city riots. Her photograph on the front page of the newspaper that the husband reads (in the concluding scene) rudely reminds us of the fish in the pan as the story concludes, "Her eyes looked like those of the Hilsa in the pan". The next story is about a suicide bomber who strangely wishes to get photographed on her last day of existence. With the mission (to blow up the Prime Minister) in mind, she wakes up to her last morning and plans the day. What is most interesting about the story is its title- 'Swayamvar' (a practice in ancient India of selecting a husband from a list of suitors). How on earth is marriage even relevant to a woman who is to die in hours, we wonder? Once you finish reading the story, all questions are put to rest.

 

Javed Akhtar, Kashmir and the 'aam-aadmi'

Half a Rupee Stories allows us to take a sneak peek into some personal chapters of people that have left an impact on Gulzar to an extent that he decides to chronicle them for posterity. Most of us are aware of lyricist and scriptwriter Javed Akhtar's wit, quick repartee and playfulness but only a privileged few have lifted his writer's cloak to discover the person hidden behind. Gulzar does that for us. Javed Akhtar's aka 'Jaadu' (as the poet addresses him in the story) sweet-n-sour relationship with his father, early days as a writer in the Hindi film industry and little dreams about receiving the Filmfare and his acceptance speech rehearsals in closed rooms of production houses make for a fascinating read. The story, however, is an emotional one. Javed Akhtar's special friendship with Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi and its tragic end has been written with utmost sensitivity and honesty. Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations too feature as repeated themes in Gulzar's stories which are again fiction but experienced reality at the same time. It is hard for the reader to blame Gulzar for patronizing the poor in his stories because the empathy with which he writes about their hardship and challenges forces us to question our own behaviour toward them. 'Half a Rupee', also a story in its own in the volume is Gulzar's personal favourite. "This story is very close to my heart. The struggle to transform an 'athanniya' (half a rupee) to a full rupee is the central theme and 'Half a Rupee' becomes a metaphor of the poor's plight," explains the poet.

 

Gulzar's simplicity, translator's honesty

Reading the book you'll find that the translator has retained some of the Hindi words as is. Terms like angeethi, mehetar, ghuggni, gulkand, gamchas, mannat and athanni among others do not always come with a mandatory asterisk or footnotes that you can refer to understand the English equivalent. It could be that the translator did not want to take away the flavour of the original; after all a 'ghuggni' is not the same as a chickpea dish nor is 'gamcha' exactly a towel. The images they conjure would not occur if they were to be rephrased or re-interpreted and this is where Sunjoy Shekhar ensures not to disturb the fabric of the stories.

 

From the Foreword by Gulzar to the twenty fifth story, 'Half a Rupee' comes across as an exploration of human life in varied situations and settings. Whether it's on streets, in the hills, across the border, in the rain or a film studio; Gulzar does not miss a chance to say that it is life which is his ultimate muse.

 

Refrence : Times of India