Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thee (Hindi Book) by Vinod Kumar Shukla

Book: Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thee
Author: Vinod Kumar Shukla
Genre: Magical Realism, Fiction
Published in: 1997
Awards: Won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the best Hindi work in 1999
Page Count: 250 pages
Other works by the author: Mahavidyalaya, Naukar ki Kameez, Sab kuch hona bacha rahega, Kavita se lambi Kavita, Kabhi k bad Abhi, etc

Book Review: 

By logic, I should write this review in Hindi because I read the book in Hindi. Still, by emotions, I am better at expressing myself in English than in Hindi and this book deserves an emotional review because it bought out all of mine while reading.

What is it like, to live a life so full of dreams and hope that there’s no vacancy for complaints? What’s it like to give out so much love that all it brings back is peace? Vinod Kumar Shukla’s book is plotless, boring, and bland, yet the imprint it makes, the emotions I felt, the magic I lived, and the cocoon of love it formed around my heart.

Oh!! Be ready to hear that out.

The book evokes a sense of unconditional love, unity, and care, completely deprived of jealousy, complaints, or disputes. This puts me in a pickle because one part of my brain suggests that this can be true in our lives and how beautiful it would be. In contrast, the other constantly argue about how this is surreal and how a human can never be deprived of the latter emotions and only be filled with the former ones. The magical realism part is exceptional, it was written in such an incredible manner that its presence is so illuminating, and yet it gives a warmth to your eyes instead of blinding them. My taking from that realism part was, that every couple forms a very intimate individual lives of themselves while being a very present part of the family they’re living in, coz the backdrop on which this story is based is about big families, small spaces, new marriage, respect & responsibilities of parents, love & care for partner, it’s about building a new life with your partner while still holding tight onto the life you had and how brilliantly Shukla depicted that through Raghuvar Prasad and Sonsi’s marriage and their life beyond that window.

Characters:

Raghuvar Prasad, a school teacher, lives away from home in a small room with a window that opens to a beautiful side with a river, budhi amma, wide long trees, birds, and kids. When his wife Sonsi came to live with him, they both started to wander on the other side of that window, which was the most intimate and personal part of their married lives. There was an elephant and a sadhu, who came to pick Raghuvar up from his house and take him to his school, although Raghuvar Prasad was never so eager about going on the elephant but he gradually came to care for the animal and sadhu both. During Raghvar Prasad’s parent's visit incidents like- that of Chappal, Sonsi and his mother’s late-night talks, or Chotu’s desperate need to ride on the elephant, or Raghuvar Prasad’s father & mother’s awkwardness over a flower, all these feels so relevant to the lives of Indian common families and bringing out that kind of familiarity through words and lines is extraordinary.

Sonsi’s character is the most feminine character I have come across in this kind of genre. Their relationship is like a see-saw, if looked through the lenses of current times and the reader tries to place their foot down by appealing for equality, you will be disappointed. But if you look at it through the lenses of just pure love, all you can see bright & clear is how one balances the other. There was so much love in this book, not specifically mentioned but between the lines, the love between Raghuvar Prasad and Sonsi, the love between Sonsi and her mother-in-law, the love between Hathi and Raghuvar, and the love between that boy on the tree and his father.

Conclusion:

Magical realism in Hindi literature is not a field widely explored, and my only experience is this book, so I can't say once and for sure that this was the best among all, but I can definitely say multiple times how fascinating, extraordinary, and relevant this book is for me. Reading this was probably one of my most amazing experiences this year. As far as I have read or heard about the author through articles or interviews, it’s how down-to-earth he is and how he brings out his personal experiences and the authenticity of his childhood home in his writings, and although he is from Chhattisgarh and I am from Uttar Pradesh, the relevance of village, people, community, houses, things in the houses, traditions, relationship with parents, and the devotional emotions for even those who are not family, that significance with mine is uncanny.

About the Author: 

Vinod Kumar Shukla was born in 1937 in Chhattisgarh. He is a modern Hindi writer known for his work on magical realism. His first Poetry collection was "Lagbhag Jai Hind", published in 1971 and his first novel was "Naukar ki Kameez", published in 1978. 
This book, Deewar me Ek Khirkee Rahti Thi is also adapted into a play, directed by Mohan Maharishi.
Vinod Kumar Shukla recently, in 2023 won the PEN/ Nabokov Award, for Achievement in International Literature. The Award is given to an author for their work characterized by originality.