Book Review: After The Sunset by Devi Nangrani

After The Sunset by Devi Nangrani. Translated by Ram H. Daryani

Publisher: ‎ Shilalekh Publiushers (1 January 2022). Hardcover‏: ‎ 128 pages. ISBN-10: ‎ 8173295301. ISBN-13: ‎ 978-8173295300

  

---Shoukat Hussain Shoro

Devi Nangrani is a poet, a story writer, a critic and a translator. Two collections of her stories have been published in Sindhi as well as in Hindi. Her stories have been translated into Marathi, Punjabi, Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and in English. In Devi’s stories, the lead characters are mostly women. After reading her stories a question arose in my mind. There is an ongoing discussion in the literary circles whether only a lady writer can understand and portray the issues related to the women? I found that Devi has successfully brought out women’s feelings, emotions and her mind-set better than most of the men writers.  Therefore, Devi is quite capable of writing about the physical and mental attributes of a woman. It is a fact that men have an upper hand over women in the society not only in the developing nations, which are entrapped in customs and rituals but it is true also for the developed nations. In western culture, a woman is treated as the personal property of the man. A positively thinking male writer can present the character of a woman with empathy and understanding, but how far can he succeed in depicting the feelings and emotions of a woman remains a question. This is a point of discussion in Europe and in American literary circles, whether a male writer, through the medium of story and novel, can view effectively the problems and tribulations of a woman? Allen Williamson says, Certain emotions, certain basic human motives (including ...narcissistic, display, intense awareness of one's own body, tender self-surrender, vulnerability) are typed or by our culture is feminine. Do the man who experiences them - or especially, who finds them predominant in his psychic, makeup may face a crisis of gender identity."

Devi Nangrani

No doubt, a male writer can perceive a feminine character as a human being and depict her so, but he can’t experience the mental-physical situation which a lady goes through. In the matriarchal society, the issues related to women can be envisaged by a woman only. On the other hand, it is believed that the way Lev Tolstoy in his novel ‘Anna Karenina’ and Gustavo Flaubert in his novel ‘Madame Bovary’ has brought out the character of a woman is unsurpassed and even a lady writer can’t do it so beautifully. In my opinion, a writer may be a man or a woman; he/she should be recognized as a writer only. But, unfortunately, it is not so. In the field of literature too, gender bias is a reality. V.S. Naipaul, the Nobel Laureate, said There was no female writer his equal. This was because of women's ‘sentimentality’, the narrow view of the world and inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too."

Shoukat Hussain Shoro
Such a difference of opinion keeps cropping up in the world of literature. But the basic point is the writer has to present the characters with their feelings, thoughts, the disappointments faced and the injustice meted out to them by the society at large. This is exactly what I have seen in the stories written by Devi Nangrani.

“After the Sunset” is one of her best stories. In the story, her mastery over storytelling reaches the pinnacle. A woman can never see injustice faced by another woman, and at the same time she cannot, she cannot even think of being unjust to another woman out of sympathy. Jamal is a police officer in the village police station. He marries a beautiful girl, Ramaya. After the marriage, Ramaya finds some change in behavior of Jamal. Jamal dresses up and goes out in the evening, every day. He returns back home, late in the night in an inebriated condition. He has fallen in love with a danseuse, and he ignores his wife Ramaya. Despite having a beautiful wife he has an affair with another woman. The society does not think it to be wrong. But, if such a thing is done by a woman, she is called characterless, and Kari (Black) and faces death. In the story “After the Sunset” we see Ramaya, a woman with very strong character, who can go to any extent to get what rightfully belongs to her. The plot of the story and strong character of Ramaya has made this an extraordinarily brilliant story.

Devi Nangrani’s story “New Mother” has an entirely unusual plot, but at the same time, the basic human feelings and emotions are the same. The main character of the story is Kalavanti, a poor and oppressed girl. The girl is not allowed to go to school and is married off to an elderly rich person. The rich man has lost his wife, and he has two daughters Rachna and Kamal. Rachna is a couple of years older than Kalavanti, her new mother. The two sisters are hurt by the death of their mother. On top of it all, they feel more hurt due to the presence of the new mother, which has become unbearable for them. They do not want to give the same status to Kalavanti, the new mother. In this story, Devi Nangrani has raised some relevant questions, “Whether the identity of the person can be established with the name of the father only? The mother who gives birth to the child is only for namesake? In the patriarchal society is the woman only a child producing machine?” In the story, Devi provides the answers to the questions. She says that woman slogs her entire life for the sake of children, but is unable to add her name to the manes of her children. She cannot be an identity in her own right.

Partition of India has always been a very sensitive issue. Due to the partition, the entire nation was engulfed in the fire of hatred and murders which were based entirely upon religion. In the process, women were the worst sufferers. Innumerable of women were raped and murdered. Devi Nangrani’s story “Gulshan Kaur” is a story which depicts horrific scenes of the partition. The tragedy of the partition has been effectively brought out before the readers. 

The story “Kamli” deals with the repercussions of the partition. Before the partition, the Hindus in Sindh were mostly belonged to the middle class and they were mostly businessmen, bureaucrats and Zamindars (Landlords). They were well to do people and they had lot many servants in their homes for household chores. But, due to partition, they had to give up their comfortable lifestyle along with their wealth and riches in Sindh and come to India almost empty-handed. In India, they had to start their life right from scratch. The main character of the story “Kamli” is Nani, who is from a rich Zamindar family of Larkana District. Being Zamindars, they had many servants in their mansion, and had to obey the orders of Nani. After landing in India their financial condition was very poor and it was not possible to afford any servant in the home. Nani had brought with herself a small girl named Kamli while migrating from Larkana. She used to cater to the orders of Nani. Nani used to order her around with her errands, the whole day. She has no sympathy for the girl Kamli. From the point of view of human emotions, this story turns out to be a valuable manuscript.

Sympathy, feelings and emotions are the hallmarks of Devi Nangrani’s stories. Her story “Pride of a Woman” is a good example. Devi’s characters are mostly Indian, as she is an Indian. But Devi has spent a large part of her life in America. Her story “Meaningless Relations” is a story with an American background and its lead character is a woman named Kristy, an unwed mother.

It is not correct to say that Devi’s all the characters are women. We see men also as the main characters of her stories. “Politics of Disparity” is one such story. There is one more story “Cobbler” which tells the story of a man who could not do any other work than being a cobbler, and he could not rise out of that situation.

The story “Four Swallows of Poison” also has a male character that is having a dual personality. In the story, we see a woman who severs her relationship with the man with a dual personality.

  Stories of Devi Nangrani are simple and straight forward of day to day life, without any complexities. She has avoided experimenting with modern and new styles of writing. The stories are written in a simple manner which does not create any confusion in the mind of the reader.

(Jamshoro. Sindh.)


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