Monday, May 31, 2021

After the Sunset short story by Bhoopal summary and annotations



Satavahana University Karimnagar.

 Degree I Year English Sem-2

Unit 4- Academic yr.2020-21 onwards

 The short story ‘After the Sunset’(Poddumookinaka') is translated from Telugu into English by K.Damodar Rao. The story is originally written in Telugu by  Bhoopal. He is a stage artist and acted in movies like Komaram Bheem and Daasi. He has written short stories and children’s books in Telugu. Bhoopal received Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for children’s literature- Uggu Paalu(2001)

The story highlights the issues of inequality and terrorism in the society. The writer weaves the story skillfully around a real incident occurred in Hyderabad. It illustrates that ordinary people are the victims and the worst sufferers. The writer brings out the theme of conflict between the rich and the poor and the treatment meted out to Pushpalatha, Pushpalatha is the protagonist of the story, represents the poor in the society. She is asked to wait at Andhra Bank in koti by her husband. Their plan is to buy a saree and a blouse piece for her cousin to gift at  pre-wedding ceremony. Her husband works in a poultry farm located in Taramati peta and he promises her to meet at Koti, Hyderabad. As instructed by her husband, she goes to Uppal and take one thousand rupees from his uncle. Than she takes a bus from Uppal to Koti and gets down at the lane opposite to Medical College. From there she reaches Koti Andhra Bank on foot.

While waiting for husband, Pushpalata recollects past events happened at  her in-laws village Shamshabad. 

They sold their 5 acres of land to a police man from Guntur for 10 lakh rupees, which were spent for his sister’s wedding and ailing father medical expenses. Pushpalatha and her husband along with other sellers worked as labourers in their own farmland. 

Her thoughts are disrupted suddenly as she hears a huge blast and people are running helter skelter .  Knowing it is a bomb blast, She  runs to Gokul Chat and witnesses the deadly wounded and  scattered dead bodies on the road. Pushpalata is worried a lot, since she is clueless on her husband whereabouts. Searching for husband she reaches home at 10 pm and collapses on the floor, weeping loudly as she couldn’t find him even at home. 

Annotations

  1. “Then, you do one thing. Please go into your mother’s womb and take birth again in the family of a rich woman.’

Reference:- This line is taken from the short story “After the Sunset” written by Bhoopal and translated into English by Damodar Rao. Bhoopal  is a stage artist and acted in movies like Komaram Bheem and Daasi. He has written short stories and children’s books in Telugu and received Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for children’s literature- Uggu Paalu(2001)

Context:- these words were spoken by Guntur saar 's manager to Pushpalatha, the protagonist of the story. The five acre land was sold to Guntur saar for Ten lakh rupees for family expenses.  Within a year land rates soared sky-high. 

Meaning:- Pushpalata along with her husband and other sellers worked in their own farm lands which were sold to Guntur land lord. She was abused by the land lord for asking him to give  some more   money to  the sellers  as the rates soared high.

For video lesson click the below link

https://youtu.be/048YjXwgHWE.

👆 In English

Video lessons in Telugu 👇

https://youtu.be/Qx50e-wGtO0


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