Dadaji is a story taken from a collection of stories (Half a Rupee: Stories) by Gulzar, and offered here as an independent read. It is from eighth and final part of the collection, which deals with old age and facing last years with family and alone.
Dada in central and northern India (east, west and south can be different from one another and from central Hindi belt and north too) refers to paternal grandfather, with "ji" attached to addressing or referring to anyone as a matter of respect; this can be by choice but is not a choice when referring to or addressing someone elder or senior, culturally speaking. Addressing seniors and elders by name alone, especially first name, is considered lack of respect and indicative of lack of manners and culture in someone so doing.
The protagonist here, the old grandfather, is dealing with his grandson being the usual naughty boy while he is visiting him in the grandfather's old family home, built by the latter's grandfather originally and improved on by his father. The boy broke china to make perfect object to flip on the pond so it would skip a few feet before sinking, but is admonished although it is expensive. The crisis is when the boy is climbing a tree, and the grandfather this time spanks him when he is brought down. The boy is of the now and me generation and unlike his grandfather he is unable to comprehend this is love. He calls his father, the son of the old man, to come and take him away - and what is more, won't speak with the old man.
It is when the younger two are leaving - the old man was forced by circumstance to come stay alone in his old village rather than traditional living with family, due to the son being restricted by his income and shortage of space in the city - that the old man is able to convey to the boy that the punishment was for another little boy long ago - he himself had climbed the tree and fallen and broken his leg, and limps since; he did not wish this on the little grandson, and the naughty little boy couldn't have comprehended the seriousness of the danger but would understand the spanking and the correlation of the prank with punishment, hence the instinctive nature of the spanking.
Saturday, April 5, 2014.
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