My interpretation of modern short story ''Udancharkaldi''

 Here I am sharing one modern short story

‘udancharkaldi’ by contemporary Gujarati writer Mahendrasinh Parmar from his book “Polytechnic” ( a collection of short stories). They are 'Polytechnic' short story it is modern short story.Modern literature use the triviality in any space of literature.Some modernity put in trivial aspect of this short story ''Udancharkaldi''.

About the Author:-

Mahendrasinh Parmar is born on 2^nd October 1967 in Naliya (Kutch, Gujarat). At present he is a faculty member at Department of Gujarati, Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. Recently, In February 2016 he launched his two books.

1.)            “Polytechnic”

2.)            “Rakhdu no Kagal”

The Plot:-

The plot of the story revolves around the female protagonist ‘Jivi’. Jivi is a girl from rural area. She gets married with Mansukh and moves to his urban house. The new house was very nice with good flooring and the most important facility   was “Toilet”. She cleans the toilet with finial and keeps it so clean.  In village, Jivi and her friends had lots of problems as they didn’t have facilities of toilet.

Jivi loves her new house so much that when her mother and brother invite her for her brother’s wedding. At first she denies going with them and promises to come soon. Jivi was so attached with the new house and specially the facilities, which it was hard for her now to live without this facility. Mansukh also explains Jivi that they should go for her brother’s wedding. The end of the story is open for interpretation that whether Jivi visits her mother’s home or not.

In this story, the author has used a very interesting metaphor “Raamsabha” for the nature’s call in nature. Jivi and her friends use this metaphor to talk about the nature’s call in nature. It generates laughter among the readers. This metaphor is used several times in the story.

Example:-

This dialogue is spoken by ‘Savli’; Jivi’s best friend. When Jivi’s Bidaai is taking place, Savli tells her that she is very fortunate to have the facility of sanitation, but she has the same “Raamsabha”.

It shows how the girls suffer due to lack of facility of sanitization. The girls can get it only if they get married. The question is why????

Here we can see how an old lady sings song of “Raamsabha”. It reflects the problems she might have suffered and must be seeing the younger girls suffer.here use this many trivial image in story also.

Here we can see a glimpse of a conversation between Jivi and her husband. Jivi tells her husband about “Raamsabha”. Here is a very interesting line which reflects the salient feature of postmodernist literature.

This is what we as a reader should understand the hidden meaning behind the comic elements. Both Jivi and her husband cried on the situations faced by Jivi.

A woman faces this serious problem of poor or no sanitation facilities. It not only creates problem about hygiene of women but also security of women. In August 2014, two girls in Uttar Pradesh were raped during their visit to farm for relieving themselves. Many women in India are still facing the problems. Nowadays we also see the advertisement of the Government program for the use of toilets with a tagline.

“Jaha soch waha sauchalay”

Rather than portraying Jivi in a tragic way, the author gives her a 

touch of comedy mixed with innocence. We might wonder that can there be anyone who doesn’t want to go at her mother’s place. We should imagine the condition of Jivi and the problem girls like her faces. Jivi reflects every girl who is the victim of these kinds of social issues. With the use of pure local Gujarati language, use of metaphors and the comic elements makes the story worth reading.

Many times people are also ashamed of talking about toilet facility or maybe they think these are not important things to be discussed or talked. modern  literature makes use of comedy, satire and irony to highlight the dark side of the society.