Lal Chudi by Krishna Awiral

I had met one of my friends, Anamika some days ago. I call her “miku” with her short name and I love this name as well. It had been a long time since I met her and so we had fun together. It was this time when she suggested me to read this novel. She was very angry with men after reading this novel. Whenever she used to describe me about this novel, I could feel the anger in her words and in her expression. She took me to her home and handed me this novel and she was eager to know my response after reading this novel.

This novel has been written by a writer, Krishna Awiral, the one who had written “Raktakunda” as well. “Lal chudi”, the title itself may give the hint that its about women and the word “chudi” gives the hint that it is based on the story of Madhesi community.

This novel includes the psychological pressure for the women of Madhesi community. Inside the story of “Jyoti”, many sub-stories of other women have been narrated. Jyoti, being black and of poor family had to remain unmarried for a long period of time. The girls are presented like an object in front of boys and his family. They have to speak, walk and do the activities which check the level of their beauty. Even in many cases they take the girl to a separate room, make her naked and check her beauty. The main thing besides beauty was the dowry. The people were demanding the dowry which the bride’s family could not afford. Moreover, if the girls are rejected by the boys, its the matter of social rumour and disrespect for the bride’s family. Moreover, the hellish life of girls won’t be stopped right here and the life cannot change drastically after marriage. The groom’s family go on demanding even more after the marriage. The inability to fulfil this demand may bring a miserable life to the bride. It may lead to death. There were many instances in the book whereby the girls were the victim of domestic violence after marriage. These all sort of violence many times brought them to the situation of suicide including the main character “Jyoti”. She had thought of suicide many times and was serious about it two times. However, fortunately she was able to recover her depression.

The content of the novel was good but I really didn’t like the novel. Many times when I was reading the diary, I thought that the writer had added many components by himself. His mention of many things was not situational wise. Though he has tried to make it relevant to the context, he has failed to make this novel lively. In fact it made me think hard that if it was only his imagination or he had really got the diary. It is because I don’t think that he had narrated her diary. I think that he had some knowledge of this society and he wanted to make it interesting through the diary. I liked the content but I really didn’t like the writer and his way of expression. Throughout the novel, I found him too much commercial.