Short story by Premchand - The Child : Translated by Madan Gupta
Series 1 of Contemporary Indian Short Stories by Sahitya Akademi
(All the below interpretations are solely made by me and no one else is responsible for any comment made)
‘The Child’ is taken from Premchand’s short story in Hindi named, “बालक”
The short story traces the journey of Gangu who works for the protagonist in this story. Gangu considers himself a Brahmin even though he never prays, does not go to bathe in the river and is illiterate. There are also servants working for the protagonist who is a writer and they all bow before him as a sign of respect. But Gangu never does that as he sees it as a sign of disrespect towards his caste.
The protagonist also says that why shouldn’t Gangu be “too proud” about his ancestry. If people can use the wealth left by their ancestors and call it their own. Then Gangu has every right to claim right on his ancestry.
As the story unfolds further we get to know that Gangu being a Brahmin wants to marry a woman named Gomati Devi who has already been married thrice. He marries her and is happy and content with his life. But a sudden turn of events takes place wherein Gomati runs away and Gangu starts his quest to search for her. All of this happens in seven months and when the writer returns from his trip he is astonished to find a child in Gangu’s hands.
Questioning the character of Gomati who the writer considers an innocuous woman asks whether the child is Gangu’s as the writer had never heard of a child being born in six months, to which Gangu says, “After all when one takes a harvested field one does not refuse the crop merely because someone else has sown it.” and just like that he once again goes against the social binaries made up the society for upper caste people.
The story is set in the 90swhich makes it more alluring because it tries to break the pre defined notions set by the society. The portrayal of Gangu and his transition adds a unique touch of humanity to the story. Whereas the writer who considers himself a modernist is made to question his thoughts of morality and the kind of mindset that has set towards women. Gomati Devi on the other hand portrays a strong character presented in a very interesting manner as there are no dialogues between her and any other characters yet her presence has made the story a beautiful masterpiece.
When Gangu puts his thoughts about marrying Gomati who is already married thrice in front of the writer he is horrified as he thinks that no “self-respecting man” would even think about marrying such a woman. To defend this argument Gangu responds that, “Where there is no love, you cannot expect a woman to stay on. You cannot win a with mere board and lodging. Those people who married her thought that they were doing her a great favour by marrying a widow and took it for granted that she would do everything for their sake. But to win someone over one has to first forget about himself.”
Gomati is a fascinating character who takes the charge of her life in her hands. She dared to run away from a place where she wasn’t happy, while most of the women in those times and even now suffer in silence and accept their fate. Her strength and love gave courage to Gangu even, as he, who considered himself as a sophisticated Brahmin expresses his love for her and takes complete responsibility for providing a satisfied and fulfilling life to Gomati.
The child which is the title is the bargain that Gangu gets while searching for Gomati who is in the hospital as she is apprehensive whether Gangu will accept the child or not (as it is not Gangu’s own child) But he doesn’t detest the child rather he considers it as God’s gift to him.
The dialogue that I felt enthralling was, “This has never bothered me. This is the reason perhaps why Gomati left the house. I told her if she did not love me she could leave me by all means and I would never bother her again. But if she did love me she must not let the child separate us. I would love it as my own. After all, when one takes a harvested field one does not refuse the crop merely because someone else has sown it.”
This is a line that truly tells us how much Gangu loves Gomati and that he can go to any extent to see her happy. Even if the extent requires him to leave her. A certainly important lesson that people forget nowadays is that it is important that the person you love should be happy, even while being with you or without you. Sacrifice constitutes a major part of any relationship. And it is an integral part of this short story too.
We can conclude that there is no need for literacy to love and to be loved because the writer even though literate couldn’t understand the depth of Gangu’s love for Gomati. We also can infer that “love can transcend any boundaries, the boundaries might be of caste, class or gender. It also makes you unlearn the norms of society and also break them with fortitude.”
Significant morals learnt in childhood make a noteworthy comeback in this short story making this story an impressive read!
The above pdf contains the short story in English. (Taken from the series)
The parallels drawn here are that the story is written in Hindi and is translated to English by Madan Gupta for the series. What’s interesting is that there are not many changes in the style of writing or language used in the translation. If we were to find the English meaning of the words they almost mean the same as that in Hindi making this story an easy read for people who understand both languages and also for those who understand only one language.
In the case of this story the writing style, tone, dialogues and characters are analogous to the original story. The translation here proved to be a boon for this story rather than a bane , as the story is now available to a larger audience. Its relevance to today’s scenario helps it gain a higher notch to be read. Premchand Munshi being a prolific writer has written stories for Hindi literature that are so much compatible with the contemporary era. He can be considered as Shakspeare to Hindi literature as most of his stories were ahead of his times. Be it Godaan, Karmabhoomi, Gaban, Mansarovar, Idgah, etc. He is also known as “Upanyas Samrat” by other writers.
Translations don’t always do justice to the stories written in authentic language. So the translators need to keep the story comparatively true to its roots. Diverting a lot from the original language might make the story less desirable especially if the reader is well acquainted with both languages. It is also observed that stories translated by the author are more authentic to their original text. But here Madan Gupta has done notable work while translating this short story.
Translations have worked magically for all the stories in the series of Contemporary Indian Short Stories by Sahitya Akademi.
These are the four series that are unparalleled and deserve to be applauded!
Here is a link for readers who would like to read the Hindi version:
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