Maha Sweta Devi, the great Novelist Philanthrophist...
Sri Sriganesha Mahima.. A great read. ..!
Small book of about
one hundred and ninety pages with the yesteryear Bihar and its
villages drawn up in simple words.
The little girl
'Lechima' touches our hearts as of all other could have been souls in
that stature in that part of the world. The old 'zemindaari' is
drawn up in such clarity that the effects will make an imprint on all
readers who goes through their pangs in simple detail. In between is
slight traces of Government and authority as it was seen and felt by
the author on her several interactions and visits to the various
villages.
Lechima is engaged
by a village elder to look after her house hold. The girl is got
from her guardian on payment of little money and some articles and the
girl starts working in the house of 'Medini Singh'. As his two wives
could not give him a boy child the house lord Medini Singh marries
for a third time and this poor girl gives birth to a child with a
tooth in the mouth at birth itself, which is taken as a prominence of
'devamsh' a belief in that part of the country, in that people
believed the child is partly divine. Meaning that the child has a
part of Lord Ganesha in him.
The mother of the
child dies of shock after seeing the child, immediately after the
child birth.
Lechima who was the
house keeper, who also had to give in to the wishes of the house
lord, Medini Singh, has now got to bring up the child till his
marriageable age of ten years, a custom in olden times. She does it with great love and care
and hopes to get released from the bondage of the house after the boy
child gets married.
Her hopes are belied when the house lord tells
her that even after the child gets married she just can't leave as
she has to look after the household until the newly married girl
comes home after his son Sri Sri Ganesha reaches the age of
eighteen., which is the custom. Lechima is crestfallen as her plan
to set up home after getting married to the village barber youth will
have to be thrown away now. She slowly reconciles to her fate and
once again looks after the household during which time the house lord
Medini Singh slowly fades away due to paralysis, exhaustion and old
age sickness and the new house lord, 'Sri Sri Ganesha' takes his
place with new vigour and makes a name for himself in 'Zemindari' and
leadership, which his father had earlier, in which the poor people
around the place are much more harshly affected.
One has to go
through the book to get a real feel of the story as the whole story
can be understood and only through a cover to cover to read.
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