Mantra

This is a very intense story written by Premchandji. By reading this story and the some other stories I was think if there is any other story writer in the world who narrates with such an intensity. Even when one compares the stories with novel by the same author it appears that Premchand did more justice with his stories.

This story is of early twentieth century, pre-independence era. The beauty of the story is in its freshness. It appears as if the story has happened yesterday. I think only Munshiji can do this. The narrative has a rich doctor and a poor old village person. The doctor plays golf. One day as he was getting ready to go to the golf ground a poor person arrives with his sick child. Previous to this six of his children had died and this one was the last alive child, a probable support during old age. The doctor refuses to attend to the child, golf and his routine was more important that the patient. I do not know whether Munshiji was influenced by the concept of alienation and mechanistic society, terms that were in vogue during those days in the writings of Marx, Durkheim, etc. It was the age of industrialisation and a different kind of society was emerging in Europe and so was social theorization. In the story there is a reflection of the social theory jargon of that era. The doctor's mechanical adaptation to the routine, kal subah aana---- (you come tomorrow, I am getting late. I do not attend to patients during my play time, etc.). The golf more important than the life of a human being. Premchandji has not highlighted that the poor man was deprived of the medical assistance because of the poverty. He has highlighted how the society had become immune to humanistic relations.

The old man does his emotional best to convince the doctor to attend to his son. The doctor gets into his car (another symbol of machine) and moves ahead without having an iota of qualm. As the car moves on the old man still waits as if the doctor will get a call of conscience and the car will return back. This is a very touching description. The son of the old man dies.

The doctor had only one son and a daughter. As Munshiji is telling that doctor was having only two children, a boy and a girl he also explains how rich can afford to have only two but the poor has to have more than two. His hint is towards the high mortality rates among the poor people.

The son of the doctor is a lover of snakes. He has many of them with him, all kinds of poisonous snakes in his house. He makes scientific study on them and also plays with them. The boy has a strong empirical belief that snakes do not hurt human beings unless they are disturbed. On one of his birthday's his girl friend requests him to show his collection of snakes. The boy takes her to his room. The other friends too join. One of the friends challenges him that the snakes are without the poisonous teeth. The boy gets excited and starts to squeeze the neck of the snake to open its mouth to prove that the snake is having its poisonous teeth intact. It was a cobra. The pressure on the neck troubles the snake and it gets vexed and angry and subsequently bites the boy. The father says that the finger to be chopped off. The boy forbids and looks for the herbs, jadi, that he has collected as a part of his experimentation. He is confident that the herb will work. The herb does not work. The boy is in coma.

Some one says that there are people who can recite "mantar" and can cure the snakebite. People started searching for those people. The old man whose son has died was a great healer of snakebite by the traditional approach. He was very famous. He had treated many people with snakebite. He seldom used to take money. He used to argue that there is no price for a life. In a way Premchandji contends that life cannot be commodified. I think he was against the idea of the marketization of the basic health services. It is evident that in those days there was a practice of private medical practice. I was informed by my grandfather who completed MBBS in late 1940's that there used to be no governmental support for the medical personnels. The MBBS doctors used to move around on cycle and treat patients. There was a district board that was also not owned by the state.

As the old man learns of the bad condition of the doctor's boy he feels good. It is night and he tells his wife about the case. His wife too feels good that the doctor's son is dying. I think the most touching line was, our six children died and the seventh one too, what difference did it made but the doctor has only one son. He had collected so much wealth by sucking others blood. I will like to see how the doctor wails at the death of his son. The old couple was thinking of death to the doctor's son. An extreme sense of revenge.

Premchandji is narrating a great contrast between the traditional healers and the trained doctors. The description of the difference is in the attitude of the two. He is not getting into the dynamics of science and myth, he is not getting into the debate of science versus black magic. His intentions are very different. He is trying to make an impact on the behaviour and atomisation of the trained doctors. He is trying to say that the trained doctors too are human beings and they should behave like one. He brings in the points of power difference between the patient and doctors. He contends that the doctors do not talk to patients politely.

The wife of the old man sleeps but the old man is sleepless. He is struggling with his conscience. He starts moving hurriedly towards the house of the doctor. The boy is assumed dead and arrangements are being made to take him for the last rites and there was an eerie of silence, people were tired of weeping. The healer arrives and asks the people around to bring water and he also starts reciting 'mantra'. The boy opens his eyes before the sun sets in. Everybody is happy, the doctor recognises the old man. He feels the pain in his heart. The same man came with his son and he did not attend and subsequently the boy died. However, his son was alive because of the old man. The old man was searched but he had already left. The wife of the doctor had thought of giving lot of money to the old man. The wish remained unfulfilled. The doctor wished to touch the feet of the old man and request to absolve him of sins. The wish remained unfulfilled.

This is a great story. It tells the behavioral difference between the rich and the poor person, the literate and the illiterate person, the urban and rural person. In a way the author tries to argue that science that makes people inhuman is bad. The myth that is unscientific yet human is better. What good is science if it cannot be used by the poor and common person? It is the matter of access and affordability too, only availability will not help.

I really liked this story and I cried reading the story. Tears spilled out when the old man was fighting with his conscience. It was the climax of the story.