The story is about a pleasant young girl who ended her life in an extremely tragic manner – she got married with Manak and their love was genuine. But the problem in this relationship was that she yet not have been giving birth to a child – and this was very frustrating for Manak’s mother, and she gave Guleri one more year, and if she hasn’t got pregnant in this year Manak have to get married to another girl. Somehow when Guleri was at fair in Chamba she got to know about the second new wife and because of that she committed suicide by soaking her clothes in kerosene and sat fire to them. This is very sad because the thing is that Manak really loved Guleri and he wasn’t interested in his mother’s plan about him to get a new and second wife. Maybe she didn’t know that he really loved her and that he only wanted her as his wife.
How does Indian culture be expressed in the story?
We experiences Indian culture when we hear about Manak’s mother:
Indian culture had influenced her to the extremes of believing in the gift of a son to the family and it is deeply embedded in her mindset. Indian culture is such that a married woman should bring a son to the family and if a woman fails to fulfil this role, she is not successful in marriage and is rejected. In India the ‘mother’ is supposed to be a representative of Indian culture.
How are Manak’s feelings after the dead of her wife, Guleri?
“.... obedient to his mother and to custom Manak's body responded to the new woman but his heart was dead with in him"
Who do we get to sympathize with?
In this short story, Guleri's character shines winning the sympathy of the readers. Guleri, a cheerful girl coming from a well-to-do family and her marriage to Manak, her failure to give Manak's family a son, creates a terrific situation for her tragic end and the reader's immediate sympathy is with the heroine of the story, Guleri. She was the pleasant young girl who ended her life in an extremely tragic