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PRATIBANDI
The novel begins with when Priyanka,
the female protagonist ,a just passed out medico joins
her duty at a small medical aid centre in Saragpali, a
remote village of undeveloped western Orissa.The novel
develops thematically in two fold ways. One on the basis
of T.S.Elliot’s poem “An Indian Dies In Africa” and
other on the issue of sexuality.
Priyanka, as a fresher in her job, has to face the upstream situations at Saragpali.
The senior doctor, her next to chair colleague , becomes the main rival .In rural
Orissa, the Government Institutions
like school and hospitals are always |
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considered
as the play field for the shrewd and petty politicians.
The rivalary
between the Member of Parliament and the Member of Legislative
got themselves entangled in the hospital matters and they played
petty politics. As her colleague was a supporter of the existing
MLA, the ex Mp has shown his sympathy towards Priyanka.
There is a feeling of discrimination between the people of Western Orissa that
they have been exploited by the people of Coastal Orissa.There are many socio
economico politico and geographical reason behind it. But the politicians of
western Orissa have always made this feeling a weapon to exploit the mass mentality.
Hence, the presence of a young unmarried lady as a medico in the area, enhanced
the hurdles for Priyanka as she is from coastal Orissa.
The other part of the novel is the thematic development of sexuality in Priyanka.
Saragpali is an exile for her. She has to encounter the lonliness. This lonliness
develops in to a sexual urge and sooner Priyanka finds her self sexually attached
with the ex MP. Though there is an age gap between them, the intelligence in
him impressed her and she discovers a hidden archeologist in him.
The sensibility of a female is different from that of a male. For the MP, the
sexuality is a matter of joy, but for Priyanka, it is the solution of the life
matters. Thus, once Priyanka discovers her love is not more but mere a time pass
for the ex MP .Being known to the real truth Priyanka loses all of her hope to
remain in the exile. She knows, it is hard to survive here with all the hurdles,
but at the last, she decides not to leave the place as she remembers her father
was once taught her a poem of TS Eliot:
A man’s destination is not his destiny
Every country is home to one and exile to another,
Where a man dies bravely,
At one with his destiny
That else is his
Let his village remember.
Priyanka remembers the poem and decides to face the hurdles because she knows
human is the source of energy and she cant become an escapist from her life.
She has to fight the situations to prove her existence.
The remarkable features in the novel are the sincerity of the writer to observe
and paint the sensibility and feelings of Priyanka. It is Sarojini’s mastery
that she writes the novel in a poetic form.
In Oriya Literature, Pratibandi has its own credibility for the frankness of
the writer to deals with the sensitive matters either it may be in politics or
in sexuality.It has gained a reputation and has its own place in the history
of Oriya novel. |
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