Rajeshwar Singh ‘Raju’
If we cast a look at the past then after ‘PEHLA PHULL’ first ever collection of short stories written by Bhagwat Prasad Sathe and published in 1947, it took almost ten years for another collection of dogri short stories to hit the stands. It was Lalita Mehta’s ‘SUI DHAGA’ published in 1957.
The book carries 07 short stories entitled ‘Tassari Kurta’, ‘Chachu’, ‘Handola’, ‘Bebu’, ‘Gopi’, ‘Mande Bhag’ and ‘Sui Dhaga’ in 68 pages and was published by Dogri Sanstha Jammu.
The first story of the book ‘Tassari Kurta’ is interwoven around a beautiful plot. Kirpu, a poor farmer along with Shibbu goes to a village fair where he wishes to purchase something for his wife Preeto but he has no money. Shibbu lends him money to purchase a beautiful kurta. His wife is excited to get it and makes plans to wear it on some special occasion. But on the auspicious day when she gets ready to attend a ceremony, she finds that her ‘Tassari Kurta’ has been stolen. The story has all the emotional elements as well as the hardships of poor people to derive happiness from petty incidents even.
‘CHACHU’ is the story of the plight of an old man who has to undergo all sort of mental agony owing to domestic issues like regular clashes between his daughter-in-laws. He has four sons, all living separately and he is himself forced to live all alone .After the death of his wife, life has become a curse for him. The others assume that he is enjoying a contented life but the hardships that he is undergoing are known to him only whereas ‘HANDOLA’ is an emotional story of the desires of a kid Gangu which are not fulfilled by his widow mother. His mother feels disheartened for the same but after the sad demise of her life partner she is experiencing a lot of financial crisis and it is quite hard for her to make both ends meet. The story ends at a touching point when his mother leaves the place assuring him that she will come soon with money to arrange his ride on handola. Gangu is left behind looking at Handola with the hopes in his eyes eagerly waiting for return of mother and she doesn’t revisit.
The book has another unique story of ‘BEBU’, a courageous lady of the same name. She prefers to live in a far remotest area despite the fact that her children have shifted to a city along with their families and are enjoying comfortable life there. But she is satisfied with her stay at a place where she has been living for years and it is so dear to her. There are some wicked souls in the region also who wish to grab her property but never succeed as she is so strong and bold to face any eventuality.
The book has another emotional story of a young kid whose father has expired at an early age and he wishes to help his mother financially to run home. Being entitled ‘GOPI’ it explores tender feelings of a kid for his mother. He goes to the city to sell woods and on one fateful day he becomes victim of thunder and storm ultimately slipping into a rainy stream. The story tells about the poverty of a widow when there are no means of livelihood.
‘Mande Bhag’ is the story of Bishni , a young girl who has to undergo all sorts of tortures of step mother after sad demise of her mother. In lure of money, she is forced to marry an elderly widower by her step mother. Bishni wishes to end her life instead of getting married to that widower and dies after being stung by a snake thus putting an end to her miseries.
The last story of book ‘SUI DHAGA’ revolves around a young girl Tara. When she gives birth to a girl child she is not welcomed by her in- laws and is forced to go back to her parental home. Tara’s parents have expired and she doesn’t want to become dependent on her brother. She explores her childhood hobby for handicraft thus making fascinating and creative designs on cloth by making use of needle and thread i.e. SUI-DHAGA. Her handicraft works get popular and she starts earning quite handsomely. With this achievement of Tara, her mother-in- law also welcomes her thus putting an end to her plight.
The cover page of the book is designed by Sansar Chand Baru, one of the most accomplished painters from the soil, who was also one of the founder members of Dogri Sanstha Jammu formed in 1944.
It is pertinent to add here that Lalita Mehta daughter of Ram Lal Mehta, teacher of Geology at Science College Jammu was quite young when she penned down these short stories. But her creative writing proves her worth as a mature writer who knows the basic trick of how to develop a plot and get it connected to roots The characters of her stories look familiar and their problems and sufferings are also quite common.
The short stories of ‘Sui Dhaga’ are really an asset in Dogri Literature and have also inspired others to express their feelings with all imagination through short stories in mother tongue Dogri. After this collection of short stories, it appears that many short story writers emerged on literary scene threading beautiful short stories through needle of creativity resulting into a garland of dogri literature scattering fragrance of new ideas all around.
However, it is not known that whether Lalita Mehta wrote more stories or not thereafter because in my opinion there is no further record of the same. The fact however remains that Prof. Ramnath Shastri had raised hopes that Dogri literature will get more and more such scintillating short stories from a versatile short story like her in future also ‘SUI-DHAGA’ still remains as a historical document for being first ever short story collection of a woman writer.
The literature lovers, who wish to know what sort of literature was being written in Dogri Language in the initial days, should read it to feel proud of their literary heritage. It will also let them know how literature has evolved over these years.
‘Sui Dhaga” has undoubtedly the short stories that speak a lot about the then potential of local litterateurs who had all the potential to pen down their observations mixed with imagination and knit the same with beautiful words and serve the same to readers to mesmerize them.
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