Goli by Acharya Chatursen

You must be thinking where do I find these books? Its quite possible that you are completely unaware of the fact that there have been a good Hindi writer in India, Acharya Chatursen, reading his work is out of question. Including this one, I have read three books from this writer, Vayam Rakshamah (the best among three) and Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu. And I am sort of fan of this writer. Sometimes I wonder why Mr. Chatursen is so forbidden? After reading his works, I find him good enough to be considered in good Hindi authors. Mohit sir/Priya didi once suggested me Vayam Rakshamah and I was wary of the title/author/book. After reading that book I realized that I have no idea of Hindi literature, how can I miss such good writer. Later I came to realize that it wasn't me who didn't know about him, it was he who is not so popular. A few months back, Google search for Chatursen used to return absurd/irrelevant results. Today when I searched again, I got this Wikipedia article and got a reason why Chatursen must have been forbidden.

Goli (a term for females, for male, its Gola, plural is Gole) is (or was, no idea!) a caste/subcaste in Rajasthan. Golis are bound to become concubines of kings, they live in king's Rangmahal the same way as queens live. They get everything except for the proper respect. Everybody in kingdom knows what and who Golis are. In nutshell, they get every possible luxury in life but at the cost of dignity. Kings don't marry them, produce children with them and in order to give those children father's name, kings marry these females to some similar caste person or Gola. Gola takes care of his wife (so called, he cannot even touch her!) and children. Kings play with these females, enjoy, humiliate and throw away, if Goli has got some brain then King makes sure that she is killed silently.

Goli is based on a true story of such a female, Champa (virtual name. Chatursen hasn't revealed identity of any character or place). Time period of story is around 1900-1950 (India was ruled by English people then). In a 242-pages novel, Chatursen has elaborated the story quite nicely. Entire life of Champa from birth to elderly-age is narrated in her own words. Unlike Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu, characters are not in huge numbers and are prominent. Hindi too is not as hard as Vayam Rakshamah or Vaishali Ki Nagarvadhu. Since the background is recent enough, Acharya ji have used Urdu and English words very often (you can starve for one such word in most of his books).

Story seemed genuine and in a sense it touched me. Overall I liked the book, 7/10. Now I look forward for more Chatursen literature, I'm lovin' it! ;~)

Book Details:
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Goli by Acharya Chatursen,
Publisher: Hind Pocket Books,
Pages: 242 (paperback)
Price: Rs.90