Neech ( Low born)

Razia Sajjad Zaheer paints a poignant picture of the lives of two women whose paths cross for only a little while yet invoking emotions which will probably linger on even after they have gone their separate ways. This is what the story does to you as well. Neech will probably remain with me for quite some time, questioning and standing as a reflection of a lot of my thoughts.

The story begins with Sultana, an educated, middle class woman who comes to stay in a house where she meets Shyamali, the helper. Shyamali is the one who is a low-born, has left her husband and is now having an affair with Ram Avatar, the security guard. Sultana is mesmerised by Shyamali and her thoughts about life. She is taken aback at the ferocity and determination with which Shyamali takes her decisions and forges her relationships with people. Sultana is often seen to be fighting any prejudices that crop up in her mind regarding the fact that Shyamali is from a low caste. The story takes a turn when there are objections raised by people as to the Ram Shyamali affair, and Ram is threatened that he will lose his job. Sultana takes it upon herself to go talk to Bada Sahib and settle the issue but to her complete surprise Shyamali leaves the place without even informing her, abandoning Ram, abandoning Sultana’s hopes of convincing Shyamali that she does understand her. The story ends with a chance encounter of Shyamali with Sultana, where Sultana derides her for her actions and is stunned by Shyamali’s reasons for leaving. Shyamali did not want Ram to lose his job, did not want Ram to one day rue the decision of marrying Shyamali and blaming her for his misfortunes.  Sultana finally gets the understanding and in some way Shyamali also knows that Sultana understood her as well, even though she was a “neech”.

Given the times in which Zaheer was writing in, we can assume that she was a woman of immense character and ahead of her times. Her daughter describes her as spending her time smoking and drinking coffee while she wrote. The image in itself sheds light on the kind of woman she was, liberated, free-spirit, not afraid to pursue her dreams and interests. Her writing reflects this strength of character, her forward thinking and self-sufficiency. I could see a lot of Sultana in Razia and it felt quite autobiographical. The fact that both Sultana and Zaheer’s husbands were away from them is also a huge parallel in their lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, the era that it evoked, the strong sentiments that it projected and the questions that it left the reader with: Would Shyamali and Sultana ever meet again, would Ram Avatar move on, would Sultana do anything about the image that people have about low-caste people?

The literary element that stood out for me were the characters: their descriptions (both physical descriptions and the kind of people they are) and how each character was fleshed out. All the main characters seemed to be well rounded and had a graph. I could relate to the character of Sultana and her moral dilemmas: how she both identified with Shyamali  and yet was so different from her that she sometimes yearned that kind of freedom and abandonment. Shyamali is an extremely interesting character who seems very different and at the same time highly progressive, she reminds me of a caged bird who has been set free and likes it but still sometimes longs for the entrapment again, even though she fights these longings away, escaping into another world.

My interpretations overlapped with a few others but there were major differences too. While they thought that Shyamali was an extremely sorted out character who knew exactly what she wanted, I differed from them. To me she did not really know what is it that she wanted, she kept escaping instead of staying and fighting for something. I also felt that there was a certain attraction between Sultana and Shyamali, in the way the author describes Shyamali through Sultana’s eyes, Shyamali’s beauty, her elegance and grace and the way she carried herself, the way she played with Sultana’s child. This view was shared by a few while others negated it.

Being part of the literary circle definitely helped me know the story from different perspectives. I also think that I will remember the story for a much longer time because of the discussions that were carried out in the group. I realized that I usually tend to remember stories through the images that flash in my mind, and I remember more about what the author made me feel rather than the words itself.

As a language educator, since I have taught in a classroom before I understand the positives of having a literacy circle as the students engage in the material a lot more, the story gets ingrained in their minds and also makes the students an integral part of the teaching-learning process. It may become difficult with a classroom of varying reading levels and care should be taken to bring in simple stories but not simplistic ones.