THE LAST FLICKER 

The Last flicker is a translation of a well known punjabi novel of the 1960’s - “Marhi Da Diva” originally written by the well renowned writer Gurdial singh . The novel centers around the life of Jagseer , a middle aged unmarried village man and his struggles at various phases and emotional fronts of life . Set in a typical Indian village, this novel highlights the basic problems faced by the residents of these villages. Gurdial singh has that inwardness of feeling for village life which comes from a deep and intimate contact with rural reality and a strong and creative imagination. This is what makes the writing so authentic. The tone of the entire novel is sympathetic and tragic and the writing style adopted by the writer further deepens this tragic aura created by the novel.

Man, life has ten phases fine,

The first one blew you away

Where have gone the other nine?

Man, when your turn of fate nears ,

It comes and wags its ears.

This phrase which is repeated many times in the novel, itself highlights the innermost feelings and sufferings of the poor, deprived and tortured class of people residing in the villages of India and also their unnerved hope for change and betterment even after going through all these sufferings and strokes of bad luck. This is the section of the society that the author is writing about. The protagonist of our novel belongs to this very class of under-privileged low caste people . The novel also succeeds in drawing a stark contract in the living styles of the modern rich and poor people, the difference in the kind of facilities they enjoy and also the difference in the kind of troubles faced by them. One of the critics who read this novel in Hindi translation recalled Munshi PremChand’s Godaan in this respect . He pointed out how both the novels talk of circumstances that can be true only in the village atmosphere .    

The novel talks about love, sacrifice, devotion and also conspiracy and lust for worldly desires. It divides the entire world into two kinds of people, the pure hearted ones, those who believe in the golden principles of sacrifice, sincerity, love, compassion, pity etc and the evil, cunning ones, those who are attached to money alone and for whom human feelings are of no value whatsoever. The novel in some way, depicts the victory of these money minded selfish people over the upholders of high principles, the simple selfless personalities. The end of the novel hints at the futility of selfless behavior and ideals in this modern era where each and every person is concerned about their own well-beings only . Woven around the complexities of life and human emotions, this novel proves to be a must read in an era where more and more people are getting uprooted from the villages and shifting to towns as it introduces the readers to a new dimension of survival, the village life. The novel, in short talks about the village people and their common sufferings and difficulties .    

I, as a reader found the novel quite disturbing and thought provoking at the same time . I felt pity at the condition of Jagseer and his mother and the caste-barriers that are evident in the setup of the novel baffled me. The concept of one person being inferior to the other just on the basis of the household he/she was born into was quite an alien one for me. Amidst such a social scenario, the existence of such a pure relation of friendship between Jagseer’s and Dharam Singh’s father appears like a ray of hope to me. The understanding that those two people shared without any malicious reasons and without any expectations, was far above all the community based demarcations and distinctions. It was based on mutual trust and love, feelings that are far more important than the cultural and social customs. It was so powerful that it created an unusual sort of bond between two entirely different families and was carried forward through two generations. But such an attachment can never be understood by the malicious people of this world , depicted by the characters of Dharam Singh’s wife and son. With reference to this I would like conclude by quoting a paragraph from the very same novel.

"What is world without love! And I don’t know why love is completely disappearing from the people . What is the use of damned land and property, is there is no affection among people? Land and possessions are nothing more than the dirt on one’s hands. If one starts liking the dirt then shame on one’s life. ”

These are the words of Dharam Singh when he realizes the true intentions of his wife and son. He essentially speaks out the innermost feelings of all the pure hearted people of this world at times when he finds himself unable to cope up with this fast pacing selfish world.