Bring out the significance of the title Karma by Khushwant Singh
Answers
karma" is "the sum total of the ethical consequences of a person's good and bad actions . . . that is held in Hinduism and Buddhism to determine his specific destiny in his next existence" ("Karma"). On this count, Lal's sin of pride is punished when two British soldiers throw him out of a first-class compartment. His wife's karma, it would seem, enables her to have a safe and comfortable journey in a ladies' compartment. Even Vasant Shahane's more sophisticated reading of this story assumes that karma is the "nemesis" that overtakes a wrongdoer:
The nemesis itself is part of [Lal's] "Karma," the unexpected turn of his fate and, is also the inevitable outcome of his actions and thoughts. The title "Karma" has thus a double meaning: the inevitable nemesis and also the ironical turn of the wheel of fate.