fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

achievement that he has written shortstories which are full of the music of lifewith each story presenting a different aspectand different experience of life.Let us have a look at some of theseshort stories. Addha and Khairu are veryinteresting short stories in the respect thatthe characters delineated in them are notof the ordinary type. Addha is called Addhaor 'half a man' by everyone; he is neithera whole man nor three-fourths a man, justhalf a man. He was dwarfish in stature,but he would straighten out everybody'saffairs. Though small himself, there wasno work that was big for him. When RadhaKamlani was teased by goondas whilereturning from her college, it was Addhawho saved her, and yet everyone called him'half a man'. Radha also regarded him tobe 'half a man'. Then he started arelationship with Satya, who worked as aprostitute in some flats of the same locality.It was when rumours that Satya had givenbirth to an illegitimate child spread thatAddha's manhood was put to real test.Everyone decided to turn her out of allthe flats. Addha came forward with hischest swelling with pride and adopted thechild. So it could be said that he of whomthe whole world made fun by calling himaddha or 'one half’, turned out to be acomplete man. In the same way, Khairais also a downtrodden character, witheveryone regarding him as worthless. Hedoes superfluous jobs, like putting smallbells round the necks of bullocks, paintingfgndi •their horns, decorating them, paintingdesigns on earthen pitchers, singing andplaying at the village chaupal. In otherwords, he represents the aesthetic aspectof life, which is obviously unprofitable. Tothe village people, whatever he did was toearn his board. People thought that he wasdoing unessential jobs. How long couldhe live as a parasite. He began to starve,fell ill and died. Then people of the villagebegan to realize that something great wasmissing, that he, who did superfluous jobs,had much to do with all that made lifebeautiful.One of his short stories Mard is basedon the relationship of a mother and herson. The parents are divorced; their youngson is in the hostel. The mother developsrelations with another man. The son comeshome during vacations and the motherwants to tell him that she is pregnant andis going to marry the man after some time.But the son, whom the mother stillconsiders to be child, guesses it as soonas he arrives and the male inside himscreams out, "Whose child is this bastard?"As if it is not the son but the father whois speaking. Or, the son is acting as thefather's proxy. Or, in the society that isin the centre of our discussion, it is themen who have all the rights. Or is it thathowsoever much the parents may considertheir children to be just kids, inside theygrow up fast. In the same way, there isanother interesting short story that is basedon the relationship of a child and hisApril-June 2013 :: 15