SHYAMCHI AAI

Book Review by Prof.Gauri Matekar, Khadki Education Society’s Tikaram Jagannath Arts, Commerce & Science College, Khadki, Pune – 411003

Mesmerizing Classic

SHYAMCHI AAI

By Sane Guruji

Sane Guruji’s ‘Shyamchi Aai’ has mesmerised generations of Marathi readers. With a fresh translation by Shanta Gokhale for Puffin Classics, of Sane Guruji’s ‘Shyamchi Aai’ (Shyam’s Mother) English readers can now experience some of that magic. Pandurang Sadashiv Sane was a Marathi author, teacher, and freedom fighter from Maharashtra, India, who wrote ‘Shyamchi Aai’, set in rural Maharashtra during British rule.

It is a pleasure to read Shanta Gokhale’s brilliant translation, which flows effortlessly, never giving the reader a feeling that this is a translation. She explains unfamiliar cultural references and concepts in the flow of the story while rising superbly to the challenge of not losing its rhythm and lyricism. She has rightly toned down the sentimentality of the original, thus making the book more accessible to young readers today.

When young readers open this book, an unfamiliar world awaits them. It is a world both wonderful and moving. And yet, readers might find there a reflection of their own world – where parents love their children and want them to be happy, where friends quarrel and resolve, and where strangers can rush to help a person in need.

‘Shyamchi Aai’ might help readers find the message of universal love and compassion, which are needed more than ever. Such classics are read and reread not necessarily for nostalgia or to revive the past but because perhaps they can tell us something that transcends time.

Most of the part of the original Marathi book was written in 1933 over a few nights, during Sane Guruji’s imprisonment for his involvement in India’s freedom struggle. He then narrated it to fellow prison inmates, who liked it so much that Sane Guruji was persuaded to publish it. The story, largely autobiographical with a few embellishments shows Shyam, based on Sane Guruji himself. It narrates reminiscences about his mother, Yashoda and his childhood, throughout forty-two nights to people in a fictitious ashram.

In Marathi homes, it became a tradition for children to gather together with siblings or friends reading out a story to everyone. The structure of childhood stories narrated over forty-two nights made the book easily readable for young readers. Each story and the book come together as a whole, showing Shyam’s evolution from a stubborn, mischievous child to a wiser young adult. The younger Shyam at the beginning is a happy child born to a well-off landowner Brahmin family in a Konkan village.

As the book progresses, the family is thrown into dire poverty, and the bright mood of the book changes to a more sombre tone. The hardships faced by Shyam’s family, especially those endured by his mother, play a significant role in shaping Shyam’s character and personal growth. The suffering might act as a catalyst for Shyam to mature and understand the complexities of human endurance and sacrifice, allowing him to navigate future challenges with a heightened sense of responsibility and wisdom.

There is lyricism in Shyam’s world, where rivers, streams, waterfalls, forests and even the occasional tiger appear! Children learn to swim using coconut husks to float on water. There are flowers to pick and boat rides to take. The family gathers together to make dinner plates and bowls out of leaves. Women sing traditional songs as they perform daily chores.

The book, ‘Shyamchi Aai’ also read as a historical document. It sheds light on the realities of rural life in early 20th-century Maharashtra. There is no doctor in the village. Cows die of foot-and-mouth disease and children suffer from smallpox.

It raises important questions about social inequalities and the power of education. Untouchability is taken for granted. People who work on the family farm have been serfs for generations. The book portrays the struggles faced by the rural community, the challenges of poverty, and the limited access to education and opportunities.

Shyam’s sensitive soul and its careful nurturing by his mother is the core of the Book. A baby bird’s death moves him to tears and he learns to help his mother. His yearning for knowledge also comes through: Shyam cannot afford an English dictionary needed for school and has to guess the meanings of words.

The book works as a plea for modernity as well. During most of the story, Shyam’s mother is ailing. Her health problems probably arise from poverty and malnutrition. What little food is available goes first to her husband and sons. She bears too many children, and her health probably suffers because of that, too.

Shyam’s mother is uneducated and does not think women should challenge their husbands, even when they make wrong decisions, jeopardizing the family’s future. Her sister, who makes a brief but important appearance, provides a modernist contrast to this. She is a working woman in Bombay. While Shyam’s mother cannot make her husband mend his ways, she is a modernizing influence on Shyam. She teaches Shyam to be compassionate towards all human beings, regardless of their caste or social status.

Though uneducated, the mother is wise enough to give Shyam a lesson in sociology when she tells him how his ancestors became landowners by usurping land from poorer, lower-caste people. Interestingly, in 1946, Sane Guruji fought for the right of untouchables to enter the famous temple of Pandharpur. His life bears testimony to the values inculcated by his mother – honesty, self-respect, independence of spirit, humility, equality for all humans and, above all, kindness, compassion and love.