THE STILL SAD STORY OF HUMANITY

A Study of Manoj Das’ Short Stories

JAYANT KUMAR BISWAL

A human civilization gone wrong by our perverted ideals, an existence warped by antihuman forces–such is the plight of this tender, lovely world that Manoj Das describes. He communicates a vision of a world where innocence and aspirations are betrayed by life’s cruel ironies. Yet, behind all these there is the awareness of a sensitive artist of the eternal throb of life. Behind all the ugly distortions of life there is always that tender desire of mankind to live.

Manoj Das conveys the poignancy of the human situation through humour. In his stories the comic always has a symbiotic relationship with the serious. Beneath the uproarious fun and laughter of his short stories, the helplessness of human predicament, the agony and eclipse of life are presented. A deep humanistic vision pervades throughout his works as a result of which his satire affects in an affectionate and sympathetic manner. Behind the facade of the comic lies the painful realization of man’s loneliness and a lost world. This predicament is movingly illustrated in the story “The Princess and the story-teller.” Bhatt and Shawoo, whose finer feelings have been blunted during their criminal career, suddenly find themselves exposed to the tender side of human existence in the act of the story-teller’s sacrificing his eye for his beloved princess and the princess in turn offering herself to marry him. Later on, even though she story-teller confesses it to be only fiction, both Bhatt and Shawoo refuse to accept it as fiction as they have been suddenly led to a realm of tender values of life of which they were deprived earlier. Their stubborn refusal to accept it as a figment of imagination speaks of their yearning for life. Possibly for this reason Dr. Batstone, the man from the land of skyscrapers, believes in the “Crocodile’s Lady.” The tale of the Crocodile’s Lady is a moving saga of love and sacrifice that transcends the questions of reality or fantasy, human or subhuman. From the suffocation of reason and science Dr. Batstone, for those few moments in India, could find liberation. This pathetic sense of human loss is movingly represented in “Farewell to a ghost.” The ghost had become an innocent and indispensable part of the lives of the villagers. When the tree in which the ghost was forced to dwell was struck by lightning, it marked the death of innocence. All the beliefs and superstitions that have gone to make the emotional being of the villagers sadly disintegrate. Farewell to a ghost symbolically suggests farewell to a culture, farewell to the innocent beliefs that nourished our existence. Such death of innocence is again symbolically illustrated by Laxmi’s death in “Laxmi’s adventure.”

Manoj Das presents the complex human situation with the agony and ecstasy of life, the various feelings and emotions that give meaning to our lives. In most of his stories a haunting sense of life’s sadness contributes to an intense lyricism. A sense of loss, of innocence and freedom, marks most of his stories. “A Letter from the Last Spring” focuses on the psychology of a tender child who has come forward to share the common sorrow of the loss of a mother in an intimate human understanding. In all these stories presented in these two collections the child, as a creature of tender innocence, is juxtaposed against the world of adults, with all its hypocrisy and complexities. The death of Laxmi is a betrayal of innocence as the farewell to the ghost girl is its cruel negation. In the process of civilization, man with his notions of progress, and with the sins and chicanery involved in it, has lost that primeval innocence.

The humour in Manoj Das’ short stories helps to present the human helplessness in all its ludicrous aspects and prove how the vanities of men have rendered them all miserable human wrecks. Humour serves to emphasize the emptiness of man’s ego and ambitions denying them the tragic dignity. “Sharma and the Wonderful Lump” is a case in point. The lump of Sharma symbolizes the perversion of values in a highly commercial society. When the agents of Domdaniel kidnap Shama and threaten him on the point of death–that is the point to which the perverted values of our civilization have dragged man, to a point of self-destruction. And then only Sharma realizes the truth, the elemental values of life that have nourished his existence, “In my town a hundred cuckoos herald the advent of spring.” “I’ve my mother in India. None has a mother like that.” Through the commercial transactions of Sharma with various American companies ranging from the American T. V. to Baldbreast’s campaign, Manoj Das focuses on the vulgarities and the perverted values, of our civilization. The connotations of the lump (aboo) is explicitly stated in the words of Sharma’s mother, “....I am dreaming of a day when the world as a whole will be liberated from its gigantic aboo of darkness and arrogance.” “Satire is concealed in the simultaneous existence of humour and pathos. The vanities of the mayor pale into insignificance before the small girl’s innocent gesture of throwing her torn and soiled frock at his naked body. The egoistic man is again made a helpless mockery in “Mystery of the Missing Cap.” When the monkey is presented as the noble man, the recognition of this reality dashes all the illusions of the honourable minister, Babu Virkishore. In a like situation in “Statue breakers are Coming” Yameshwar Gupta learns to live happily when his statue: breaks into pieces. As in “Sharma and the Wonderful Lump,” the perversion of values finds another manifestation in the “Operation Bride.” The bride, made to live by sophisticated electronic devices suggests a human existence devoid of any spirit behind the tinsel glitter of our jaundiced civilization. Here lies the satire of the sensitive humanist who rarely offends, but only focuses on the pathetic plight of the fallen man through a criss-cross of humour and pathod. The horrible sight of the skeletons for the seven seekers, who have taken drugs to see people without clothes, is the symbolic presentation of the nightmarish experiences of man resulting from the everburgeoning sensual desire. The tiger in “The Night the Tiger Came” is the jealousy and the violence that is present in every character. And the tiger in “He who Rode the Tiger” becomes the symbol of ego and ambition. The pathetic end of the young prince, who was devoted to study and meditation and loved loneliness, is the ultimate outcome of a society where vain ego reigns. Stories under the caption “The Panchatantra for Adults” and other fables present the vision of a decaying world in convincing symbols and allegories.

Everywhere in these stories the sadness of life is prominent. The agonizing sense of loss of freedom haunts Kunja in the story “The Kite.” Kunja’s nostalgic yearning for childhood freedom objectified in the kite drives him to defy the artificial barriers of prison life. And justifyingly, the jailor and the Superintendent of Police who pursued him begin to feel small and insignificant before him. This message of freedom is conveyed to Mr. Roy in “The Birds in the Twilight.” Simultaneous with this loss of freedom is the loss of innocence. Characters are made to stand on the brink of their existential plights and the urgency of human situation is communicated through various suggestions.

Yet, a ray of hope still glimmers in the story “The Concubine.” Hatred and violence vanish before benign love and affection of Sati Dei. The change from a political and sensational fortnightly to a cultural monthly “The Monthly Jasmine” suggests the need of a cultural rebirth for the society.

Against the background of a traditional India with all her witches and tigers, godmen and superstitions, the stories of Manoj Das present various facets of human existence. The comic here compels us to realize the tragedy of our lives in close perspective. Such artistry marks a phenomenon in Indo-Anglian literature. Manoj Das loves humanity in all its follies and failures. He is pained to find this great dream of humanity fastly withering away under various compulsions. And that is why beneath the comic extravaganza of his stories an inherent sadness always runs. Yet at times new horizons appear for humallity–horizoas of promise and faith. That small innocent girl Rina, who has lost her mother, holds out such a promise for humanity.

* The Crocodile’s Lady. Published by Sterling Publishers

Fables and Fantasies for Adults. Published by Orient Paperback.

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