Mannu Bhandari is a renowned Hindi writer. One can find beautiful descriptions of the various facets of life in her writings. ‘Shamshaan’ is one of Bhandari’ sarcastic stories in which man’ selfish nature is depicted. In this story, there is a unique usage of two characters – ‘mountain’ and ‘graveyard’ ( Shamshaan).
Shamshaan (graveyard) is the place where bodies are either ** or cremated. No one wants to look at that place, but finally, every person has to go there someday.
Once, the graveyard feels that no one loves him. He shares his feelings with the mountain. The mountain listens to the graveyard and smiles. Just then, some people bring in a young woman’ body, carrying it on their shoulders. A young man, the husband of the woman, is crying uncontrollably. The last rites of the young woman are performed. Everyone returns home with a heavy heart. The graveyard, looking at the young man crying, feels that even it should love someone. The graveyard is deeply touched by the love of the young man towards his wife. The graveyard thinks that the young man too would very soon, heartbroken, but that does not happen.
Three years pass. Once again, a young woman’ body is brought to the graveyard. Ahead of a large crowd of crying people was the same young man who had come with the body of his first wife three years ago. The graveyard’ heart melted. The young man had lost two wives. This time the young man’ cries resonated around the graveyard. The graveyard was also unable to suppress its sadness. The young man returned home after the last rites were performed. The graveyard thought that this time, the young man would certainly ** of grief having lost his second wife. However, this didn’t happen.
Two more years passed. The body of the young man’ third wife was brought to the graveyard. The young man’ grief knew no bounds. The graveyard also began to cry. After the last rites of the body were performed, the young man returned home crying and sobbing.
The graveyard was shocked by the behaviour of the young man. Even after losing three wives, the young man did not . The young man’ response to the ** of three wives seemed quite strange to the graveyard. The mountain began to laugh at the graveyard’ state. She said to the graveyard that love was a very strange thing. The young man was sad at the loss of his wife, and was even ready to ***, but he did not. More than his wife, the young man loved his own life. Therefore, even after losing three wives, he still survived.
Man loves his own life more than anything else. No person loves ****. Every person loves himself or herself. After listening to the mountain’ words, the graveyard felt at peace.
