Gaban - Munshi Premchand - Book Review

            I have been reading Tamil, English and Malayalam books to date. This year I had planned to read a book in a new language. I decided it to be Hindi. Barring the textbooks, this is my first full-length Hindi novel. Whenever I start looking for a Hindi book, the first name that pops up is Munshi Premchand. I had heard the name from some of my textbooks as well. So, why not start with one of his works!

            Gaban is the story of a young man who wants to please his newlywed wife. He is totally smitten by her and wants to please her. When his wife expresses her love for jewellery, especially necklaces, he starts taking loans and finally misappropriation funds. Things start getting out of hand, and he runs away to escape from shame and arrest. He ends up in a different town, and his life takes a different turn. Things start looking to go on track, but then take a dip. How do these affect the person, and everyone around him, form the story.

            For a good part of the first half, the story revolves around the greed of a woman and the psychology of a man in such cases. From there, Munshi Premchand takes us through a lot of things on how humans can be, the plight of people back then, etc. The storyline was set around the pre-independence period, and we get to see how everything used to be back then. The language being Hindi was a bit complex, and it did take me almost two months to finish it. Reading it on Kindle helped, as I could check the meanings of the words without much fuss. Also, there were a few pages that I felt dragged. There were some good characters and the relationships, like friendship, husband-wife dynamics, and father-son relations, that were well brought out. Even back then, the way people with power try to stand over the lesser people is well reflected here. 

            The word Gaban means misappropriation. According to me, this does not mean money but also love, faith and morality as well. Relationships are something we tend to take for granted. In short, this is a good read for a first-time Hindi novel reader. Hopefully, I will explore more writers and their works.