This is how Sheroes Community Responded On Munshi Premchand’s Birthday

"यह चिमटा कहाँ था?" "मैंने मोल लिया है।" "कै पैसे में?" "तीन पैसे दिये।" अमीना ने छाती पीट ली। यह कैसा बेसमझ लड़का है कि दोपहर हुई, कुछ खाया न पिया। लाया क्या, चिमटा! बाेली, "सारे मेले में तुझे और कोई चीज़ न मिली, जो यह लोहे का चिमटा उठा लाया?" हामिद ने अपराधी-भाव से कहा, "तुम्हारी उँगलियाँ तवे से जल जाती थीं, इसलिए मैने इसे लिया।" बुढ़िया का क्रोध तुरंत स्नेह में बदल गया बच्चे में कितना त्याग, कितना सदभाव और कितना विवेक है! दूसरों को खिलौने लेते और मिठाई खाते देखकर इसका मन कितना ललचाया होगा! इतना ज़ब्त इससे हुआ कैसे? वहाँ भी इसे अपनी बुढ़िया दादी की याद बनी रही।”

We all remember this story by Munshi Premchand, “Eidgaah”. It is amazing how little Hamid is shown sacrificing his love for toys because his grandmother needed 'Chimta' (pliers) more than he needed toys.

Hamid's love and affection for his grandmother won so many hearts and taught the lesson 'to sacrifice for love' even when we were kids.

How I found Premchand?

Here is the story of how my love for Premchand’s writing grew. I came to Delhi to a relative’s place during my summer vacations. They loved me so much that they made me stay with them and got me admitted to a school in Delhi itself.

I was new there and it was very difficult for me to gel up with my classmates being an introvert. So, I had to find a friend to make school time easy for me.

There used to be a library class there. The smell of books and serenity that place had attracted me. I used to wait for the library period. I would take lots of books to read. One day I was just exploring books that my hand slipped on Mansarovar (A collection of stories by Munshi Premchand). I asked the Librarian to issue me that book.

Mansarovar is an amazing book. I still remember that for some days I didn’t even touch my syllabus books. Munshi Premchand is known to write about the life of common man. All his stories and novels highlight social issues with a  humorous touch.

I fell in love with his writing and read a lot of books by him one after other over a period of two years. Unlike all of his work, which is focused to show struggles of people being in poverty and corruption, his novel Nirmala was more women-centric which I still remember reading and feeling sad about the lady protagonist. Through this novel, he depicts the life of a woman called Nirmala who carries the burden of her family (a middle-aged man who had a son of her age from his first wife) and all her life she keeps on compromising just to keep the pride and honor of her family.

It feels amazing to imagine the greatness of Munshi Premchand, that being a man he was able to show the feelings of a woman like Nirmala and the reality of women’s lives who were victims of such a situation.

(Also, Here are 9 Best Romantic Novels You Should Read)

On his 138th Birth anniversary, to remember this great writer, we asked our community members to share their favorite writings by Premchand. We were overwhelmed to see the response and love from the community.

Women from the community shared with me the attachment they have with Premchand and his stories which sometimes make their childhood alive. They shared the names of their favorite novels and stories.

Here are some of the responses:

One of the members shared the quotes by Munshi Premchand. And another shared that she has read many novels/stories by Premchand and liked all of them.

Another member Sujatha says that she really misses writers like him because she feels that nowadays writers can’t connect with culture.

One of our very active members Alka says that her favorite novel is Nirmala and she also tries to remember if there was some serial based on this novel. She might be talking about Tehreer where all Premchand’s writings were telecasted.

Nazneen tries to remember the story of Sawa Ser Gehu where the exploitation of farmers is depicted.

Inspired by all the discussion, few community members even said that they missed reading all of them so they started searching for these stories.

Premchand’s writings inspire us and take us back to the old times. For those who haven’t read any of his stories, I am sharing one of his quotes to have an idea about the progressiveness in his thoughts.

“Does being a man make all things forgivable and being a woman all things unforgivable?”

Here are the screenshots of the conversation that happened in the community. Enjoy!