CHAPTER – III

PRAKASH NARAYAN SANT’S STORIES:

RE-MANIFESTATION OF HIS CHILDHOOD
The present chapter analyses the short stories of Prakash
Narayan Sant in the context of the ‘World of Children’. In the
theoretical chapter, the term the ‘World of Children’ is already defined
in the context of different theories and fore-grounded with appropriate
literary examples. The present chapter exclusively focuses on its
literary representation in the short story collections of Sant from
Vanvas to Zumbar. In the chapter, an attempt is made to evaluate the
literary output of Prakash Sant, an admirable raconteur and great
creative truth-teller of contemporary times. Sant has chiseled a niche
in the treasure-trove of the Indian fiction in Marathi by his outstanding
modus operandi of child delineation, invigorating style and skillful
execution of short story, taxonomic delineation of flora and fauna,
truthful and genuine portrayal of the children characters and authentic
rendering of Indian milieu marked by verisimilitude. The chapter
analyses the distinctive dimensions of Sant’s creativity, his
understanding of children, celebration of their innocence, their
sanguine approach to life, their marching toward happy selfhood and
their understanding of self. Sant remanifests his own childhood of the
1947s in these stories and so the readers who were children
themselves in and around 1947 feel as if the stories are their own
stories. The new generation readers find these stories novel because
the details in these stories are non-existent.

Vanvas is a collection of stories of a child Lampan who

reveals his mind relating to ordinary happenings in his daily life.
Lampan and his childhood world, described in a typical Kannada-

197
Marathi tone, surprisingly capture the minds of both the young and
adult readers. Since most of the part in the story could be easily related
to any reader’s childhood, it becomes the most enjoying experience.
The period of these short stories start from Lampan’s third standard of
primary school when he must be around eight years old. Sometimes he
remembers events before he came to live with his grandparents. It
means the events narrated in all the stories happen when Lampan is
around 6-7 years old and end at 12 or so. This age group falls under
‘middle and late childhood’ so everything he experiences and
expresses falls under the same stage. The first book of stories
Vanavaas (Exile) contains twelve short stories, and all the stories
reveal Lampan’s mind and his childlike thoughts towards his small
world filled with mother, father, his little brother and sister, his
grandparents, his village, his school, his friends and all the
neighbourhood. It is a world of Lampan and his life in a small town
like Belgav (Lampan never mentions the name of the town) and the
time seems to be around 1947, though all the stories are written in
present tense. This use of present tense gives the stories an effect of
things happening now. A child’s mind, feelings and his childhood
days are well represented in the book. The wonderful journey of
Lampan through middle and late childhood reveals many facets of the
‘World of Children’.

The first story ‘Oza’ (Burden) begins with the typical

atmosphere of a Marathi school: the hungry boys waiting for the last
period’s closure, their restlessness, their quarrels and beating, silent
cry over beating and their noise before the headmaster’s entry into the
class. This typical picture of the ‘World of Children’ could be found in
any school in any part of any nation. The strict headmaster, with a

198
cane always in his hand and with his watchful eye, would not allow
anyone to slip away from the school. Running away from the school
or the thoughts of running away is the most common phenomenon in
the ‘World of Children’. Lampan’s friend Kanbargi Gangya thinks of
the prospect of running away from the school, but avoids it knowing
that he could not escape from the watchful eye of the headmaster. He
thinks that even Shivaji Maharaj, who escaped the confinement of
Aurangzeb, would have been caught by the Head Master, had he tried
to run away from the school. Here, it can be easily seen that Lampan’s
thoughts wander from one topic to another unexpectedly without any
link to the former thought. This is a typical feature of a child’s stream
of thoughts.

Lampan remembers the kitten, he and his friend Sumi had found
near his house. Pet animals have a very significant place in the ‘World
of Children’. Small children like pet animals most. Lampan and his
small girl-friend Sumi once hear a small kitten’s low-pitched voice
coming from the garden, and after ‘nineteen’ hours of search, they
find a yellow-coloured kitten sitting in a flowerpot. Lampan takes it in
the house, hiding it under his shirt. He likes its smooth, warm touch on
his stomach. Feeling secure the kitten sprightly mews. The servant
Baburao hears it, and takes the kitten outside the house at the
instructions of Lampan’s grandmother. Lampan becomes angry with
Baburao, and wishes that Baburao should become a cat in his rebirth.
He identifies with the kitten as he also is away from his mother and
feels lonely and grieves over his mother’s absence.

Sant, here, has brought forth a significant aspect of the

‘World of Children’. Children generally like the supportive adults
who stand by them, guide them and nurture them with love. They do

199
not like the adults who obstruct their way. Lampan’s anger brings
forth this typical aspect of the ‘World of Children’.

The absence of lovable and affectionate mother creates a

kind of permanent vacuum in the life of a child and affects it
adversely. Sant has very artistically shown it in the story. Lampan
feels sorry for the kitten, and feels worried that some tomcat might
hunt it down. He finds a kind of resemblance between removing the
kitten from the house by Baburao and putting him at grandparents’
house by his mother. The lovable memory of his mother haunts him.
The recurring thoughts of his happy days at his mother’s house disturb
him, and he feels sleepless and starts weeping until consoled by his
grandparents. Getting separated from his mother at an early age leaves
a permanent scar on Lampan’s mind. The incident reveals the
importance of mother in the lives of children. Lampan tries to
compensate the maternal depravity by sleeping in a room that was
used by his mother before her marriage. Thus, the innocent child tries
to establish closeness with his mother. No doubt that his grandparents
are lovable and affectionate to him like his mother, but mother can’t
be replaced by them. Lampan feels happy on the prospect of his
mother’s arrival. However, when she actually arrives, she is
surrounded by her friends and neighbours and gets no time to meet
Lampan. He feels dejected, unwanted, and weeps silently. The all-
knowing mother embraces him, when everybody goes away. Lampan
enjoys the company of his sister Mani, brother Bittya and his mother.
His sister and brother sit in the lap of his mother and the innocent
child Lampan thinks that it might create a heavy burden for his
mother. Thereupon, his mother embraces him affectionately saying it
is her burden of love. The story reveals the burden of love enjoyed by

200
Lampan’s mother. As primary school boy, Lampan’s thoughts and
childhood world is very aptly revealed in the story. Like a child,
Lampan’s thoughts are never linear. They are scattered. He remembers
many things at a time, which have a distant connection or no
connection to the main theme. Children don’t think logically.

Lampan’s childhood days with his grandparents are

described in the story ‘Fulachi Gosht’ (The Tale of a Flower). As a
child, Lampan has a few peculiarities. He dislikes getting up early in
the morning, and pretends to be fast asleep. He stays in the bed till his
grandmother angrily asks him to get up. He feels much sleepy on
Saturday, when he has to attend morning school, while on Sunday
when it’s a holiday, sleep vanishes from his eyes faraway, though he
wants to sleep for a long while. He feels unhappy, and gets angry with
his grandfather as he disturbs his sleep early in the morning by doing
some unwanted household chores. These typical feelings of children
towards the adults about seemingly trivial things are very common in
the ‘World of Children’ in the stage of middle childhood.

Refusal to get up early in the morning, unwillingness to go

to school and getting up early, getting angry over the things done
against their mind are very common phenomena in the ‘World of
Children’. Sant has described in this story the psyche of Lampan
through the day-to-day matters.

Lampan is weak in Geography. He doesn’t understand the

directions. His confusion is further increased by his grandfather.
Lampan dislikes the eccentric grandfather of Sumi who always likes to
talk in the ‘language of directions’. Children dislike the adults who
often ask them silly questions about the directions, multiplications and

201
language exercises. In the same way, Lampan dislikes Sumi’s
grandfather who very often asks questions about these matters. He
feels ashamed of his ignorance, and runs away from Sumi’s house. His
liking for his grandfather increases when he learns that his
grandfather, too, is weak in Geography, weak in the knowledge about
the directions. This reveals the typical mind-set of Lampan. His
grandfather paints names of directions on the newly painted walls of a
room. He makes mistakes in them, and becomes a laughing stock. This
makes Lampan like his grandfather more. This is a typical trait of
children in the middle childhood stage.

On the same day, everything seems different to Lampan. His

grandmother having put on a new saree; is preparing some delicious
smelling dishes. His grandfather is wandering in all rooms without any
reason. He wants to give Lampan a task but hesitates. He talks about
kites made by him and the fun in his childhood. Lastly, he tells
Lampan to present a rose to his grandmother. Grandmother instantly
knows that her husband has sent it as every year grandfather does that.
Until now, Lampan has not understood the significance of this present.
However, when Sumi comes and whishes ‘happy birthday’ to
grandmother, he understands it.This is a difference between a girl and
a boy of the same age as a girl remembers the details of such events
and boys tend to forget them. The rose is a symbol of grandfather’s
love for her, which both of them cherish. Lampan, however, doesn’t
understand it. The innocent, ignorant, credulous and gullible world of
Lampan makes the readers clear that certain things are
incomprehensible in the ‘World of Children’.

The innocent ‘World of Children’ is presented through

Lampan in the story ‘Arth’ (Meaning). The simpleton Lampan reads

202
some parts of a novel aloud thinking that, by reading aloud he would
understand better, but surprisingly enough, he gets nothing. Sumi sits
next to him chewing tamarind. Lampan doesn’t like tamarind and the
way Sumi slurps it. Once, he eats tamarind with its seeds and his
grandfather threatens him that its seed will sprout on his head. The
anxious Lampan goes to the barber and gets all his hair cut. He
decides not to eat tamarinds ever. Children are easily taken in of
others sayings. The fear of eating tamarind and its aftermath, as said
by his grandfather, makes a permanent mark on his mind. Lampan’s
childish fear makes him life-like.

Lingering in the imaginary, fancy and fictitious world is one

of the facets of the ‘World of Children’. While reading the novel given
to him by Sumi, Lampan reads about Sahara desert and Kashmir. He
wonders what fun it would be if Sahara turns into Kashmir! He
visualizes both Sahara and Kashmir. After reading about Kashmir, his
grandfather‘s garden appears very petty and trivial to Lampan.
Loitering in such fictitious, fancied, phantasmal world provides the
children fun and frolic, which is a prime need of their world. Children
imitate the things and actions of adults. In the story, Lampan imitates
the action of his teacher. The simpleton Lampan doesn’t understand
the meaning of the word Chumban (kiss), and asks for its meaning to
Sumi. Childish Lampan couldn’t comprehend why Sumi stares at him
widening her eyes after being asked the meaning of the word
Chumban. Lampan enjoys the company of his grandfather who
sometimes behaves like a small child, quarrels with Lampan like a
child, and makes a jest with him. Lampan, then, asks the meaning of
Chumban to his grandparents, whereupon his grandfather ignores it by
laughing, and the grandmother takes him to task for asking the

203
meaning of ‘such’ word. Lampan couldn’t understand why
grandfather laughs and grandmother takes him to task. Being a child,
Lampan is unaware of ‘taboos’. Interestingly enough Sumi who is
only one year older than Lampan knows well about ‘such’ words.
Sumi represents typical girlish traits. Girls mature early and know
many things boys don’t. This basic difference between the boy and
girl of the same age group regarding the appreciation of certain things
is aptly pointed out by Sant in the story.

Middle and late childhood is the period of transition from

childhood to puberty and, in this stage, all young children face many
crises and dilemmas, and it is full of excitement also. Due to the
physiological and psychological changes, a child often faces a number
of crises and dilemmas. It is the period when a child moves from
dependency to autonomy as a result it brings many ambiguities in life.
Children in late childhood often face emotional crisis. Lampan in ‘Vij’
(Lightening) is one such young child who faces emotional crises. He
finds the entire world around him in conflict with him. Everything of
the world of adults clashes with everything of Lampan’world. Lampan
feels that his teacher, Sumi’s grandfather and even his grandparents
don’t believe in him even though he tries his best to do the things
better. The feelings of disbelief among adults, who sometimes take
him to task and beat him a little, make him miserable. According to
Elizabth B. Hurlock this time comes in every child’s life in the middle
and late childhood.

Running away from home or school is probably the best

solution adapted by the children when being scolded by the adults. By
running away from the discontented world of adults, Lampan tries to
find a solace to his dejected mind in the company of nature. The

204
feeling of loneliness haunts him. Feeling that all the adults of his
house, and even the house, is angry with him, Lampan tries to console
himself sitting on the bank of the lake. At the lake, for sometime, he
forgets his sad feelings in the company of beautiful and cute
butterflies. He imagines that the butterfly will turn into a fair and
beautiful princess whom a prince will take away.

Sant, here, has put forth the typical ‘World of Children’:

running away from the home being scolded by the elders, forgetting
the unpleasant situations very soon, lingering in the world of fancy
and imagination, facing clash with adults, hunger for self-recognition,
and expecting emotional support etc. Children want the adults to
know that they are a separate entity. Likewise in the story, Lampan
wants that the adults around him should know that he is a separate
entity. His feelings make him life-like. Children, at the age of
Lampan, are emotionally hungry and are in need of appreciation for
their good actions. Lampan wants to be appreciated, but every now
and then he is given the doses to better the performance in his studies.
Besides, he is away from his loving parents. This makes him sad. The
story also points out the psychological crises faced by Lampan. He
feels attracted towards Sumi, a girl one year elder to him. He likes her
eyes, her golden hair, pointed nose and almost everything about her.
Seeing her beauty, he becomes speechless. He feels sorry being
scolded in the company of Sumi. He doesn’t understand why he is put
in such a state of mind when he is in the company of Sumi. He is not
old enough to understand that it is his ‘calf love’ for Sumi. He dare not
look at her. Something strange happens in his tummy when he looks at
her. His boyish feelings for Sumi indicate the physiological and
psychological changes which often put Lampan in dilemma. He

205
couldn’t understand why it happens to him. Sumi comes to take him
home, takes his hand into her, and Lampan feels his whole body
electrified by her touch. The story, actually, points out the emotional
and psychological crises Lampan faces during his transition from
childhood to puberty.

The childhood world of Lampan, full of inquisitiveness and

madness, is presented in the title story ‘Vanvaas’ (Exile). Being
innocent and inquisitive, the child Lampan is attracted towards
everything he encounters while returning home from the school. This
is his repeated habit, and he is late every day in returning home.
Therefore, he is always scolded by his grandmother. Lampan is mad
after everything that he sees novel and even the day-to-day normal
matters. He decides to get rid of it, but he cannot. On one hand, he is
hungry after the full-day’s school and knows well that he will be taken
to task if he is late. However, he is attracted towards everything he
encounters on the way home and is always late as usual. One day,
while returning home, he encounters an old woman full of turmeric on
her whole body staring at him. The woman takes some turmeric from
her oil-stained pouch, and puts it on his forehead. Lampan gets
horrifies by her hoarse speech and raucous laugh, and starts running
towards home. Hungry Lampan reaches home and cries for food and is
doubly terrified by a gruesome voice imitating his words. He sees a
squint-eyed strange looking black man in white shirt and dhoti in the
kitchen. Seeing him he remembers the old woman in the street, and
leaving the home behind, starts running towards Sumi’s house. Both,
Sumi and Lampan, feel that the gruesome voice is following them and
they run towards the temple of ‘Mahabali Maruti’. In this story, Sant
has successfully presented the creepy, inquisitive and childish

206
madness of Lampan. Children are fearful of the strange things and
persons for no obvious reason, and the same facet of the ‘World of
Children’ is presented by Sant in ‘Vanvaas’.

The story ‘Vanvaas’ brings forth another facet of the‘World

of Children’. They trust in God and believe that God helps them if He
is invoked with complete devotion. This belief can be instilled in
childhood only. Both, Sumi and Lampan, go to ‘Maruti’ temple to get
rid of their fear as Maruti’ is a God of power and strength, a
‘Mahabali’. The innocence and straightforwardness of children’s
world is indicated by Sant through this incident. Sant shows, here,
how the unwanted fear, which always rests in human mind, can put
them into bitter predicament.

Lampan, like most of the children of his age, is weak at

Mathematics and Geography. No formulas of Mathematics are
comprehensive to him. Likewise, he understands nothing about the
geographical areas. The geographical charts convey little to him. They
are unaccountable enigma to Lampan. As a child Lampan is a silent
but intelligent observer of his grandparent’s. Children are really smart
in that way. Lampan feels greatly amused by the conversation among
his grandparents and their peers. His grandfather is a best companion
of Lampan, who behaves sometimes like a small child and is scolded
by grandmother. He supports and guides Lampan in every single
activity. In the company of his grandfather, Lampan feels himself as if
in the company of beautiful and aromatic flowers. Just like Ruskin
Bond, Sant also believes that grandparents have a positive and
supportive role to play in the lives of the children in the stage of
middle and late childhood.

207
 In the story ‘Bhet’ (Meeting) Lampan’s grandfather, who is
an archeologist awaits an invitation as a resource person to some
conference at Kochin. Lampan, his knowledge of Geography being
weak, doesn’t understand where it is. But, this being an important
event, everybody in the home prepares for grandfather’s departure.
These preparations include huge luggage, the description of which is
very comic. As an interlude in the episode Lampan narrates
Grandmother and her friend Krushnabai’s conversation which makes
the readers laugh. He also describes Grandfather’s carpentry and how
the table made by him breaks under his weight at the first instant.

Lastly, the entire luggage goes to its places in various trunks,

and grandfather starts preparation of his speech. Usually he behaves
like a friend to Lampan, but now he turns into a scholar, and for
Lampan he becomes a stranger. The day before his departure, every
acquaintance turns up to give grandfather best wishes and congratulate
him. At the time of his departure even, he is lost in other people.
However, lastly, Grandfather talks to him as usual, and Lampan feels
as if he has finally met his lost Grandfather. Like small children,
Lampan also is unaware of the real position and importance of his
grandfather, and feels alienated from him when grandfather is in his
true colours. This trait is also typical to the children in this stage.
The story ‘Maitri’ (Friendship) radiates with vivacious children
who, by their individuality, captivate the readers. Sant’s first person
narrative helps the readers to identify easily with the narrator child. He
displays a fresh outlook while projecting the ‘World of Children’,
their dreams and high spiritedness. He has consolidated the notion of
the child as a cherished and valued member of the society, who has his
own aspirations to follow and dreams to pursue. With his uncanny

208
capacity of going straight into the heart of the reader and unveiling the
layers of childhood, Sant has brought freshness, imagination and a
unique identity to Indian children’s literature. His acumen could well
be observed in his projection of life-like children. His protagonist
Lampan appeals enormously for his love, adventure and
inquisitiveness. Sant’s child protagonist, Lampan, acts and behaves as
any child does in any part of the world. In their appearance and attire,
Sant’s child characters could differ from the children of the world, but
not in their attitude and temperament. The act of stealing guava or
reasons for running away from home could differ but not the spirit of
Sant’s children from the children in other cultures. Thus, Sant
achieves universality while delineating with accuracy the familiar
characteristics of his child protagonist. His story ‘Maitri’ is the best
example of it. His close observation of children’s behavior endows his
child persona with convincing authenticity. This story is a specimen of
‘gang age’ of the children. Jambya is an example of strained child-
parent relationship in this age.

Lampan’s friends are extraordinary characters. Lampan calls

his friends a ‘chain of friends’. He describes the games he plays with
Paralya, Kanbargi Gangya, AC, DC, Sampann, who are of his age.
Jambya Katkol is one of them but he is older, powerful and
headstrong. Lampan calls him ‘Gundas’ Gundas’ Gunda’ to show the
height of his rowdiness. Jambya keeps an account of the ‘slaps’, he
would give to anybody who goes against him. He even deceives his
father and others by running away from a locked room in one incident
and by pushing a big stone in a well and shouting that ‘Jambya fell in
the well! Save him’. Such a rowdy Jambya breaks the hut that Lampan
and his friends have made, loses his gold chain, and makes Lampan

209
search for it. Fortunately, Jambya’s grandfather has it and Lampan is
saved from Jambya’s slaps. However, when he comes to know about
Lampan’s and his own grandfather’s friendship, he makes friends with
Lampan. This story shows some unfavourable traits in the stage of
middle and late childhood in some children who are rebels. It also
makes a comment the parenting style and stresses that permissive
parenting is always better than authoritarian parenting. However, such
children also value friendship above everything.

In Indian family system, the children have always enjoyed

the friendly and secure company of grandparents. Children reciprocate
the love and care of grandparents with the same zeal. Sant, with young
readers in mind, has exploited this theme. His stories reverberate with
touching relationship between a child and the grown-ups. He stresses
the positive role of adults in children’s life. Their relationship is
marked by harmony. Sant’s insight into child psychology enhances the
knowledge about children. He is superb while dealing with the
psychology of children. It appears that Sant lives permanently in the
mental environment of a child as he depicts their inner and outer world
clearly. In ‘Maitri’ he gives an insight into the working of Lampan’s
mind. He meticulously studies children’s psychology and their
common activities, and records them in ‘Maitri’. His presentation of
children in it is unmistakably realistic. The simplicity, universality and
lack of pretention in Sant’s stories make them especially accessible to
young minds.

Sant has exalted the importance of friendship in the life of

youngsters in the story ‘Khel’ (Games). Through Lampan, he has used
it creatively. It is portrayed as an easy, protective and lovable
relationship of life. The young friends portrayed by Sant are open,

210
intimate and honest, and show great concern for one another. Sant
highlights this healthy peer relationship. The adolescent narrator
Lampan has friends like Kanbya, Vashya, Kashinath, Karguppikar.
His friends infuse in him the zest for life. Such close friendship
contributes to Lampan’s growth by offering a climate for growth and
self-knowledge which is formed in the middle childhood only. This
story shows characteristics of ‘gang age, play age and creative age’

The exciting cricket match, the wild enjoyment of climbing the

trees of “Laxmi”, beating the stray dogs and running after them,
catching crabs in the rice fields, fun of listening to the crying frogs and
many other exciting things Lampan experiences in the company of his
lovely friends. He shares his doubts as well as hopes with them.
Friendship is projected in ‘Khel’ as a great source of enjoyment. In the
invigorating company of his friends, Lampan’s joys are multiplied. It
is the true friendship that gives Lampan an impetus to live away from
his parents. Their friendship is not a give and take relationship for
them. It is pure and spontaneous. Lampan and his friends make the
readers believe that the world is a good place to live in. In the story
‘Khel’, Sant shows how the children always want to extend the realm
of their experience by observing the things around them. This
inquisitiveness of children emanates from their innocence, their
curiosity to know the world and their snoopy nature.

Sant projects very vividly and forcibly this insatiable curiosity of

children. The children in ‘Khel’ go and peep into a bird’s nest made in
a hole to see its eggs. They fancy that a large yellow frog would turn
into a handsome prince and marry a beautiful princess. This trait of
exploring and fantasizing is a typical trait of middle and late
childhood. They spend their summer afternoons on two trees named

211
‘Laxmis’. The story abounds with the passages which
characteristically reveal the thought processes and activities of
children. In it, Sant throws light on the mischievousness of children
and their frolicsome nature. As pointed out earlier, the time period in
all ‘Lampan stories’ is around 1947. The story shows how children
were imaginative, innovative in finding their own games, learning to
grow in a team as a member or a leader, how they didn’t need any
modern toys or games to spend their time because they lived in the
company of nature and each other. They were not isolated like modern
day children, nor did they live in ‘virtual reality’. They were down to
earth, though romantic. Lampan, the central figure is shown constantly
with his friends whose boisterous company he enjoys, and from whom
he cannot stay away for any length of time. Even when he is at his
parents’ home, his mind is preoccupied with the thoughts of his
friends. Sant shows, here, how peers play a crucial role in the
psychological and social development of children in middle and late
childhood. Children are more dependent upon peer relationship
because the ties with parents become progressively looser as they gain
greater independence. According to John W. Santrock, children’s
friedship in middle and late childhood can serve six functions namely
companionship, stimulation, physical support, ego support, social
comparison, affection and intimacy. One can easily find all of them in
the children’s friendship in ‘Khel’, rather in all stories of Lampan
where he is shown in his gang. They are shown playing ‘Tarzan’ on
the Laxmi trees with a rope stolen from somebody’s well, and knives
made of screws flattened under railway. Though they show to be
fearless, even the boldest of them fear police, and they throw all
knives. This shows that they are not mature enough to be completely
independent.

212
 Sant’s true-to-life Lampan one can encounter in any village
and town of India. Any Indian kid can identify himself with Lampan.
It is not an alien and unrelated magical world of fantasy like the world
of Harry Potter. In the story ‘Chakra’ (Wheel), Sant shows the readers
how a child’s perception and approach to life follow a track that
differs from that of the adults. In the story, Sant focuses more on
Lampan’s typical feelings and preoccupations. The story projects
Lampan’s dreamy and sensuous world. It shows how his
understanding of the world is steered not by any logic or philosophy
but by imagination. He views it blindly and passionately, and observes
it with insatiable curiosity and suspense. The story recounts Lampan’s
journey into his dreamy world and conforms to Aidan Chambers’
view, “If literature for children is to have any meaning at all, it must
primarily be concerned with the nature of childhood, not just the
nature commonly shared by most children but the diversity of
childhood nature too” (Peter, 1990: 98).

Sant has fabricated his story ‘Chakra’ keeping in mind the young
readers. This is the reason behind the great success of all stories.
Because of its empathetic treatment of children, his writings have
created an impact on the psyche of child readers. In ‘Chakra’, he
depicts innocent Lampan on the threshold of experience by creating a
different world. Lampan has his own individual way of perceiving and
interpreting things. He is mostly guided by his own decree. He has a
world into himself, where he weaves his thoughts, emotions and
feelings, and finds joy and sorrow in his own way. The story projects
the wheel of thoughts of Lampan after studying a poem ‘Aamche
Ghar’ in school. The poem makes him visualize his own house with
his parents, brother and sister. One of his teachers interprets the poem

213
differently, and points out the melancholy mood of the poet having
lost everything of childhood days including his parents, friends, and
even childhood joys. It makes Lampan sad naturally, feeling that, like
the poet, he himself will lose everything of his childhood including his
parents, brother, sister, their house and even grandparents. The
teacher further interprets the poem saying that the happy world of
childhood is not everlasting and will be lost in the due course of time.
It affects the child, Lampan, adversely and leaves him in fearful
condition. The innocent child feels, “if everything is to be lost in
adulthood, it is better not to be an adult.” He wants to remain a child
forever. He speaks out his thoughts to his grandmother who very
wisely tries to clear the clouds of fear and suspense and removes his
unnecessary childish fear. However, a moment of revelation comes,
and Lampan understands that the wheel of life turns slowly, and only
human life ends very fast. Everything in nature remains as it is for a
very long time. What every human being fears is the end of life. With
this thought he also understands that every former generation leaves
some part of its own in the coming generation. In this way, though an
individual dies, he remains in his next generation. So nobody is
completely wiped out of the face of earth. This thought stops the
wheel of thought in his mind. The story in a way shows that even
children think very philosophically, they are not sterotypes as
normally adults think. In fact, adults typeset them and turn them into
their look alike.

Sant’s characterization in ‘Chakra’ is so effectively done that the

characters take on a life of their own. His life-like characters –
Lampan, his schoolmates, grandparents, drill master –all provide
intensity to his portraitures, and exemplify his insight into human

214
psyche. The truthful reproduction of his characters – mother, brother,
sister and grandparents of Lampan – provides realistic bend to his
narration. The character acts and behaves as his role demands. The
vivid descriptions of scenes in ‘Chakra’ provide an understanding of
the situation and condition of the child narrator Lampan. The story
takes the readers to Lampan’s adolescent years. It captures exciting
moments from Lampan’s life, his earnest waiting for Saturday and
Sunday – holiday, his beautiful home, brother, sister, mother, his
exciting moments at school, his schoolbag having needle and thread,
bandage, a spoon and even a string. The story also captures a natural
beauty and tranquility of his grandparents’ home and school, and the
close, secure and loving relationships that Lampan experienced with
friends and grandparents.

Sant does not merely describe a child but becomes a child

himself for the time being. His child protagonist Lampan springs up
from Karnataki soil, especially from the neighbouring villages and
towns of Belgaum. Sant has depicted childhood for its own sake and
from its own point of view. In the story, ‘Adam’, once, Lampan reads
a story of ‘Aadam’, the first creation of God; and a series of questions
crop up in his mind. By this story, Sant has indicated to the particular
trait of ‘World of Children’: Children always want to extend the realm
of their experience by questioning about the things around them.
Lampan has countless questions about ‘Aadam’ and his miraculous
birth. He learns from the story that God created him from clay, and
many questions crop up in his mind: “Is it so easy?”, “How might
have been the paradise?”, “What kind of fruits and flowers might have
been there on the trees and ivies?”, “What fragrances might have been
there in the paradise?”, “How does Aadam look like?”, “How his

215
sound may be?”, “With whom does he talk?”, “With God?”, “Is he
really the first man?” and the like. These questions support the view of
John W. Santrock, “In middle and late childhood children are on a
different plane, belonging to a generation and feeling all their own. It
is the wisdom of the human life span that at no time are children more
ready to learn than during the period of expansive imagination at the
end of early childhood. (…) They seek to know and to understand.
They are remarkable for their intelligence and for their curiosity.”
(Santrock, 2011: 274)

Lampan’s grandfather, instead of explaining logically, explains

Lampan imaginatively knowing that the children’s mind is generally
rich in imagination. Lampan ask grandfather about ‘Aadam’s
appearance’, and his grandfather tells him a story of chain of things.
He, further, explains that everything has a chain including the animals
and human beings. He gives a detailed description of how each man is
a part of long chain. Lampan tries his best to understand the process of
chain but his inexperience in the worldly affairs makes it difficult for
him to comprehend it in a proper way. Unlike Dickens, Sant creates a
happy-go-lucky life where his child protagonist Lampan enjoys
blissful presence of his grandparents. Lampan enjoys reading letters
received from his father, mother and sister. He has a separate letter for
each one. While reading the letters, he visualizes his parental home
and every single activity of his relatives. Especially, his father’s letter
brings the memories of his father’s friends. Lampon enjoys their
company. Prakash Sant’s father, N.M. Sant, had a great friend circle
with varied interests and natures, literature being a common thread
among them. Lampan enjoys their company. Sant celebrates his
father’s memories and the time spent with him in this story.

216
Interestingly enough, while writing a return letter to his father he
unconsciously writes: “Dear Baba Aadam”. The grandfather’s story of
chains of human beings and everything in nature, gives vent to his
feelings and his expression confirms to the fact that Lampan has
understood the process in the right manner. The story points out that
the children have a long-lasting and far-reaching effect of even trivial
things of little value. In the story, Sant has indirectly pointed out the
Indian belief that has always emphasized the significant role of adults
in the cultivation of young brains. In Indian family system, children
are never left alone on their own to settle their problems, instead the
adults always support, guide and accompany them everywhere, every
time. The same tendency and approach is revealed in Sant’s ‘Aadam’.

Sant’s story ‘Sakhali’ (Chain) aptly projects the ‘mad chain

of relationships’. Sant makes the education of the small boy through
the chain of relationship. He has pointed out the interconnectedness of
human relations and the small Lampan significantly learns of the
importance of human relationships. Lampan experiences the ‘mad’
chain of relationships when he falls seriously ill. Actually, the story is
about Lampan’s school-picnic. While dealing with the ‘World of
Children’, Sant has very brilliantly pointed out, how the colourful and
lively aspects of nature have always bewitched children. Amidst
nature, the children’s emotions, imagination and free spirit find an
outlet. Lampan and his schoolmates enliven by enticing forms of
nature, and find infinite pleasure in its company.

In the story, Sant has presented different images of children –

running with the winds, smiling with the flowers, dancing and getting
wet in the rain, exploring the plenty of nature, enjoying under the
beautiful and plentiful cascade etc. The child narrator Lampan takes

217
delight in experiencing nature on his own. He reveals a desire to
possess nature. Sant sees an affinity between children and nature.
Both of them are marked by innocence and purity. The story ‘Sakhali’
also highlights the analogy between tree and man. Lampan feels a kind
of similarity of evolution in human beings and trees. He finds a
similarity between man’s walk and tree’s roots. As men walk, so also
the roots – feels Lampan. For Lampan, the flourished green trees are
but the still, static and fixed green umbrellas. His innocent mind feels
sorry for their stillness. Further, he cannot understand from where the
clouds come, and who actually sends them there.

The excitement of the boys over the prospect of picnic is

excellently described by Sant in the story. Lampan cannot sleep for the
whole night, gets early in the morning, reaches the school gate before
everyone. The noisy boys with picnic-bags full of sundry things , their
haste and curiosity, their caps and fear of losing the things etc. all
point out the typical ‘World of Children’ that could be found anytime
and anywhere in the world. After the picnic, Lampan’s experience of a
serious illness, his semi-conscious state of mind, his near death
experience is also narrated. He understands the chain of relationships
when gets well. Sant’s ability to describe experiences of a child is
superb.

Final years of ‘late childhood’ is a quite complex and difficult

phase of life, as the boys in it are in emotional and psychological
transition. The same psychological and emotional transition is
portrayed by Sant in the short story ‘Sharyat’ (Race). Like most of his
other stories, ‘Sharyat’ gives an insight into the working of Lampan’s
mind. It records the thought processes and emotional activities of
Lampan who is on the threshold of manhood, but is unable to

218
understand the ‘language of love’. Once, Lampan reads a romantic
passage from a book Preeticha Marg written by Ranga Kudchadkar.
The book instills in him the curiosity about love. Lampan tries to
understand the meanings of certain words like ‘Ghayal’. He asks
Baburao about its meaning, and learns a little bit that it is a wound that
provides happiness when one is in love.

Lampan’s reading of the romantic couple, the beloved’s touch to

the lover, beloved’s feelings over the touch that rose waves of
happiness in his heart, and their passionate staring at each other-
everything makes Lampan restless. The passage makes him remind the
incident of school picnic – Sumi’s touch and his feelings over her
touch. Her touch makes him to think that he is floating in the air, he
senses something strange into her eyes – now he finds the sameness in
both the incidents and he becomes restless. He recollects, Sumi stares
into his eyes, emotions overpower him, and he forgets the last lines of
the song he was singing – thereupon Sumi completes the song and he
feels doubly pleased. Now, after reading a romantic passage from the
book, Lampan finds a kind of resemblance in both the incidents. He
finds a definite meaning in Sumi’s touch, act and her presence. He
realizes that, then, they both were restless, but he feels pleased that
they were restless due to some incomprehensible things. Lampan is
still unable to ‘name’ those feelings. He earnestly desires for Sumi’s
company. Further, the readers find a very good chemistry between
Sumi and Lampan in the game of cards. Sumi’s presence makes him
to forget everything, even his own existence; it takes him in a dreamy,
fanciful world, a floating and strange world. Lampan feels electrified
in her company. Both chase each-other even without the reason of
chasing. The emotional and psychological transition in puberty is quite

219
difficult for the boys to understand, is very aptly described by Sant in
the present story. On the one hand, he has revealed his knowledge
about juvenile psychology, and pointed out the emotional sea-sickness
of Lampan very aptly on the other.

Children are mad after their games and toys, and so is

Lampan. At the outset the story ‘Samaj’ (Understanding) hints at the
childish impatience of Lampan. He has a natural liking for cricket like
most of the Indian boys of his age. Adolescent friends play a crucial
role in the psychological and social development of most children. For
Lampan, the cricket team captain KB is an ideal role model. Lampan
admires his skill at the game, tries to imitate his walking style.
Lampan is greatly pleased when KB takes his bat, and admires it as
the best bat. The incident points out the typical joyous ‘World of
Children’ that is full of little things. Lampan shows great concern for
KB, their hero. He admires his athletic body. KB’s close association
with Lampan affects Lampan positively as it increases his respect and
position among other friends, and even the peon at school starts
addressing him respectfully. KB frequently visits Lampan’s home,
actually with an intension to have a look at a girl named Tungabhadra
living opposite Lampan’s house. KB offers Lampan a few cricket
balls, tries to develop a close friendship with Lampan. He does so as
he has fallen in love with a beautiful girl but she has no such intention.
Lampan is not yet mature enough to understand it. KB even tells a
false story of his attachment with a girl named ‘Prabha’, but later on,
Lampan learns about his lie and understands about his real intention
behind developing friendship with him. This one sided love on KB’s
part is another aspect of growing up for Lampan. Though children
from the middle and late childhood stage don’t have much of romantic

220
feelings for the opposite sex, they can sympathize with others. It
reveals to Lampan the romantic world created by young people which
crumbles down under the burden of reality. The story, thus, reveals
different aspects of the ‘World of Children’.

Prakash Sant’s Sharda Sangeet, a second collection of five

stories, is a remarkable piece of work capturing the impressions from
the life of Lampan. He celebrates in it the innocence and exuberance
of Lampan’s expanding emotional world – from middle childhood to
puberty. He sensitively explores the mind of Lampan, his
ingenuousness and imagination. Like Vanvaas, Sharda Sangeet too
has made a forte in the children’s literature. Sant’s stories bring forth a
surprising fact that he freed children’s literature from the shackles of
retold Indian mythology, legends and folklores, adaptation of western
stories and also from the mode of didacticism. Instead, Sant nourishes
it by setting on a new foot of realism. His stories are marked by an
individual signature, and they radiate with vivacious children who, by
their individuality, captivate us. This sensitive story-teller from the
soil of the home has set a standard for quality book for children, which
can be read with pleasure by both young and adult. Unlike English
children’s writers, Sant focuses the individuality of his child
protagonist, his dreams and his vivaciousness. He, with his uncanny
capacity of going straight into the heart of the reader and unveiling the
layers of childhood, universal in its romanticism, has marked the trail
for the future writers.

Through the sensitive, high spirited, highly imaginative and

delightful child narrator Lampan, Sant projects captivating ‘World of
Children’. He has consolidated the notion of his child protagonist as a
cherished and valued member of the society, who has his own

221
aspirations to follow and dreams to pursue. While in Vanvaas, Sant
has projected the emotional world of Lampan at home; in Sharda
Sangeet he has projected his emotional world outside the home. Here
lies the main difference between the two collections. The first story in
this collection ‘Parchakra’ (Invasion) deals with Lampan’s encounter
with his relatives – a family of eccentrics: Sona, Hira, Bankya and
their parents. The common trait among them, except Sona, is that they
steal things wherever they go. While Bankya steals guavas from
neighbourhood orchards, Hira picks up various things from the store
and their mother picks up some valuables from Lampan’s home itself.
Anna Kursundikar, Bankya’s father, is an errant cheat; he robs people
by various tricks, takes money from them by exploiting his relations
with Lampan’s grandfather. Sant tries to provide important and
essential lessons of life to Lampan by setting some thievish characters
against his world of innocence. He also brilliantly celebrates
Lampan’s innocence.

Sant has presented the most sympathetic and loving grandmother

of Lampan, who very kindly and large-heartedly neglects the follies of
her relatives to a considerable extent, but when Anna Kursundikar
plays tricks on Lampan, the grandmother very furiously asks the
relatives to leave the home at once. Bad things have their charm in
themselves. Bankya and Hira possess bewitching power within them.
Everybody coming in their contacts feel infatuated. But such an
infatuation doesn’t last long. By her wise and experienced acts, the
grandmother saves Lampan from getting into the bad wheel of
infatuation. The same experience is provided to Lampan in the story,
but Sant is never a bit didactic in the story. Everything is done very
artistically only to expand Lampan’s realm of worldly affairs. This

222
story also exhibits the interests in the middle and late childhood.
Lampan draws beautiful pictures, sings well, is expert in paper craft
and gets prizes in various competitions.

The story ‘Aagagadichya Rulanvar’ (On the Rails) points out

children’s obsession with trains. It reveals how children are interested
in trains especially. Like all other boys, for Lampan, trains are
powerful and beautiful things that mysteriously appear and disappear.
He craves to explore the world around him and, trains and their
railway tracks point toward the existence of places beyond horizon.
For Lampan, rail-engines with all kinds of movements are interesting
things to see. He is especially interested in how they work. He, a
curious child, constantly tries to find out how the world around him
works. Like many other children, Lampan is fascinated by trains,
entranced by their motion. When he watches trains, they amaze him
because they are massive machinery hauling people.

Travelling in a train is a pleasure to many children, but to Lampan

it doesn’t provide pleasure. Once he travels in a train from his father’s
home to grandfather’s village. The crowded train provides no pleasure
to him. As a child he uses to dream of a day he will get to travel by
train, but the crowded train, the people quarrelling in it with each-
other over little things and the overnight journey provides him nothing
exciting or pleasurable. The sounds of people and of trains simply
madden him. However, interestingly enough, this practical experience
doesn’t lessen his fascination for trains. At his grandparent’s house,
the train tracks are around half a kilometer away. Whenever he hears
horn of a train, he likes to run and watch the train pass. He finds every
single train different form the other – the sound of engine, the smoke
coming forcibly out of its engine and every thing about it. He watches

223
each train come and go, and watches the operations of signal, and feels
a rhythm of life among them. A constant stream of activity, people
with various emotions makes him forget everything. He finds it
amazing to watch the hub of activity at the station. He gets thrilled as
each train rumbles along the platform.

The story points out the common trait of the ‘World of

Children’: children are fascinated by big, loud and powerful things.
Lampan loves trains. He finds them fascinating as everything about
them is big, loud and powerful. As a child, he loves watching the
trains pass, as well as the flashing lights and bells of crossing signals.
During his school picnic in a train, he finds it a pleasurable activity to
watch the green fields and the old fort that pass by. He enjoys the
beautiful nature, and cherishes those beautiful experiences in his mind.
Once with the permission of the elders, he goes near railway tracks,
and the engine driver, an uncle to Lampan’s friend, takes the children
into the signal room and takes them to a ride into the engine. The
children closely observe the engine – its pipes, shining watches, its
rungs and every other thing. Now this big, loud and powerful engine is
no more fearful to Lampan. He enjoys a ride on a trolley with
Ramgunda, a cabin man.

The story also points out certain other facets of the ‘World of
Children’: they do not like strict teachers, rather they like considerate
and loving ones. Sant has pointed out the same fact through Lampan,
his English teacher and their rehearsal for a program. Lampan is
compassionate to others, one finds in him a great impulse to help
others. Compassion for Shevanti, a vegetable vendor, leads Lampan to
do something to relieve her sufferings. His act towards Shevanti also
points out his innocence and helping nature. Children love to help

224
others without any selfish motives. They are selfless and sensible.
Further through the story of Kusum and Raghunath and their love-
affair, Lampan is exposed to another issue of the world of adults. It
educates Lampan differently and inculcates in him the value of
extending help to the needy on the right time and in right manner.

As the children have fascination for the big, loud and

powerful things, likewise they have fascination for the big cities.
Children’s longing for faraway places finds reflection in the story.
Some of Lampan’s friends wish to go to Bombay, enjoy cinemas
there. This childish world of curiosity, taking up an adventure and
enjoying its thrill, is represented in the story ‘Aagagadichya
Rulanvar’, too.

Sant’s child characters illumine the pages of his fiction

because of their originality and universality. In ‘Rani Ka Baag’
(Queen’s Garden: a Street Show) there is a harmonious blend of the
songs of experience and the ceremonies of innocence. He skillfully
blends these two aspects, innocence and experience, by describing the
serenity and beauty of nature and by portraying the ingenuousness of
children. Children in ‘Rani Ka Baag’ emerge as happy, believable
and identifiable characters. They are ordinary boys belonging to
villages or small towns, and they reaffirm the value of grace and
honesty by their conduct and character.

In the world of his children there is laughter and joy, love and
hope, where dream comes true. The children are friendly and they
accommodate all other children. Sant’s character, Lampan is quite
considerate who shares the suffering of Vitthal, a boy of his age, and
also celebrates ordinary joys together. Lampan and his friends are

225
genuine and true to life. He is endowed with remarkable openness and
is always ready to receive impressions coming from all sides. His
contact with elder boys from different cultural and social ethos
increases his realm of awareness and understanding. Sant amazingly
invokes the settings, places, the games and struggles of children, and
catches the uniqueness in the ordinary.

‘Rani Ka Baag’ brings forth the local colour as it bears the mark of
realism. Lampan narration helps the readers to locate the places of his
childhood. He is so believable a character that any Indian child can
identify his life and day-to-day problems with him. Sant gives his
readers the true feel of the childhood life. One actually feels that
almost all the emotions of Lampan portrayed in the story are true-to-
life. The grounds such as ‘Nagzari ground’ , Lele ground’ ,’Kali
Ambabai ground’, ‘ Drillach ground’, ‘ Tehsan ground’ add a realistic
touch to the story and bring forth the playful nature of small Lampan.

Sant has portrayed with accuracy the familiar characteristics of his

child characters: Lampan, Yamjya, Chambya Kulkarnya, Bedkihalkar
Kulkarnya, Alanya, Chinya Kamat, Gurupadappa Vajramatti, Mallya
and Bekya, etc. In the present story, the readers salute the innocence,
sanguinity and friendly attitude of all these children. In it, Sant
presents their blissful period of life, the richness of childhood. All
these vivacious children, with their individuality, capture the attention
of the readers. Yamjya impresses the readers by his selfless love for
Lampan. Sometimes these children get involved into petty squabbles,
but they quickly settle it in increasing emotional bond. One of the
appealing features of Sant’s writing is his delineation of external
peculiarities, descriptions of places and children’s close attachment
with the places. He gives a vivid and precise picture of the places: the

226
houses of his friends, and their compounds, different plants, gardens
and grounds, his teachers and the pitch on the ground prepared
carefully and guarded dutifully by the boys etc. It is by the capacity of
his vivid description, Sant evokes both the images of life-like children
and places. The description gives us a better perspective and deep
insight into the workings of Lampan’s mind.

The children in ‘Rani Ka Baag’ are fun loving dynamic boys. They
love to play cricket and protect their pitch from every possible
adversity. Their every single activity to protect their pitch points out
their boyish world. By recording the common activities of his child
characters, Sant hints at what a child likes and what he does not. One
finds real spirit of children and childhood in the story. ‘Rani Ka Baag’
has affinity with real children, their psychology, their day-to-day life,
their dreams, aspirations and problems. It is appealing and has strong
grip on the child readers.

Sant’s common village protagonists attract child readers because

children prefer the stories that deal with exploration of the mind of the
children, their ingenuousness and their imagination. The children like
the stories that capture the impressions from the lives of children.
Lampan’s love for his friends, his friends fighting among themselves
and their playfulness fascinates the child readers at their best as they
find the reflection of their own world into them. The portrait gallery
of his friends, with their resourceful games, makes the readers to
visualize Lampan‘s childhood. Lampan and his other three friends are
not old enough to be the players of the cricket team. However, they
are the regular audience, and watch the game of the elder boys
regularly. They try to develop friendship with them, look after their
belongings and feel pleased for getting some work from the team

227
players. The younger boys look after their bats, balls, stumps, caps and
gloves. Bekya, the best player of the team, gets entangled into a crime,
and with his arrest by the police, the game of cricket comes to an end.
Yamjya’s father gets transferred to some other place, and all the boys
stop going to the ground and their friendship too shatters. The ground
and the game now becomes a faraway dream like the pictures of ‘Rani
Ka Baag’, a street show in which children look through a glass in a
box and see different pictures. The ground, now forsaken, seems to
Lampan like the show where every child feels that the show is for him
alone. The story ‘Rani Ka Baag’ is a fine example of Sant’s ability to
present the intricacies of children’s life with much simplicity.

In the story ‘Ghasargundi’ (Slide), with Yamjya’s departure

to Mysore, the ground no more remains a ground, the pitch vanishes
and Yamjya’s ‘A-1 Team’ shatters into small pieces. Now every piece,
i.e. every boy starts a new game. The boys stop going on the ground,
and start playing either in the courtyard or on the street in front of their
houses. They start different games like ‘Kajuvattal’, ‘Cricket in
Streets’, ‘Chor-shipai’, ‘Kurghodi’, ‘Lingvattal’ etc. Their games
present before the readers the typical scenario of any Indian village or
town. They start maddening the residents with their loud noise. As a
result they have to stop playing in the streets and return back again to
the ground. There, they sit and narrate about their acts of stealing
eraser, pills or candies. They tell lies, play pranks on others. These are
the common activities found in any child of any country.

In their attitude and temperament, Sant’s child characters are not

different from the children of the world. In their appearance and attire,
they could differ, but not in their spirit. Thus, Sant achieves
universality while delineating with accuracy the familiar traits of his

228
child characters. In his children gallery, some are big and small, some
scruffy, some smart, some mischievous, some serious, but all going
hopefully towards a better future. They quarrel on petty things, beat
each other, but quickly settle again. The ground attracts the crowd of
boys once again with the installation of a slide there. Once again, the
children get their spirit revived. They recommence their games with
the earlier zeal and spirit. They regain their wish to play – the
shattered friends once again huddle together. Lampan enjoys the
children sliding on the slide, rather than taking a slide himself. He
enjoys the colourful crowd on the ground. During rainy season, the
ground has a few visitors, but when the rains are over, one sees the
over-crowded ground again.

Along with the happy, fun-loving small children of his age,

Lampan is exposed to some mischievous and bad boys too. He stays at
quite a distance from such boys. However, the boys like Handgya and
Bharmappa ask Lampan and his friends to keep their money with
them, while they gamble. Bekya once again appears on the scene.
Children in this stage are attracted towards novel, strange and rule-
breaking company. Though the ‘bad boys’ don’t involeve Lampan in
their gambling, Lampan is attracted to their secretive and deliquent
amusement. Though he gets himself in the company of such criminal
minded elder boys, his grandparents, with their love and care, take him
off from such company. Innocent Lampan is saved from the bad boys
by the doting grandparents. In Indian family system, the children have
always enjoyed the friendly and secure company of grandparents. Sant
is aware of the fact that the tender body and the immature mind of
children need protection and guidance to bring the derailed train of
children back on the right track.

229
 Erik Erikson in his eight stages of human development
describes the fourth stage ‘Industry versus Inferiority’ which appears
during middle and late childhood. Children in this stage,

“…become interested in how things are made and how they work.
When children are encouraged in their efforts to make, build and work,
their sense of industry increases. However, parents who see their
children’s efforts at making things as ‘mischief’ or ‘making mess’
encourage the children’s development of a sense of inferiority.”
(Santrock, 2011: 327)

This fact is beautifully illustrated in the story ‘Sharda Sangeet’

(Sharada Music). Sant believes that singing and music play an important
role in children’s social and psychological development. The story
‘Sharda Sangeet’ (Sharda Music) exposes Lampan to the world of music.
Sinning and music play an important role in Lampan’s social and
psychological development. The Sharda Sangeet Vidyalaya ignites all
areas of Lampan’s development: intellectual, social, emotional, language
and overall understanding. His exposure to music during early childhood
helps him learn the sounds and meanings of words. It helps him to
practice self-expression and strengthen memory skills. It also provides
him with sincere joy. For Lampan, it becomes a dynamic social
experience. Lampan gets benefitted by music in many ways – he learns
co-operation, sharing, compromise, creativity and concentration. It helps
him to face new challenges and begin to form new friendship and develop
social skills. He learns that music is vital to life.

Music brings Lampan close to many people. Through music, Lampan

takes an inner experience and moves it into a shared creative experience.
Music releases his energy and channelizes in creative and productive

230
directions. Lampan learns both about himself and others by playing music
together and by listening to each-other. He learns that in the process of
learning both young and adult are alike. Sometimes a child can be a
‘Guru’, a teacher to an adult. Lampan becomes a Guru to Jamkhandikar, a
retired government officer. For Lampan, music becomes a creative
experience. Music provides many, many benefits to Lampan. It boosts
his brain power, teaches certain life skills such as how to relate to others,
how to work as a team, and the development of leadership skills and
discipline Music builds his confidence and inadvertently teaches him
patience. When the music teacher, Mhapsekar Master’s daughter falls
seriously ill and he decides to close the class down, students like Lampan
run it by teaching others. At that time some gundas try to take
disadvantage of the absence of the master and eve-tease a girl in the
school. Then it is Jamkhandikar who controls the situation. Lampan
learns that elders, their wisdom, and position of power is also needed for
running an institute. The Sharda Sangeet School enhances Lampan’s
cognitive, languistic, physical, creative and social-emotional
development.

Pankha, the third story book by Prakash Narayan Sant, is a

sequel to Vanvaas and Sharda Sangeet. In it, the reader is exposed to
the further development of Lampan’s world of childhood. The
imaginative, curious, inquisitive, sensitive world of Lampan gets its
further reflection in Pankha. Lampan’s typical world, portrayed along
with his friends, grandparents and nature, has a touch of realism and it
leaves the readers enthralled. Almost all the eleven stories of the book
present the different events in the life of Lampan - a quiet and
sensitive boy who first appeared in Vanvaas. The stories trace
Lampan’s development from middle childhood to his early teens.

231
 Lampan is never a mischievous boy. He lives in his grandparents’
custody. His evident love for trees, flowers and the places of his
childhood days is the underlying theme of the book. He is not the
adventurous sort himself. However, strange and adventurous things
keep happening around him. He is, in fact, a child of nature, like
Bond’s Rusty or Wordsworth’s Lucy, given to wandering in the
company of nature. The book captures exciting moments from
Lampan’s life. These stories first appeared in magazines, then in
collection. They delinated scattered episodes in the life of Lampan. All
the eleven stories of the collection are rewarding for the authentic
portrayal of love, loss, achievement, pain and struggle. The beautiful
landscape, tradition and culture, all corresponding to the world of
Lampan, is evoked in his stories by Sant. Nature, in its myriad shades
and colours, enriches Lampan’s soul that finds brilliant expression in
his narration. For this he selects a genuine Indian subject and creates
an adequate Indian idiom to express it. Lampan grips the attention of
the readers with his loveliness and liveliness.

As a child, Lampan wanders in nature, throws stones at

tamarind and at the crows sitting on the branches of the tree. These
are but the very common activities found in the childhood period of
any child: city bred or village dweller. Lampan draws the beard and
mustaches on the figure in the book. Instead of reading a story book,
he enjoys watching the different pictures in the book. Childishly he
draws moustaches and beard; tries to erase it and in that attempt to
erase, tears the page. As a sensitive boy, he likes the scent of the soil
wet through the raindrops; enjoys the chatter of the birds. The highly
imaginative Lampan hears the sound of raindrops on the roof, and
feels that as if they are drumming the roof. He feels attracted by its

232
music. He enjoys looking at the blue hill through the window. He feels
amused by watching the childhood photographs of his grandfather.
Like all the boys, Lampan and Sumi play hide and seek. He enjoys
Sumi’s smooth touch, enjoys sitting with her on the bank of lake with
their legs in water.

The story ‘Paan’ presents the innocent and playful world of

Lampan overjoyed by the presence of grandparents and his girl friend
Sumi. The innocent Lampan could not apprehend the language of
love. In fact, what he feels for her is calf-love. Actually, he is not old
enough to understand it or grandmother’s love for grandfather. Hence,
he couldn’t get its meaning when both Sumi and his grandmother call
him “chavat” (mischievous). He likes their tone of voice, the way they
pronounce it. However, he doesn’t understand why they call him
‘mischievous’.

In ‘Safai’ (Cleaning), Lampan attempts to build a railway engine

along with its all attributes and accessories. He plays a game of vortex
with his friends. He learns how some elders bribe young children so
that they should not disclose their certain facts. Their servant,
Baburao, has fallen in love with a woman Padmavati who is good-
looking but a cheater. Padmavati spends time with him, and robs him
of valuables. Baburao brings a slingshot for Lampan so that he should
not tell anything to grandparents about his secret letters. He runs away
with her but at last, in the police station, he understands that she has
deceived many people like him trapping them in her love. Until then,
many vendors and shopkeepers come in search of Baburao so that he
can pay them off. Already, there is a lot of gossip in the town and the
words ‘Raghu-Maina’ (Love birds) are written everywhere. When
grandmother and grandfather know the fact, they forgive him.

233
 Though Lampan is not very adventurous or mischievous, his
friends are. They are quiet mischievous and play pranks. Their acts of
stealing tamarinds and playing pranks on farmers are the common
activities of Sant’s children. Their attitude, temperament and behavior
endow them with convincing authenticity. Sant has presented a very
significant facet of the ‘World of Children’ that they are very much
fearful of God’s anger. The children are not complicated, and hence,
have strong faith in God. Lampan tells grandmother about Baburao’s
letters out of fear of God. In the story ‘Safai’ Lampan is exposed to a
facet of world of adults.

The positive attitude and loving approach of a tonga-driver

in the third story ‘Dag’ (Wobbling of a Wheel) paves Lampan’s way
toward happy selfhood. The tonga-driver Dundappa Hattarki is
considerate, and close contact with him exposes Lampan to a new
vista and better perspective. The child narrator Lampan, at first,
doesn’t like the appearance of the tonga and the tonga-driver but
gradually understands the qualities of the tonga driver. Once, while his
grandfather was going to Kolhapur, Lampan accompanies the tonga
driver from home to station and home again. He doesn’t like the
strong caustic smell of Dundappa’s blanket and his beedi, and also his
total appearance. Besides, the wobbly wheel of tonga makes him
uneasy. The dilapidated, decrepit and ruinous tonga doesn’t attract
him. Lampan decides not to sit in Dundapppa’s tonga for the next
time.

To Lampan’s surprise, for the members of his family, both the

tonga and its driver are the best. For the grandparents, Dundappa is a
nice, considerate and good-natured man. Once, while returning back
home Lampan and his grandparents reach the station at 2 a.m., but

234
they find Dundappa at the station waiting for them. Now Lampan
learns why Dundappa is best both for his mother and grandparents.
While returning back from the station Dundappa offers a free ride to
an old woman; and Lampan learns about his considerate nature and
loving approach. Actually, in the story, the grandparents pass on their
wisdom to Lampan and enable him to gain confidence and assume
responsibilities. Lampan’s relationship with these adults provides him
certain good lessons of life. The kind-hearted Dundappa commands
respect. Both, Dundappa and Lampan’s grandparents, become the
source of Lampan’s education and self-knowledge. Lampan
reciprocates the love and care of Dundappa with the same zeal.

Sant has presented one childish belief in the story: Lampan and his
friends believe that the white hair of horse’s tail will turn into gold in a
month if they are cut on the full moon day and buried into a pit at the
eastern side of home. Lampan gets the white hair, works accordingly
but gets frustrated. The act reveals the innocence and childish belief of
Lampan and his friends. Though the whole story wheels in and around
Lampan, Sant has used a few adult characters that form the backdrop
of the story, and expose Lampan to a new vista of life.

The celebration of innocence, edification of manners and

cultivation of values through the harmonious relationship of children
with adults are some of the important issues Sant has dealt with in
many of his stories in Pankha. In ‘Patch’ Lampan meets T.G.
Kasargod on one of his bicycle rides. He gets attracted to the warmth,
hospitality and disarming charm of Kasargod. Kasargod runs a bicycle
mart ‘The Goa Cycle Mart’. Once Lampan falls in his street as the old
bicycle of Baburao gets punctured suddenly. Lampan falls on face in
the street. Kasargod, the owner of the cycle mart, generously repairs

235
his bicycle. The two strangers, a small boy and young man, turn into
friends. It is not a give and take relationship for them. It is pure and
spontaneous. While analyzing Ruskin Bond’s stories, the fact has been
stated that children in late childhood want to be treated as equals and
not as ‘little children’ and those who do so are preferred by them.
Kasargod does that and hence Lampan likes his company.

Sant’s children spread the message of love and understanding

through the bond of friendship. Lampan and his peers are quick in
making friends. Kasargod is a good football player. He and his friends
play football. Lampan and his friends watch the game with childish
curiosity. They like the palyers’ white half pants, half wasabi coloured
and half yellow shirts, and their yellow boots; looking as if the birds
and not the boys. Lampan and his friends are curious about the
football, its shape and its touch. Lampan feels pleased by his
friendship with Kasargod, the fair coloured, curly haired, strong
muscled, young man. He frequently visits his cycle mart along with
his other friends; Parlya, Sondrya and Alanya. When Kasargod is
fixed in an emotional crisis, he shares his problems with Lampan who
in fact doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation but emphathizes
nonetheless with him. In this context, John W. Santrock says,

“In middle and late childhood, children show as

increase in perspective taking, the ability to assume other people’s
perspectives and understand their thoughts and feelings. (…) In terms
of prosocial behaviour, taking another’s perspective improves
children’s likelihood of understanding and symphathizing with others
when they are distressed or in need.” (Santrock, 2011: 315)

236
 Through Lampan, Kasargod gets acquainted with Lampan’s
grandmother who helps him out from a complicated situation, shows
him the right direction. Her loving guidance makes him bear his
responsibilities, and bravely face the hurdles and uncertainties of life.
Lampan’s grandmother, by her positive aura and cheerful personality,
becomes a source of inspiration for the child readers.

The story ‘Shodh’ (Search) deals with a search for Sumi’s

lost gold chain. Once, Sumi loses her gold chain, and a few boys, on
the threshold of adulthood, come to help her in her search. S. K.
Kulkarni, an adult boy, helps Sumi with certain purpose. Lampan now
learns that he likes to look at Sumi with her chain near her lips.
Lampan’s friends, Sampya, Chambya and Kadrimani, have a strong
mindset about girls “we do not help the girls in their search of
anything”. This is a characteristic feature of middle and late childhood
as mentioned in the theoretical framework. On the contrary, adolesents
are attracted towards the opposite sex and try to impress them
wherever and whenever possible. Due to the peer pressure Lampan
also doesn’t help her. The children’s mindset is a typical mindset
found in any Indian child of their age. Such a mindset is found in both
the boys and girls living in Indian villages and small towns. Lampan
remains restless at home. His restlessness indicates his attachment
with Sumi.

Children believe in the power of charms and the skills of charmer.

They have a strong belief in them and are always fascinated to the
persons like magicians or exorcists. Lampan and Sumi’s search for the
gold chain proves fruitless. They go to Arvinkattya’s uncle, who was
known for his power of charms, to know the whereabouts of the chain.
Their every effort proves fruitless. The story also points out the Indian

237
girls’ typical fascination for Amla. In an attempt to climb a tree of
Amla, to get some Amlas, Sumi loses her chain. Sumi and Lampan get
the chain under the tree of Amla. The story also points out Lampan’s
unconscious fascination and attraction for Sumi. It is but a natural
inclination of a boy towards a girl; a very natural facet of the ‘World
of Children’.

The act of telling the addresses to the strangers, helping them

in getting the right address, following them in a group without any
reason is a common phenomenon found in ‘World of Children’, and
so, in writing of Sant. In the story ‘Nan’ (Coin), a stranger comes in
Lampan’s lane asking for the address of ‘Doddugaudar chal’. All the
children take the man to his expected place, they help him out
innocently. Children are always ready to extend their helping hand
both to the known and unknown, because their world is full of
innocence and of helping nature.

Lampan and his friends spend hours together watching Anna

Hindalgekar repairing the old cars. They are curious and inquisitive.
They help Anna Hindalgekar, an agent dealing in old cars, in pushing
the car to get it start. They are also the best silent observers. They
observe silently every single activity of Anna Hindalgekar. Some elder
boys huddle there to have a look at the beautiful girls of Anna. Here,
Sant has pointed at the emotional world of adolescents. Once, Lampan
goes to Anna’s house, sings some songs on harmonium and gets a
‘coin’ from Anna in appreciation of his musical performance, which
Lampan refuses to accept. As has been quoted above, Lampan, though
a child, understands Anna’s point of view and accepts the coin after
listening to his story.

238
 Anna always remains in the world of his own even though he is in
the company of others. For the first time that day, he discloses some
details of his life. Anna hails from a farmer’s family. He loved music.
Due to economic constrains, social conditions as well as family
responsibilities, he could not learn music staying with the family. He
ran away from home to learn music. He is an expert harmonium player
but couldn’t continue with music and had to learn repairing cars for
supporting his family and keep his hobby aside. However, when he
played harmonium somebody had given him the coin as a token of
appreciation and encouragement. Though he couldn’t continue with
his music he wants Lampan to do so. He wishes to start the music that
he has locked for so many years after completing his family
responsibilities. Thus, Anna is representative of all those who have to
keep their talents aside and continue with the chores of life. Though
Lampan doesn’t understand the feelings behind the reward first, his
grandfather explains him its significance. This coin is out of currency,
and Anna received it as a token of appreciation and encouragement.
Hence, though it has no currency value, it is a very valuable trophy to
be cherished. Lampan is taught this lesson of life through the character
of Anna. Besides, he also learns to appreciate the opportunity he has
got.

Children are high spirited. They are agile in nature. It is the tribe of
boys who cannot, or will not, rest. Being children, they are always
restless. These are the characteristic features of children. Hence, the
reader finds in ‘Pul’ (Bridge) Lampan’s restlessness at home. Lampan
feels his freedom entrapped by heavy downpour outside. He feels
himself incarcerated in the house by the rain. Irritated, Lampan
remains silent, answers nobody, and becomes the headache to his

239
grandmother. He faces the problem of how to kill the time. He
indulges in the fairy tales, again gets bored; disturbs Baburao and
grandmother by his irritating talk. The heavy rainwater closes all the
roads, closes everything making Lampan further restless. To overcome
the situation, his grandfather takes Lampan with him to Khanapur.
During the railway journey, Lampan enjoys the company of Konkani
people going to Castlerock. He enjoys the style of their speaking. The
flooded river and its waters threaten him like all other boys and girls
of his age. At Khanapur, he stays at Sardeshpande’s house with their
two children: Vibhavari and Suhas. He enjoys their company: sings
songs with them, enjoys watching the passing railway from their
terrace, enjoys the scenery of Malprabha River and its waves, and
enjoys chatting with them till midnight. Lampan learns some tricks of
the game of cards from Vibhavari. His visit to Khanapur bridges a
‘Pul’ of strong friendship with Vibhavari and Suhas. It is a pure and
spontaneous friendship. Thus, the story ‘Pul’ points out how children
are quick in making friends. Vibhavari and Suhas present a pack of
cards and a piece of purple glass respectively to Lampan. This act
reveals their innocence and how they are devoted in retaining their
friendship. The story also points out Lampan’s fascination toward the
sound and power of train. He loves to see how it passes from the
powerful bridge. The bridge on which the train passes is more
powerful than the train to Lampan. The ‘World of Children’ is full of
small things: if they are disturbed by the casual things, so are pleased
by the very small and casual things. Their typical psychological world
differs from that of the world of adults. This story is a fine example of
beautiful description of the rainy season and the nature which shows
the ecophile in Sant. ‘Pul’ is woven around simple plot, cocooned
around regional milieu with an insight into the child psychology.

240
 To Lampan, a marriage ceremony is a collective experience
of noise all over. Once, he attends the marriage of his friend Sampann
Deshpande’s sister. The haste, laughter and noise coming from
everywhere and the scented atmosphere amuse Lampan at a great
scale. He dislikes the persons frequently asking him about his parents.
Children do not like the persons who ask them questions of various
types. They generally dislike and hate the discouraging adults. They
like the adults who respect their feelings, trust them and stand by them
in the times of trouble. They prefer the grown-ups with caring and
understanding attitude. In the story ‘Zanj’ (Cymbals), Sampann
Deshpande’s uncle is a typical man from the world of adults. He often
discourages children by asking them about various things, treats the
small children with disrespect. He creates hindrance in their ways. He
is not considerate to children. Sampann’s mother is also a sort of
enquiring person. She has her wasted interests: she is always
interested in making enquiries about each and every neighbor.
Lampan doesn’t like both Sampanna’s mother and uncle. In the
marriage ceremony, Sampanna’s uncle comes to Lampan and disturbs
him by asking him some unimportant questions. For the first time, the
reader finds Lampan playing pranks as he doesn’t answer his
questions directly. Naturally, Lampan’s answers irritate him.

Elizabeth B. Hurlock states characteristics of late childhood in

which she says,

“Because most older children, especially boys, are

careless and irresponsible about their clothes and other material
possessions, parents regard late childhood as the ‘sloppy age’ – the
time when children tend to be careless and slovenly about their
appearance and their rooms are so cluttered that it is almost impossible

241
to get into them. Even when there are strict rules about grooming and
care of possessions, few older children adhere to these rules unless
parents demand that they do so and threaten them with punishment.”
(Hurlock, 1987: 156)

This characteristic is very true about Lampan. The new and well
pressed cloths that he is wearing for the marriage make Lampan
uneasy. He feels himself caught into a bitter predicament in his new
clothes and sits on one place instead of enjoying the ceremony. The
new couple – the all time smiling bridegroom and the bride, all time
looking down –confuses Lampan. He feels sorry for the bride. He
ponders over the happenings after marriage; they will live in a new
house in some village or town, will quarrel with each-other, get angry
on but live with each other like friends, just like his parents and
grandparents. He remembers the saying of his grandmother that
marriages are made by the almighty God in heaven. It means that his
own ‘would be’ wife is decided by God. This very thought frightens
Lampan. With the thought in mind, he hears a pleasant sound like that
of cymbals. Whenever Sumi appears on the scene, Lampan hears the
sound of ‘Zanj’: the sound of cymbals. Sumi and cymbals, the
combination, suggests Lampan’s childish attraction for Sumi. Lampan,
being an adolescent, would not have been able to describe the love he
felt for Sumi. Hence, Sant uses the sound of cymbals to describe the
waves of love created in his mind. The stories like ‘Pan’, ‘Shodh’, and
‘Zanj’ reveal the adolescent love and attraction. This story too reveals
the thought processes of Lampan, and simultaneously presents his
mental atmosphere and juvenile psychology.

Sant’s writing celebrates Lampan’s innocence and his state of pure

happiness in the company of his parents, grandparents and friends.

242
Lampan enjoys his stay both at the homes of his parents and
grandparents. Children generally enjoy welcoming guests. For them,
the arrival of guest becomes an event of festivity. In the story
‘Pahunya’ (Lady Guests), Lampan enjoys the company of his maternal
aunt’s daughter Sarala. They become friends, exchange their moments
of fun and frolic with their respective friends at school and village,
narrate the stories of their friends etc. Lampan’s mother takes their
guests to nearby different places like gardens, play grounds, temples
and to cinema and some other places of interest.

Lampan is a very typical child because, unlike the children of his

age, he talks less and listens more. He loves to listen to the talks of the
persons around him. Listening silently the discussion between his
mother and aunt, a few questions arise in his mind about God and His
existence. He ponders if God exists then why He lets happen bad
things around. A kind of misanthropic thought disturbs his childish
mind. He is unable to understand why God lets the women commit
suicide into the wells around the temples. The thought disturbs the
sensitive Lampan, and makes him restless and think over it time and
again. In the story, Lampan is exposed to the complexities of man-
woman relationship. From the discussion of his mother and aunt, he
learns about the importance of selfless love in man’s life. He learns
that if love is lost, everything is lost. But in spite of it, men continue to
live, not with love but with adjustments. The unhappy life story of his
aunt brings the somber side of life to Lampan. He learns that, in the
world of adults, if one hurts somebody; both suffer its long-lasting
consequences. It has been already stated that children in middle and
late childhood show this ability of perspective taking, understanding
others and emphathizing with them. Lampan being an ultrasensitive

243
child it is more so. Forgetting everything about the life –story of his
aunt, Lampan, his sister Mani and Sarala enjoy the picnic to a temple.
This points out that the children have a world unto themselves.
Lampan learns that outer appearance is more truthful but it is the
seamy side of ones life. He learns the difference between the outer
appearance and the inner world of persons in ‘Pahunya’.

The story ‘Pankha’ (Fan) points out the natural inclination

and temptation of children towards the world of charm and, at the
same time, deals with various facets of children’s world. It begins with
Lampan’s innocent life at school: his school prayer, mischievous acts,
class monitor and his demand for discipline, etc. Lampan’s friends try
to establish close intimacy with the class monitor by giving him empty
cigarette boxes, match boxes, pencils, coloured chalks, etc. Their
actions rightly bring out the typical behavior of school boys and the
picture of any Indian school. Lampan, very soon, becomes a close
friend of the monitor Sambprasad as they both attend the drawing
class together. Children are quick in making friends. They climb the
trees and roam together, and enjoy each other’s jolly company.

Children are easily attracted to the seemingly glamorous world.

Lampan gets tempted to the happy-go-lucky world of Sambprasad’s
uncle known by his dawdler friends as Sawkar and his gang. He is
tempted to their loud laughter, false quarrels, card games, carrom,
their wrestling and their entire merrymakings. He finds a kind of
resemblance between the jollification of school children and Sawkar
and his gang. He feels as if they are not grown-ups but the small
children turned into adults by blowing air into them. He wishes to be a
part of their gang and develop friendship with them. He wants to be
the part of that fun and frolic. He starts visiting their place frequently,

244
remains engrossed with their thoughts, aspires for playing carrom with
them. However, on one of such visits, Lampan learns some horrible
facts about Sambprasad’s uncle: he had driven Sambprasad’s parents
and grandparents out of the bunglow, deserted his wife and children
and married the housemaid, and now for his daily expenditure sells
household things one after another.

Meanwhile, Lampan and his friends Parlya and Sondrya try to imitate
Sawakar and his friends’ style, and are severely punished by their
headmaster for their enterprise. Parlya and Sondrya start behaving like
Sawakar and his friends and are beaten by their parents too. The
Sawakar disappears with his ‘housemaid’ wife after a few months. His
wife dies and his daughter is left orphan and her grandparents and
uncle have to look after her. His dawdler friends too are seen nowhere.
Lampan, then, one day sees a toy vendor in a street and recognizes
that the vendor nobody else but the Sawakar. Out of fear, he starts
running towards home. Their hero turns into villain shattering their
childish dreams. The story reveals small children’s temptation to
attractive ways of life and finally ends into futility.

The last story of this collection, ‘Granth’ (Book), deals with

Lampan’s hobby of reading books - both story books and picture
books. Lampan is a voracious reader who reads books one after
another without getting tired. Out of his hunger for reading, his
grandma gets his name registered as a member of a library.While
discussing the developmental changes in parent-child relationships,
John W. Santrock remarks,

“Parents especially play an important role in supporting and

stimulating children’s academic achievement in middle and late

245
childhood. (…) Parents not only influence children’s in-school
achievement, but they also make decisions about children’s out-of-
school activities. Whether children participate in such activities as
sports, music and other activities is heavily influenced by the extent to
which parents sign up children for such activities and encourage their
participation.” (Santrock, 2011: 329)

This is quite interesting that even though he is a small child he

is a voracious reader. For story books, he becomes friend of
Manyasheth, an extraordinary but whimsical person of the village.
Manyasheth, an heir to a big property, is also a voracious reader. He
lives in a world of his own, shows as if cares for nothing but actually
is aware of everything happening around him. He is mentally
disturbed due to over-thinking, over-reading, anxiety and confusion.
Though he shows his carelessness about the world, he shows right
direction to the children who are going in wrong direction, saves them
from undiffused cannon balls. He never stays at one place. He feels
that he should always go somewhere (where he doesn’t know). For
him, a path and a book are alike. One walks on it until it is finished.
But, when a walker is finished it doesn’t matter whether there is a path
or not. He walks on and on because if he stops he thinks the path is
leaving him. So, Lampan understands that when walking Manyasheth
feels nice, and if stops, is afraid that life will stop. At last, he makes
suicide in a well and the book of his life is over. Interestingly enough,
from Manyasheth, Lampan learns that man’s life itself is like a book.
This terrible experience is also enriching for Lampan, making him
mature. In childhood, not everything is goody-goody. Children also
undergo frightening experiences. A sensitive child like Lampan learns
about life from such rare experiences.

246
 ‘Zumbar’ (Chandelier) is the last collection of short stories
by Prakash Sant. It was posthumously published in 2004. In this
collection, new germs can be seen. As Lampan grows up, so does his
world and his sphere of experience. Gradually, the stories deal with
serious themes, philosophy of life, sufferings of others. The world of
Lampan widens from his family to his friends, to the society. The idea
of happiness may be the same in his life but the sufferings he
witnesses are of various types, colour tones and depths. Stories in this
collection are the reflections of his understanding of life i.e. ‘Life must
go on, whatever difficulties may be there. One must accept them as a
part of the game.’

The first story ‘Zumbar’ (Chandelier) deals with Lampan’s varied

experiences in his new school. After completing second standard at his
parents’ house, Lampan goes to stay with his grandparents, and is
admitted in class three there. In a new school, he quickly becomes
friend with the boys of his class. With girls he forms only
acquaintances typical to his age. Initially, he feels scared of his new
teachers, very soon gets habituated to them and enjoys everything at
the school. The story reveals children’s love for music and songs:
children and music are closely related. All the children of Lampan’s
class enjoy the period of music as the music teacher - Aacharekarbai -
asks no questions to them but asks only to sing after her. Sant hints at
the typical feature of the ‘World of Children’: they do not like the
persons who often ask them questions.

The school children are often interested in their teachers and

particularly more in the teachers who favour them. In their attempt to
know something about the music teacher, Lampan and his friend get
information that the music teacher Acharekarbai is a spinster and has

247
adopted a boy and lives in a tiny house of two rooms. Further, they
learn that, during her youth, the music teacher was in love with some
young man and eloped from house to marry him but unfortunately the
man disappeared from the scene and as a consequence she remained
unmarried. She left her village and took up the job of a music teacher.
Surprisingly enough, Lampan finds the life of the music teacher
tuneless and rhythmless, though she fills others lives with music.
Lastly, when she dies, Lampan finds no words to express his feelings.
The sensitive, inquisitive and innocent life of children is presented in
‘Zumbar’ and, at the same time; they are made aware of the fact that
human life is full of contradictions.

The story ‘Kulup’ (Lock) points out the adolescent boys’

natural attraction and inclination towards the girls. Sant has revealed
the fact that small children feel pleased when they are appreciated by
some elder girls. This typical, interesting and strange trait of the
‘World of Children’ is revealed in the story ‘Kulup’. The story also
reveals Sant’s insight into the juvenile psychology. Lampan’s gang
spends some of its free time in the courtyard of a big building where
Anna Hindalgekar lives. Anna runs an automobile garage, but likes
music. He plays harmonium which Lampan also plays well.
Everybody in Anna’s house likes different songs. Anna asks Lampan
to play songs on his harmonium. Anna’s elder daughter, Damyanti, a
beautirul young girl of marriageable age, also listens to the songs. She
smiles at Lampan every time he plays the songs of her choice.
Lampan, like any other child, is bewitched by her beauty and grace.
She, however, never shows any sign of recognition to him when she
meets him outside. For him, she is an enigma, a big room with a lock.
The songs of her choice are like the key to the room. The Hindalgekar

248
family shifts to some other town and the lock to Damyanti’s strange
behaviour remains unopened. Elder boys from the lane where Lampan
lives, quarrel among themselves taunting each other about Damyanti
and slur her character. Lampan is too small to understand truth from
bluffing. Lastly, when Anna comes with his family to tell the news of
Damyanti’s engagement with a captain in the army, Damyanti smiles
at him and the lock to her personality opens. It’s her anxiety for
marriage, fear of character assassination by other young boys,
limitations put on her behaviour by the custom and tradition, make her
behave strangely. Lampan understands these facts in the life of girls
and their psyche. At some places, Lampan understands the psychology
of girls. Otherwise all these stories are from the point of view of a boy,
only sometimes the locks of typical female psyche open in these
stories. This story throws light on the young adults’ psyche to slur any
beautiful and young girl’s character, which to a child like Lampan is
beyond his understanding.

Children have some special hobbies: collecting story books,

stamps, picture books, empty match boxes and cigarette packets of
different brands and the like. It becomes their treasure-house to which
they go time and again to have a look at. This is a characteristic
feature of children in middle and late childhood which has been
mentioned in the Theoratical Framework. Lampan and his school
friends collect match boxes and cigarette packets of different brands;
preserve it as their treasure-house. However, very soon, they get bored
of it, and search for a new one. This act points out the fickle
mindedness of children on one hand, and their constant wish to have a
new thing always. Lampan in ‘Chhap’ (logo) finds the company of his
old friends stale, and looks for some new friends. His strange whim

249
gets fulfilled as a new boy is admitted in his class: Shyamsundar
Hebbalkar, a squint-eyed but well dressed strange looking boy. They
quickly become friends. Lampan visits his house, finds him lonely in
his big bungalow as his parents had passed away long ago.
Shyamsundar Hebbalkar feels happy when friends visit him but is
disappointed when they leave. Lampan feels sorry for the parentless
friend living in a lumber room of the big bungalow. The house is run
by a maid and other servants. There is nobody to share his life, and he
has nowhere else to go. He is like an insect trapped in a spider’s web:
how hard it tries, it cannot free itself. Lampan, being a child himself,
doesn’t know what Hebalya should do but understands that Hebalya’s
house is not a place for a boy to live happily. However, the story ends
with a ray of hope that sometime Hebalya will be free of this spider’s
web and come out of his predicament. Once again, this story points
out certain contradictory facts about human life as such. It exposes
Lampan to certain complexities of life, and Lampan’s sensitivity, his
companionship, understanding and empathy.

Sant’s Lampan can be found in any village or town of any

part of our nation. He goes for shopping with his grandparents. As a
child, he is having every single thing children often keep with them:
books, notebooks, colour boxes, crayon boxes, papers for painting,
clothes and other sundry things. He dislikes going to saloon like every
single child of his age, he weeps a lot there. Puzzles and games are
parts and parcels of children world. Lampan and his friends indulge
into puzzle games. They run after the men distributing papers of
advertisement. All these activities make them the children of the soil.

The next story in this collection is ‘Nakadu’ (Shop) (with

letters reversed). It seems to be a comic story delineating the character

250
of the owner and barber of a saloon – Khandagalemama. The story
starts with the description of shops, shopkeepers and their nature in
Lampan’s town. One of these shops nobody can avoid is a saloon. He
humourously describes how his hair is always cut short and wants to
have a fashionable haircut. Once, one of his friends, Kaashya, puts a
puzzle to them which sounds ‘Nakadu Chenya Pakasake’ which is not
solved by any of his friends. However, Baburao, the househelp, tells
Lampan of Ra Ra Yargattikar Khandagale’s saloon. Every little child
of Lampan’s town goes for a haircut to Khandagalemama. Mama
treats all children with love, cuts their hair without harming or giving
them pain. He works very slowly with delicate hands. He puts children
books in the shop so that they sit reading after and before the haircut.
He speaks with them gently and tells stories, myths, tales etc. which
attracts smaller children in the saloon. Boys of Lampan’s age,
however, mimic him and make fun of him. Khandagalemama has
faulty speech and pronounces /t/ instead of /d/ which is a subject of
fun for all.

Lampan starts going to Mama’s saloon, reads all books kept there,
and likes Mama a lot. He, being a child, doesn’t know mama’s
problems, but understands that this saloon and the owner are different
from others. Khandagalemama is lonely and he has no family to
support. All his property is sold out taking disadvantage of his simple
nature. However, he tries to find happiness in devotion of god and
children. Unfortunately, the saloon closes down, all are gossiping
about Khandagalemama’s mysterious disappearance. Lampan’s
friends describe the closed doors of Khandagalemama’s shop with
trickles of blood indicating Mama is dead. For Lampan, if any other
shop is a ‘shop’, then Mama’s saloon is a ‘pashaw’ – a reverse of shop

251
where nothing goes on for money. The words, ‘Hair Cutting Saloon’
in Marathi look reversed on a glass – ‘Nakadu Chenya Pakasake’. This
story is a lesson for Lampan about the mask of happiness people wear.
A sensitive boy like Lampan feels empathy which nobody else feels
and this incident widens Lampan’s world.

In the next story ‘Kantha’ (Necklace), Lampan tells about a

terrible experience told in a comic manner. Only a talented artist or a
child can look at such experience in a detached manner. At the outset,
Lampan describes the backlanes of the houses – the Bhangibols –
meant for scavengers. These Bhangibols are described as if a living
character. Nobody, except the boys of Lampan’s age, prefers these
Bhangibols. The boys can call out their friends informally to join their
games instead of going to the main entrances and facing the parents of
the friends. One day, while passing through the Bhangibols, the boys
see a painting of a man on the back wall of a house. The painter must
be a skilled one, as the boys feel that the man in the painting looks at
them from any corner of the lane. The boys get frightened with this
magic. Their friend Channabasaveshwar tells them about a mad man
named Haval Painter, gossips about him and frightens them more.
After some days, Lampan meets Haval Painter, who paints a face of
the judge ‘Tenginkhai’ who had given judgement against Haval,
which made him mad. Haval describes Tenginkhai and his wife, and
asks Lampan if he wants to wear a pearl necklace and holds Lampan’s
throat with his both hands till he suffocates. Actually, this could have
taken Lampan’s life but fortunately, Haval Painter leaves him in time.
Any child could have frightened for life after such an experience.
Lampan, being an innocent child, doesn’t understand the seriousness
of the situation.

252
 ‘Parade’ (Induction) is the only humourous story in this
collection. The induction of Lampan to school is the simple incident in
this story. However, with his wit, Sant has made it memorable.
Lampan comes to his grandparents’ town, and is admitted to a school,
the Head Master of which is a friend of Lampan’s Grandfather. When
introduced, the H.M. starts his long speech to little Lampan about the
aim of his life. Lampan’s Grandfather understands Lampan’s funky
position, and makes a joke on it. A day prior to the first day of school,
Lampan’s Grandmother sends him with Baburao to get familiar with
the streets and for giving safety instructions. Baburao gives a satchel
to Lampan which is quite heavy. He takes Lampan to school showing
him the road to the school where they meet a girl – Sumitra, a tonga
driver – Dundappa and lastly a peon in the school. Baburao shows him
the building of the school. At the end of this induction parade, Lampan
is so tired that he doesn’t understand anything except the Mysorepak,
a sweet they eat in a restaurant – Mohanvilas Tea Club. When Lampan
reaches home, he is so tired that he sleeps for hours together.

This humourous story records Lampan’s extraordinarily

mischievous comments on the H.M.’s sermon. He says, ‘The Head
Master started preaching before the actual commencement of the
school. What will happen when the school term actually starts?’
Except for the Mysorepak everything else in this parade was irritating
which left Lampan miserable. Still, Lampan’s language and outlook of
looking at it makes it comic. Children can take such tiring and
irritating situations lightly and do away with it.

‘Jyamin’ (Guarantor) expresses a pathetic experience that

guarantors undergo. This story shows how guarantors suffer due to
debtors if they don’t pay off the debts. The boys in the story play a

253
game ‘Jyamin’ in which the boys throw cores of mango-stones at
some boy. Lampan doesn’t understand who this Jyamin is and why
boys torture the Jyamin’s wife. Lampan’s tries to answer these
questions by saying that good people are deceived by cheaters and the
guarantors have to suffer. Lampan, though does not see the unjust
condition in the society, sees a glimpse of it. He meets Ira, the
granddaughter of a Jyamin. The Jyamin has gone mad, his son is dead,
his daughter-in-law has to hide her face from others and they live on
the help of others. Ira likes to read books but she closes the sad stories
of Sane Guruji in a bag so that she can read other stories. According to
her it is a compartmentalization of sorrow. Lampan confronts grim
reality in the society in this story and so do the readers.

There is a popular superstition about a ‘person bringing good

luck or bad luck’ in Indian society. That feature of a person is called
‘Paygun’ in Marathi. A person with good ‘paygun’ is liked by all. The
story ‘Paygun’ expresses a special kind of sorrow the parents feel
whose only child is mentally and physically disabled. Such sorrow
overshadows the life of parents every moment of their life and still
they have to keep smiling and lead life.

Lampan meets an accident while cycling on his friend’s

bicycle. He has to take to bed rest for some days. He hears sounds of
guests from his room. Some elders talk to some infant all the time.
When Lampan gets well, goes to see the infant, but is terribly shocked
as the infant is not an infant but a mentally and physically disabled
boy of Lampan’s age. To Lampan, he looks likes a spider. His parents
have brought him for a treatment from a godman. They have tried
everything for their son Sonyabapu, but they are not ready to accept

254
that their son will remain disabled forever. They are every hopeful that
he will be normal someday.

Sonyabapu’s parents think that Sonyabapu brings good luck

wherever he goes even though he cannot walk himself. Lampan comes
to know that there are hundreds of people without any positive effect
who take treatment from the godman and Sonyabapu can never get
well. However, his parents are not ready to accept it. This terrible truth
moves Lampan. As Lampan’s grandmother doesn’t want Lampan to
be in Sonyabapu’s company, she start supervising Lampan’s study,
which makes Lampan come second in his class and Lampan feels that
Sonyabapu has in fact brought him good luck.

‘Sparsh’ (Touch) is Sant’s last story in ‘Zumbar’.

Unfortunately, Prakash Sant died after an accident, and the possibility
of more stories of Lampan is no more left. ‘Sparsh’ is the peak of all
stories. Prakash Sant lost his father in Typhoid when he was just nine.
The sorrow of his father’s death always remained there in his mind
unexpressed. That life-long sorrow is expressed here through this story
of Lampan. Lampan’s many experiences are Sant’s own experiences.
Lampan also suffers from the same unexpressed sorrow of his father’s
death. Lampan’s father falls ill, is admitted to a hospital but never
returns. Lampan asks questions about his father’s whereabouts to
Grandmother but gets vague answers. He is not a person to exhibit his
sorrow. His world has collapsed after his father’s mystical
disappearance; still the boy tries to continue his life.

In this story, he goes to his Kitamama’s place at Ajara. Kitamama

is blessed by his guru who solves the problems of the devotees making
Kitamama his medium. For this programme, Lampan visits Ajara. On

255
the day of this programme, many people put their problems before
Kitamama and get their answers. Witnessing this, Lampan also thinks
about his father’s whereabouts and is anxious about his own future. He
sobs sitting near Kitamama. Kitamama places his left hand on
Lampan’s head. With the touch of the hand, Lampan understands that
his father is never going to return and he accepts the fact, this life-long
sorrow and anxiety. With this touch, he grows up in an instant.

The analysis of Sant’s stories points out that Sant and his
writing are the two faces of the same coin. His writing interprets him
and vice versa. His own mood and spirit is embodied throughout the
stories. With his deliberately chosen art form, he has produced fiction
of everlasting impact. Sant delineates his child protagonist with the
deftness of a psychologist and superb story telling skills. His creativity
achieves the heights by creating and flourishing children’s literature,
exploiting eloquent and impeccable narration, conjuring up the
enchanting world of flora and fauna, skillfully employing the literary
form of short story and presenting creative truth in a realistic way.

In Sant’s all stories, Lampan is the narrator, but not all stories or
incidents in them are focused on him. The focus of the story is on the
central characters e. g. ‘Dundappa Hattaragi’ in ‘Dag’, ‘Anna
Hindalgekar’ in ‘Nan’, ‘Manyasheth’ in ‘Granth’. Such character
stories focus on these characters. However, readers see every incident
from Lampan’s point of view who is a boy in middle childhood when
the stories start and end when he is in late childhood. He gives his
special touch, an angle, a viewpoint of a child to all stories.

There are girl characters in Sant’s stories but neither Lampan nor
his friends consider them as the members of the boys’ gang. The boys

256
get ‘nervous’ in the company of the girls. Sumi is Lampan’s close
bosom friend but he doesn’t like to show it off in his friend’s
company. Her friends also like him as he sings well but he gets
nervous and embarrassed in their company like a typical boy in
‘middle and late childhood’.

Most of Sant’s children characters belong to middle and

upper middleclass. Lampan belongs to a well to do family. The setting
of most of the stories is a town on the border of Maharashtra and
Karnataka; most probably Belgav where the climate is moderate, the
soil is fertile and has heavy rains. This region was not overpopulated
around 1947, was very beautiful part of the region and a calm and
quiet life could be led there. In such a setting the incidents in almost
all the stories occur. Hence, the children in these stories don’t suffer or
have to struggle for food, shelter or education. They led a happy,
joyous and carefree life.

These are the stories of bygone days relived by an adult as a child.

Though not all incidents and characters in these stories are real, Sant
must have come accross most of them which he had used in writing
these stories. Sant never wrote his autobiography but in his collection
of essays Chandnyancha Rasta (The Starlit Street) published
posthumously by Mauj Prakashan in 2013, there are personal essays
which give some details of his life. Besides, Sant’s wife Mrs. Supriya
Dixit (Dr. Sudha Sant) has written an autobiography Amaltaash
published by Mauj Prakashan in 2013 in which many details of
Prakash Sant’s life are recorded. In both these books some facts of
Sant’s life can be known. For example, Lampan’s parents may be
Sant’s parents, the famous Marathi poetess Indira Sant and essayist N.
M. Sant but the grandparents are not real. It must be wishful thinking

257
on his part as his real maternal grandparents were not like Lampan’s
grandparents. Sant never lived with his grandparents but was adopted
by his grandma. After the death of his father Sant’s mother faced
economic crisis but when she started working as a lecturer in a
training college, the family led a middleclass life. His mother always
provided him with all necessities. Perhaps, he had the first hand of
experience of lower middleclass life but didn’t have to work for his
livelihood or education in his childhood, world around him was
comaparatively safe and secure. The only life shattering experience he
had was his father’s death and hence, his children characters also are
not actually poverty stricken except one or two, don’t work for money,
lead a comparatively carefree life, engaged in regular childhood
activities like school going, playing, studying etc.

He writes about the sweet memories of childhood and makes them

immortal in his stories. His children characters and the incidents in his
stories snugly fit in the characteristics of middle and late childhood.
For example, the term ‘troublesome age’, ‘sloppy age’ fit them as
most of the children are not willing to do what they are supposed to do
and influenced by their peers than by parents or teachers. Most of the
children’s dresses, even uniforms are simple, dirty, torn and their
satchels also are shopping bags unlike the modern children of today.
They don’t care about their appearance, rooms, books etc. A clean and
neat boy seems an odd man out to all of them. Of course, such a boy
would look like all others in some days. Some children quarrel, fight
with each other or shout at their siblings. They didn’t actually quarrel
with the parents as in those times children were not looked upon as
individuals. Normally, an authoritarian style of parenting was used by

258
all parents. Some examples of such children can be seen in the stories
like ‘Parchakra’, ‘Aaggadichya Rulavar’ or ‘Rani Ka Bag’.

Children in Sant’s stories spend most of their time playing games

in the gangs, except for the time in school. In the school even they are
not much interested in learning. The teachers have to be strict with
them. They spend their time in hallaballoo. Except for some children
like Lampan, other children don’t study well and are not pushed for
better performance by the parents and hence they become
underachievers in study.

Psychologists call the middle and late childhood age ‘gang age’
which fits to Sant’s all children characters. They spend most of their
time in their gang, playing mischiefs, inventing new games, exploring
new places. In the story ‘Khel’ one sees the examples of various
games they play. These games basically don’t need much ‘gear’ and
not even special grounds of pitches, any ground or even streets are
sufficient. These are either typically indigenous games like ‘viti-
dandu’, ‘bhovara’, ‘kajuvattal’, ‘kho-kho’ or climbing trees and
observing the surrounding fields, hills or even frogs in ponds, catching
crabs with strings. They even copy activities of ‘Tarzan’ in the film,
keep knieves made by flattened screws under railway and dance like
tribals. All these games are played in their gangs. They even forget
hunger or to go home. They observe the more sophisticated game of
cricket of the elder boys and wish that they could be a member of their
gang. The elder boys become their idols and try to imitate them like
children in ‘Rani Ka Bag’.

There are girl characters in Sant’s characters in Sant’s stories but

neither Lampan the narrator considers themas the members of his gang

259
nor his friends like the girls to be in their gang. The boys get ‘nervous’
in the company of girls. Sumi is Lampan’s bosom friend but he
doesn’t like to show it off in his friends’ company. Her friends also
like him as he sings well and a sweet boy by nature but he gets
nervous and is embarrassed in their company like a typical boy in
‘middle and late childhood’.

Sant’s all stories have most of the characteristics of ‘middle and

late childhood’ as Lampan starts narrating the stories when he gets
admitted to the Class III and gradually goes on acquainting with the
town, new boys, classmates, friends, playmates i. e. his gang. Though
the focus changes from Lampan, to some other child to an adult,
Lampan as well as some other child is always there as an onlooker.

Lampan’s world presented through the four collections is in the

form of concentric circles. In the first collection, ‘Vanavaas’,
Lampan’s world is small, the incidents or experiences are about his
parents, grandparents, close friends etc. In the second collection,
‘Sharada Sangeet’, his experience starts getting depth and complexity.
In the third and fourth collections, viz. ‘Pankha’ and ‘Zhumbar’ his
world gradually widens like any child in the world going from
childhood to adolescence. That is why even though Lampan’s world is
very ‘particular’, to Belgaum, Karnataka in India, a place on the
boundry of Maharashtra and Karnataka of the time around 1947, it
becomes universal. Everybody, a child and an adult can identify with
it.

Sant’s most of the stories don’t have the typical form of short
stories. As a child’s thoughts are scattered and strayed, Lampan’s
thoughts are scattered and strayed, Lampan’s thoughts experiences

260
and memories are scattered. Sant’s every story is like a collage. Most
of his stories are not compact, without focus and with many
unnecessary details. They are a part of Lampan’s world and the
readers understand child psychology, children’s thought process and
their point of view through such details.

Though lyrical and personal, Lampan’s stories have eveybody’s

childhood in them. The incidents, the pranks, the ideas and the
feelings have been felt by everybody. Lampan is like a cameraman
who shows the readers what he sees, what he wants to see and show.

Sant’s ‘World of Children’ is innocent, dreamy and goodie-goodie.

The children in his stories are hyperactive and hence don’t focus on
anything. Only Lampan being an extraordinarily observant and
sensitive child; chooses to see both good and evil around him.
Besides, Lampan and his friends face difficulties which they have
created for themselves by getting involved in untoward situations.

Sant’s stories carry a common string in all of them i. e. his

protagonist Lampan, his parents, his grandparents, the househelp
Baburao, Lampan’s friends, other character who people the stories etc.
and hence, not all characters need introduction in every new story. The
stories seem to be a part of a big story just like ‘Sindbad’s Seven
Voyages’ or ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. Most of the minor and major
characters are carried forward.

The analysis of Sant’s stories brings the fact to light that these
stories are not children stories only as they are not limited to
childhood memoires, cry over lost childhood, nor are they just
autobiographical writings. The child psychology these stories exhibit
is different from the child experiences or the analysis of child

261
behaviour in the children stories. Hence, these stories can be called
stories of child psychology and not just children stories.

In one of his interviews taken by a journalist after the publication

of his ‘Vanvaas’, Prakash Sant had said that, “_mP§ boIZ ho Ho$di bhmZ
_wbm§gmR>r Zmhr. Vo àË`oH$ _moR>çm _mUgmÀ`m _ZmV amhÿZ Joboë`m bhmZ _wbmgmR>rhr
Amho.” (“My writing is for children, but it is also for the children
retained as it is in the mind of every adult.”) This explains why Sant’s
stories contain some part which is not understandable for children.

262