fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

station and killed three years ago. Inbetween the lines of the story the discussionon Krishnamurti's quote that everythingis after all what we imagine it to becontinues. It is reality only to the extentwe accept it as reality, otherwise both lifeand death are fantasies.To make a proper assessment of thecanvass of Gulzar's creativity, it is necessaryto mention the short stories that centreor revolve around religious passion,terrorism or fear. These stories are also asunique as some others are. Undoubtedly,thousands of stories must have been writtenon the subject of riots, but Gulzar's shortstories stand apart and are unique. In theshort story titled Khauf, he has depictedthe kind of terror that paralyses the mindin an atmosphere of religious frenzy. Inthis story, after hiding here and there forfive days to save his life, Yasin, a commuterin Bombay's local train whose bakery hasbeen set on fire, is shown going home bya local train, secretly and in fear. Thecompartments are deserted. Suddenly hesees a shadow entering the compartmentand standing in wait. Yasin fears that itis some unknown person who is going tokill him. As soon as he gets the opportunity,he lifts the man between his legs andthrows him out of the running train. Afterthis Gulzar has written only one sentencewhich is the life and soul of the wholestory : "He heard a cry coming from thefalling man - Allah!" This short story canbe counted among the most effective storiesfgndi •written on religious riots, showing howreligious frenzy becomes a means to negateeven one's own reality. Ravi Par is anothersuch unique and intensely tragic story. Inthis story Darshan Singh comes out of aGurdwara along with his newly born twinsand wife, and walking through the crowd,climbs on to the roof of the special train.Both the children continue to suck thedry breasts of their mother. There is nomilk or water and one of the children diesduring the journey. When the train passesthrough the Ravi Bridge, a fellow passengersays, "Sardar Ji, how long will you keepthe dead child's body with you. Throwit from here into the river. You will beblessed." Darshan Singh picked up thebundle and uttering 'Wahe Guru' tossedit into the river. A faint voice of a childwas heard in the darkness. The body ofthe dead child was there, clinging to thebreast of the mother, and people wereraising slogans - "We have reached Wagah!We have reached Wagah!" It seems asthough on passing through the frontiersof freedom, we too threw away our livingvalues, and the dead body of hatred, terror,bigotry and narrow-mindedness, which weshould have thrown away, is still with us,clinging to our chest. And what we regardas something exciting is actually ourtragedy.I wanted to keep this article brief, butit would be necessary to mention one ortwo short stories of his which are differentfrom all other stories, to do justice to him.April-June 2013 :: 19