Summery of January night in short point
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January Night by Munshi Premchand
(January night) is a story of a tenant farmer named Halku and his plight against zameendari system (land lordship) prevalent in colonial India. The settings are that of any small village of north India in and around U.P. of that time.
Halku's fields are the centreline of this plot, being both, his only source of income as well as cause of all his problems. Basically he had to choose between a blanket which got along with it the insult by the landlord for not paying the lagaan (tax) or cold and chilly January nights in the field to guard it upholding his honour and pride. He always had an option of chucking the job of farming and being a paid labour, but an Indian with any pride wouldn't do so in those times. He upheld the same honour and pride by chucking the insults and choosing cold chilly nights in 'his fields'.
Most of us have a romantic image of a field ready for a harvest. But here when he lies down over his 'khaat' (cot) with just an old shawl over him, brings out a completely opposite image of what we conceived it to be. Then too he wasn't devasted and was still affectionate towards his dog, Jabra, the dog who like him left behind all the warmth of home and followed him to protect 'its field'. The field establishes the connection between a dog and its master in a wonderful way. As the writer describes Halku sleeping under the shelter of cane leaves he also meant to show the significance those crops held. They were the shelter of his life, though with leakage everywhere.
The act of making a fire to keep a check on cold waves in an open field creates a wonderful picture in our mind. Here it is the only refuge for Halku against the cold waves. Even his own fields had turned against him in the darkness of night and transformed into scary and dangerous bushes. When the nilgai were destroying his field, he knew it, but couldn't gather the will to get up and save it. It seemed that it was because of the physical inability that the cold weather had caused to him but more of it was because of the mental effect that the fields have had over his life. It was like loving someone. We hold on to the relationship as long as possible, even though if we know it's devastating our life. But the moment we decide to quit it we just don't bother about it anymore or how bad the relationship becomes. We just 'let it happen' and take its course. And if we are enthusiastic enough towards life we take it as a new beginning and tackle the future with the learning's from past. That's what Halku did. And as we say in India 'jo hota hai sab ache ke lie hi hota hai'.
hope this helps you
It was a cold night in January when my master left out home to look after the fields. Master wanted me to remain in the house but I denied staying in the house without master and ran to follow my master and went to the fields. It was so cold that we both were shivering from the cold. Then my master seeing me shivering told “Now you’ll have to bear the cold, you thought that I was coming out here to eat puris and sweets and you came running on ahead of me. Now you can moan all you want.” And then I wagged my tail without getting up, protracted my whimpering into a long yawn and was silent. My master reached out his hand and patted my back and said not to come to the fields with him from tomorrow and told this was the reward we get from farming while my master does the work and the landowner gets the joy of it. I looked at my master with eyes overflowing with love. I put my paws on his knees’ and brought his muzzle close. Master picked me up and got me to fall asleep on his lap. I and my master hugged tightly and felt happy. It was very comfortable and I thought that I was in heaven. Suddenly I picked up the noise of some animal. Springing up, I ran out of the shelter and began to bark although my master was whistling and called me several times, but I went on barking. And then I came to the shelter and saw that my master was feeling very chill and went out to fetch some dry leaves and lit them up to get a bit of warmness. I found a bone and started chewing on it. Master lit the leaves and we got some warmth from that.