SSI - India - Prema Sastri
A Fine Gift From Lakshmi
“All that day Govind occupied himself with the pleasant thought of how he would spend the prize money on himself.”
Born on December 14, 1932,Prema Sastri is a notable Indian author recognized for her contributions as a journalist, short story writer, novelist, and playwright.
Prema Sastri’s short stories and articles are published in India and other countries under her own name and several pen-names. She is a graduate of University of Madras and Chatham College, Pittsburgh. For several years she was the drama critic of the Indian Express Bangalore.1
This was one really short story, to be frank to me a minute to get through it and i am not joking its that short, but before moving forward, i want to clarify something from the story.
Lakshmi2 is a principal goddess in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, beauty, and prosperity. She is often associated with abundance and is considered the divine energy or shakti of Lord Vishnu, one of the principal deities in Hinduism. Together, they are worshipped as Lakshmi-Narayana, symbolizing the union of wealth and preservation.
Lakshmi Puja3 is a significant Hindu festival dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi, celebrated primarily during the Diwali festival. It is observed on the third day of Diwali, which falls on the eve of Amavasya (the new moon night) in the month of Kartika.
Now we got this out of the way the story if about Govind and his wife. Govind is a dreamer like all of us, his form of escapism is buying lottery tickets and hoping that he will make enough money to accomplish his heart desires and fulfill the dreams of his wife Kanaka, he spend most his time buying tickets and dozing of to la-la-land while, his wife a really spiritual person who keeps him grounded to reality by reminding him that those dreams are of no hope.
He has a simple routine a back and forth from his wife every morning before he goes to work, gets to work run around come back and buys a lottery, dream of another reality. The story is short and simple and can be read by any of the age groups but i think the message its delivers can shift accordingly.
There is a part where we follow Govind having an internal monologue after leaving his house, we follow him through his dream of winning a lottery and doing all the thing he ever wanted then we see him question,
“Why should he give Kanaka anything? Did she appreciate all he was doing? Had she any idea of the sacrifice and discipline involved? He had given up eating bondas with his afternoon tea in, the office. True they were usually made out of stale flour, but at it was a sacrifice all the same. Also he did not catch the bus at the stop near his office, but walked to the next stop where there was a shop selling lottery tickets.”
This is really quite interesting because it touches on a topic innate to everyone desire for recognition. On psychological standpoint one can point to Abraham Maslow’s4 Hierarchy of Needs5 highlights that esteem needs, which include recognition and appreciation, are essential for psychological health and self-actualization. Goes without saying that Hegel6 also points out the importance of mutual recognition in forming individual identity within a community7. This desire reflects a fundamental aspect of human social nature, where individuals seek acknowledgment from others as a means of affirming their existence and contributions.
While he did nothing heroic or scarified something of much higher magnitude(which is quite subjective in a sense) he still desire’s to be recognized for his actions and patted on the back for it, and i think the last bit of taking the bus on the next stop which is a sacrifice of sorts by avoiding some sort of comfort, and also acts as a means to accelerate his dreams of the alternate reality of having enough money by just buying the ticket.
So through out the story his wife Kanaka gives him a bit of money so he can buy her things for the Lakshmi Puja she will perform the next day, Govind being govind he talked himself into buying a ticket and the ticket being blessed by Lakshmi and getting even more money, he goes home with the ticket and tells his wife about it. Early the next morning his wife gives him the newspaper so as to check if he won the price money, surprisingly he did, not the initial amount he thought of but enough to take him on a vacation for a week, but he did not want to share it with his wife, which led to him lying to her face and telling her he lost. She told him that this is a wake up call to end his disillusionment and stop buying lottery tickets.
He ends up hiding the ticket in a jacket, goes to work and comes back, to which he finds out his wife sent the jacket to the washer, he goes there couldn’t find it and keeps on looking. While his wife comes back with diamond jewelry, which he asks her how she got them and she tells him she found a ticket at the washer on his coat and that is a gift from Lakshmi. (rushed a bit on the ending here but do urge you to go check the story out for yourself)
