Though the landowner knows them to be cheats, he reluctantly throws them a few rupees. Both men go about the village beating their chests and wailing "according to the old tradition." They receive consolation from the other villagers, and, to get money for the shroud and firewood needed to cremate the dead woman, they go the the village's major landowner and beg. The next morning Madhav goes into the hut and finds his wife dead, the baby having died inside the womb. Yearning for the old days, he complains, "Nobody feeds us like that now." Instead, people are taken with "economizing and hoarding." Finishing their potatoes, they curl up and fall asleep, "just like two enormous coiled pythons." ![]() Speaking editorially, the author notes that Ghisu is smarter than most Indian peasants, for he has managed to earn himself the lowest reputation in the village and yet survive without engaging in honest working.Īs if to negate the horror of the woman dying in childbirth, Ghisu recalls a sumptuous wedding feast he attended 20 years before. Moreover, they believe that "God will provide," as he always seems to have done in the past. Believing her to be "possessed by some ghost," they will not enter the hut. Though Budhiya has been a good wife and had established some order in the men's chaotic lives, neither wishes to spend money to get her help. Instead, they prefer to take handouts or to cheat others to maintain themselves at a subsistence level. Both father and son refuse to do farmwork that is readily available in the community. Lazy, dishonest, and superstitious, Ghisu and Madhav are members of the untouchable leather worker caste, the poorest and lowest in India's highly structured social hierarchy. His father urges him to look in on the girl, but he asks, "If she's going to die why doesn't she get it over with? What can I do by looking?" ![]() Budhiya, Madhav's young wife of one year, is inside groaning in childbirth. ![]() Set in an Indian village, the milieu of Premcand's best works, on a dark, chilly winter night, it is the story of a father, Ghisu, and his son, Madhav, who sit at the door of their hut roasting potatoes stolen from a neighbor's field. Published in 1936, just months before Premcand's death, "The Shroud" ("Kafan") is generally thought to be the author's best, blackest, and most powerful short story.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |