Mahendrasinh Parmar

Mahendrasinh Parmar 

He was born on 2 October 1967 in Naliya, a town in the Kutch district of Gujarat. He completed his Master of Arts in Gujarati literature from Bhavnagar University and received Ph.D. from the same University in 1998. He serves as a professor at Bhavnagar University since 1996. He married in 1996 and has two daughters. He lives in Bhavnagar.

Since 2002, his short stories appeared in various collections of Gujarati short stories. He has done numerous shows of the public reading of literary works under the title Vachikam. His critical works published as Pratham in 2009. Polytechnic (2016) is a short story collection while Rakhdu no Kagal (2016) is a collection of his personal essays. He wrote several plays.

His book Polytechnic (2016) was shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Award (2020)

"ISI no Haath ":-

"ISI no Haath" is a very wonderful short story by Mahendrasinh Parmar. This short story is a satire on "Religion". By reading it the first time I thought it is about "ISI " who might have done some wrong work and he is responsible for that, but when I read it twice then I realize that it is about the partial behavioral pattern of religion and how it creates terrorists. 

In this short story, we knew about the people whose life ruined because of the temple. their name is Ishvar Dabhi, Sharad Joshi, Indrajit Dholakiya.

Ishvar was a scrap collector or scavenger or junk man. He used to collect old newspapers but when the temple was built it was told to people to give old newspapers to them. so, people thought that it would be better to give newspaper to the temple so in the name of faith and religion people don't give old newspaper to Ishvar that was a reason that his business was broken.

Sharad was belonging to a poor family. her mother was the best to cook.  His mother and father feed people and earn money. due to the temple, their business was broken as we know that temple provides food to people for 600 Rs per month. when his father knew the reality he died.

Indrajit was a professor. He talks about religious people. Temple was the Profession for earning money. He talked about the temple. the land was given by Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji for education purposes but later on, the land was taken by religious people to build temples. we can see how religion ruined education.

 Here, we can see the imaginative power of Mahendrasinh parmar .we can say that he indirectly criticized the reality of Aksharvadi Temple of Bhavnagar. In this short story when we read the words of professor Indrajeet, when a policeman was inquiring and telling them that this land was donated to the University for educational purpose by his highness Maharaja Krishnakumarsihnji, the last Maharaja of Gohil Dynasty. Hence, the professor and many others against this temple and also the professor from the Chemistry department, and also Sir P.P Institute is connected with the Aksharvadi temple and also this event actually happened in the past. So it is an imaginative truth very aptly conveyed by writes through this story and also a satire on politics and on religious institute also that they shut the mouth of people who spoke against the temple through the power and we also see in the story that all three characters turned in the favor of the temple.

 In contemporary times also we can see that leaders are taking interest in making their idols instead of making hospitals. there are many people who are not getting one-time food but leaders do not care. In previous years which grounds were for children to play not it has built with a building.

2) Intellectual Indubhai:

'Intellectual Indubhai' is a very interesting short story in Polytechnic by Mahendrasinh Parmar. This short story is about one professor, Indubhai. He was a very intellectual and kind-hearted person. He was teaching a lesson of humanity. He was also taught his thoughts of Gandhiji, Narsinh Mehta, Meera, Eliot, and Rilke. But one day he faced the cruel situation in which majority and minority communal riots happened and people killed and burned each other. After seeing that kind of situation Indubhai remembered the western thinkers. Here, the writer of this story seems very knowledgeable because he reminds me of western literature. The story begins with one sister telling a story to his brother about Indubhai.’Intellectual Indubhai’. The beginning of the story is quite interesting. Both Brother and sister create a satire on English words. It also describes still lots of people having trouble with the English language and education. At the end of the story, Indubhai becomes made. He lost his memory and just indicated everyone by using the name of a great poet, philosopher, and author.