Lecture 19: 'घंटा' कहानी की अंतर्वस्तु

Namaskar, I welcome you all once again to this series of lectures under the theme of Main Hindi Stories and Indian Society. Today I will discuss a different kind of story, which is the story of Gyan Ranjan, a well-known storyteller of the 60s-70s Hindi story generation. The 60s-70s story generation means the movement of stories after the 60s in Hindi literature, which deviates from the social reality of new stories and tries to destroy those places which were almost unnoticeable, to which ordinary storytellers could not reach. If you look at it in this way, then the world of the story of Ghanta is a world that outlines those unnoticeable places, on which there was no focus of new stories. So I will discuss this, but before that let me tell you that in the 60s-70s Hindi story, there was a movement of non-stories. The movement of non-stories and the meaning of non-stories is that the generation that came after destroying the traditional art of the story, the storytellers who came, along with Gyan Ranjan, Doodhna Singh, Ravindra Kalia, Kashi Nath Singh, were also very famous. Gyan Ranjan is in this generation. Gyan Ranjan has written many other famous stories, such as Pita, Bahirgaman, Fence Ke Idhar Aur Udhar, he wrote stories in this way. He published a magazine called Pahal for a long time. He is alive and lives in Jabalpur. He published 125 pages. So in this way, the writing of Gyan Ranjan is a world, the world of writing is very vast. He did not write many stories, but whatever he wrote, the world within it is very vast. So in this sense, this story of Ghanta brought him a lot of attention. The story of Ghanta is very interesting in the sense that it is a story of self-character. The narrator of the story of Ghanta is himself a writer. He writes the story in the style of self-character. The narrator of the story of self-character is himself a writer. He writes in the style of self-character. I went here, I went there, I saw this. This is one thing. In this context, this story is more of a story of opposition to the narrator than the narrator. That is, the story progresses and the story immediately breaks, immediately breaks. And within the story, the story begins to run. This is also an art of this story. Because the society from which this story comes, the environment from which it comes, it is a very disturbing environment. In fact, two cultures have been put face to face in this. One is called Petrola and the other is called Rashtara. You know about Rashtara, which you call a restaurant. Rashtara restaurant means that it is the place of Abhijad tradition. In which people of the society go to eat and drink. Because of its expensive tea, expensive coffee, its expensive breakfast. This is not a place for a poor man. But Petrola, which has been created by the writer, in this story, Petrola is that, in a corner of the city, and somewhere in the middle, there is a place where some friends sit. So Petrola is that place where there is darkness, where tired, defeated people reach, but in which there is a flame of struggle, where those who argue about the fundamental changes of the society, and are constantly connected to each other, through the medium of ideological arguments, so there is no place for Abhijad people to go. They can clearly say that it is the place of revolutionary people, who can speak openly, can fight openly, can abuse each other openly. That is, there is no place for Abhijad people there. Whereas in a restaurant, you can only sit there in the sphere of Abhijad people. That is, there will be dancing and singing, there will be a drinking party, and you are not allowed to laugh there, you are not allowed to speak there, because there is a system there, it has its own rules. There are rules to sit in a restaurant, there are no rules to sit in Petrola. So this story, based on these two different social places, moves forward, and in this, there is a character called Kundan Sarkar, who connects Petrola with the restaurant. Kundan Sarkar is a rich person, but he has a desire to go to the restaurant, and he does go, but he has a desire to be intelligent, he has a desire to be literate, which cannot happen by sitting in a restaurant. For that, you need a place in Petrola. For that, while living in different places, you need to know about the society, and there should be an alternative to trying to know about the society. Because Petrola, it is written on it, that Petrola is a place from where you can see everything of the city. And a restaurant is a place from where you cannot see anything other than yourself. So these two cultures, these two cultures, and this story of the time of Aakahani, in such a way, it develops in an exciting way, and the word Ghanta, is very popular there, because Kundan Sarkar, is a writer, who is a narrator himself, and has a story of his own, so the writer wants to say that he does not want to leave Petrola. His mind is made up of Petrola, with its ecstasy, with its intellectual debate, with its ecstasy, and the atmosphere there, the openness, he gets his mind from that, but he does not want to leave the restaurant. There is a strange tension, so he wants to go to the restaurant, he wants to see it, and for him, there was only one medium, Kundan Sarkar, because Kundan Sarkar, and in that, the writer says that, with Kundan Sarkar, there used to be a person from Petrola, who could debate him, the writer writes that, these days, I was the bell of Kundan Sarkar, and this is where the story begins, that there were many bells with him, but these days, I was the bell of Kundan Sarkar, which means, whatever he did with Kundan Sarkar, he used to call it a bell, that this is my bell, and in the form of this bell, the writer, with Kundan Sarkar, reaches the restaurant one day, and in the restaurant, there is a dance party going on, there is a party going on, and who are the people sitting there? Mostly, they are the officers. Now, the writer's mind is in Petrola, so his mind does not get involved, in the dance party there, and after that, when the dance party takes place, he feels disgusted, he cannot bear it, because, as I said earlier, Abhijatya, is the character, who prohibits all forms of Abhijatya, the Kathanayak, who is made of Petrola, his mind is in Petrola, but he is sitting in the restaurant, and when he is sitting in the restaurant, he feels that everything is fake, everything is fake, and he says that, all these officers of the army, are having fun here, because he says that, the people sitting here, do not care about anything, except themselves, they do not know, they do not know anything, about the army, but he says that, the people sitting in the restaurant, only care about their wives, and they care about themselves, and they care about dancing, they have nothing to do with, the seriousness of the society, the problems of the society, the poverty of the society, and he wants to have something to do with them, because he has seen poverty, and he has seen depression, because he too, is a victim of depression, where there are no jobs, where there are no basic facilities, where there is a basic problem, of education, where there is no movement, and here, there is dancing, and alcohol is consumed, and whiskey is consumed, and Coca-Cola is consumed, and all of a sudden, his mind, becomes uncontrollable, and the bottle of Coca-Cola, hits him hard, and the bottle breaks, and when he starts dancing, he starts laughing, and he starts laughing, and people laugh at him, because his mind, is made of petrol, and this is why, he wanted to say, that here, there is no place for laughing, here, there is a place for discipline, and he feels very bad, because what is he stuck in, where there is no place for laughing, where there is no place for walking, because you are sitting, so sit still, you are standing, so stand still, Because the writer believes that there should be some indiscipline in the society. Indiscipline does not mean being uncivil. He wants to say that there should be some resistance. There should be some voice. And there is no room for resistance. There it seems that the society is powerful, the country is powerful, the nation is powerful. That is, the party is running in the sphere of power. When he has come out of Petrola, he knows that nothing is powerful anywhere. Outside the restaurant, there is still the same poverty. As it is, there is a lot of corruption. As it is, there is a lot of life full of disgrace. And there is a life full of corruption. So, there is a scene in front of him. And suddenly, he opens his control and opens it. And he quickly hits a bottle of Coca-Cola. And there is a loud noise. And the whole village becomes silent. Catch him, catch him, catch him. Who did it? What did he do? In the end, he was sitting there. He is caught. And after that, you know, there are bouncers there. So, there comes a bouncer by the name of Kallu. And after that, he immediately pulls his collar. And drags him out. And as it is said, he beats him hard. And he gets beaten up forcefully. And after the beating, he is taken out of that restaurant. Now, there is a very interesting atmosphere in this. It is that, It took 2-3 minutes for all this to happen. And after 2-3 minutes, the atmosphere of the restaurant became normal. People started singing and dancing. People started drinking. People started drinking alcohol. And when he was thrown out of the restaurant gate, the writer says, I got a little better. And when I was able to walk, I came out. Because of my beating, my walk was a little bad. But when I came out of the main gate, the guard saw me and saluted me. And the writer says, the guard saw me and saluted me. So, he thought that I was a big man, who was getting drunk and was coming out. The writer writes, he does not know that I am a person who has been beaten, because of which my walk has become bad. Now, I do not have any alcohol. So, there is a joke there, that the guard does not know what my condition is, and in what condition I am going out of this door. So, this is the story, in a nutshell, the narrative part of this story, is very entertaining, and very melodious. After this, in the context of laughter and laughter, the story goes on. And the writer, his beating is hurting his body. Gradually, there was no way in front of him. The writer says, when I was being beaten, I was looking for Kundan Sarkar. And I found out that Kundan Sarkar had already run away. I told him that the one who took me away, when he saw me being beaten, he must have run away very fast. And I was all over the place and could not be seen anywhere. Because Kundan Sarkar had forbidden me, that if I disturb the discipline here, then you will be beaten, and I will be the victim of that. The writer says that I reached there, and I reached Petrola. He said that he was very scared, that we will not get admission in Petrola, the people there will throw us out, they will not give us a place. But the writer writes, that the people of Petrola saw me, and gave me a slight smile, and did not say anything else. So, this slight smile and silence, means that he gave me a slight smile, and what is the conclusion? The conclusion is that, wow, we had gone to the restaurant, what happened? We came back after getting beaten up. So, let's go now. Because the writer says that he knew that this is my place. And I knew that this is my place. I went to see, but the anger of my mind burst there. I was not able to tolerate his brutality. Because I was living a very miserable life. And a person who lives a miserable life, as you all know, is bound to be violent. So, you can see that on one hand there is violence, and on the other hand there is poverty, and on the other hand there is backwardness. So, keeping these two situations in view, the writer has written this story. And this is the core of this story, in which it comes out that, under a violent society, there are some less powerful societies, there are some backward societies, there are some societies that live a life of poverty and discontent. We should also pay attention to them. That is, what is the problem of that petrol? Everyone describes the beauty of a restaurant. But what are the problems of the people living in petrol? What are their worries? No one tries to know about it. So, in this way, you will see that this story comes to us as a representative story of a non-story movement. And in the same way, like the free system of petrol, it destroys two cultures by putting forward the system of restaurants. If there are people in petrol, then there are noble people in restaurants. If there is life in petrol, then there is a celebration of life in restaurants. In this way, in this story, there is a form of modernity, where there is a sense of ugliness, there is a suffocation, there is a sense of uselessness. This story goes on with the story of the miserable conditions of all the living conditions. There has definitely been an important story of the 60s in its content, which is still discussed a lot. And in the content of this story, I have told you that this is a story that reveals the absurdity of the entire intellectual world. This story does not only identify with social inequality, but also stands against it. Here, it brings forth the historical reality of a medieval intellectual. Even though it opposes the system, its background is still there, which has been depicted as the bell of the writer. In other words, this story illustrates the absurdity of a medieval intellectual. It is also important to note that this story written in May Sali has also become a story of self-indulgence. And in this way, this story goes below the social level and also addresses the fundamental questions of human destiny. So, what is the substance of this story? You can say that the substance of this story is the questionableness, and also the lack of vision. Because of this, there is a gap in its language. On top of that, this story, which separates the ordinary human relations, illustrates all those inhumane conditions that were not even considered by the story-tellers before it. For this, it has chosen the novelty of the language and has made the dialogue very vivid. Now, let us move on to the environment of this story. This story is also known as the environment of Gajin. For the environment, the way this story enters our environment is a description of a Hindi story. The conditions that make this environment rich, where in one corner of the city, there is a petrol station, and in the middle of the city, there is a sparkling restaurant. So, if you look at it this way, on one side, there is petrol, and on the other side, there is a sparkling restaurant. So, these two things create the environment. Why? Because petrol represents the people, who do not have many options in life. Where ordinary people, ordinary youth, who are tired and exhausted, come and sit, talk to each other, and laugh and talk. On the other side, there is the glamour of the restaurant, where from the alcohol party to the dance party, in which there is a prohibition to speak in all ways. There is a kind of necessity, which cannot be distinguished. The writer has also expressed it in the form of a genuine smile. The whole environment of the restaurant, has been portrayed in the form of a genuine smile by the writer. In this way, this story makes a new state of existence manifest in its interior and environment. As far as the interior of the story is concerned, I have already said that even if it is not extensive, even if the environment is not very limited, but this story is full of limitless possibilities. And in this, the writer writes, that this is actually the bell of the Kundan government. The purpose of making that bell was, that they are beaten in the restaurant. The writer also says, about the environment of the restaurant, that no one here is angry, serious and sad. It is obvious that the atmosphere of the restaurant, is similar to that of the people of Petrola. Because in Petrola, there are angry people, serious people and very sad people. That is why I said earlier about this environment, that these are two different situations, two different environments, which are presented in front of each other, by the writer, and present the picture of the Indian society. In this, in many places, there are heart-wrenching situations, where there is no scope for any kind of conversation. And in such situations, the writer's arrival in the restaurant, and the constant boiling of the bell inside it, is very important. He calls himself the bell of the Kundan government, because there is an anger inside him, which he tries to stop again and again, but he is not able to stop it. He says at one place, and this is very important to know about the environment, quote, These people who work hard for the country, and this heroine of music, why should this heroine care about anything? She understands that the whole country, is waiting to be immersed in the dance of a woman. So here, you will see that, the language is full of anger, which results in the beating of the Kallu Guru himself. So here, you can say that this story, makes fun of extreme revolutionaryism, and between two different mental states, and social structure, a gap is being filled, and this is the story of making fun of it. So if you look at this story, it is a story about the changing environment of the Kulmila district, and it is a story about creating a new environment. And if you look at this picture of the changing environment, which shows the whole environment as a burden. Quote, The road was full of people, the people sitting on the sofa, were talking without any sound, I don't think that more than the size of a goat's ladder, their mouths would have kept opening. The men were thinking that it was a singing girl, or Chavanni Barabar, and their women were not deaf. Bedrooms were shining in their eyes. You can easily see how the writer has depicted the whole environment, the whole environment. And in this way, it is possible to tell you this story, that the environment, is on one side, and on the other side is the roof. The architecture of Rashtara's environment is very roof-like. The expression of love is in the architecture of its environment. There is no natural feeling in it. The natural effect of life is not visible there. Whereas, if you look at the other side, there is a petrol station, where there is a movement of life, a movement of life, and a voice of life is heard. So, these are not just two different environments, not just two different environments, but there are also two different cultures, which form different characters. So, in this environment, you can see two different characters. On one side, you can see the writer who lives in the petrol station, who calls himself Ghanta. And on the other side, there is Kundan Sarkar, who makes noise in both places. So, in this way, you can see that Ghanta himself, is a kind of worshipper, but in that worship, there is an observation of life very close to it. He is very talkative, he is very critical, he is very talented. There is a foundation of resistance in his feelings, that is, in Ghanta. In the story of Ghanta, the character of Ghanta, is the character of the writer himself. And on the other side, there is Kundan Sarkar, who is very soft, and has a very low character. And he takes Ghanta with him as an assistant. But when the beating of that Ghanta starts, he runs away. He is tempted to become a fake intellectual. He is tempted to become a fake writer, and he becomes a victim of this. So, you can see that there are two environments, two characters, in which there is no point of union. So, what does this story want to show? This story wants to show that, after the 60s, the generation that has now become young, is about 20-22 years old. So, now his expectations are very high. That freedom was a weapon of social change for him. Freedom is not only the freedom of borders. That freedom was economic, it could have been, it should have been social, and it should have been political. Because no freedom is characterized by the freedom of borders, unless it is based on its freedom, its economic freedom, its economic integrity, in which the gap between the rich and the poor is reduced. But this did not happen. The country became free, but after 20 years of freedom, it became clear that the rich became rich, and the poor became poor. So, the walls between the rich and the poor, the increasing distances, this story, is a story that connects the two cultures through a bell, it is a story that connects the two cultures, and it tells us that, the brave class, in the face of their brutality, does not want to leave any space for the so-called cruel class. Whereas in society, the excluded class, the people who live in the petrol industry, their numbers are unlimited, and their numbers will increase in the future, where there is tyranny, where there are fights, where there is anger, where there is hatred. So, the need is that, the people of Bhadravar, the people of Rashtra, understand the sentiments of the people who live in the petrol industry, and listen to their feelings. This story tells us this. Thank you very much for listening to this explanation.