Jainendra Kumar is one of the greatest Hindi short story writers; therefore, any collection of his short stories must necessarily remain incomplete. Going by his interests and criteria, every editor will select very different stories for his anthology, and there is no doubt that every such collection will succeed in satisfying different groups of readers. Every great writer is multidimensional, and he is capable of satisfying different tastes and aesthetic needs. The twelve stories that are being presented here highlight an element that lies at the centre of Jainendra's oeuvre, and that is, his profound understanding of human relationships, human actions and human destiny and also his sympathetic insight into them. Jainendra is not a merely a writer of incidents, and if at all he is, in his stories those incidents become situations after they have happened. Ultimately, Jainendra offers his comments on them, directly or implicitly. Almost always, the comments are made on the basis of his ethical understanding of the situation and a psychological point of view.
The amateur photographer protagonist of 'Photographer' establishes an undefined relationship with a beautiful, young mother while trying to entertain her whining young son. He pretends to take a photograph of the mother and the son. But at the same time this falsehood results in a moral problem. He destroys his plate to convince the woman that he will not misuse her picture. But after five years, when he has entered the field of literature and politics, in Lahore after a public meeting, the same woman asks him to photograph her. He does not have a camera and so it is arranged for. After the photograph is taken the woman informs him that the child who called him mama (maternal uncle) is no more. She also tells him that after that she became a widow and today, after she has consumed poison, her last wish is that the photographer should combine her picture with that of her dead son into a very beautiful photograph. The protagonist Rameshwar leaves the world of literature and politics and returns to his profession of a photographer. Jainendra creates an image of the psychological and marital life of that woman when he suggests her doubts and fears, her relationship with Rameshwar through her son, the fact of their remembering each other for years and her insistence that instead of her dead husband's photograph, her son's picture must be combined with hers. Even today not many Hindi writers know much about photography. The fact that in 1927, Jainendra could write a story centred around photography indicates his deep interest in modern developments.
Rejecting the conventional elements of the short story, Jainendra visits the youthful world of Manohar and Surbala in 'Play' where there is a friendly tension between these two young people. When Surbala makes an oven of sand, Manohar breaks it because he was feeling bored with playing alone. But when to placate Surbala he makes a similar oven of sand, she too dashes it to the ground laughingly. Then both begin to laugh together.
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