What makes bajooka different from other stories you’ve read in the past?

1) The use of symbolism and the short length of the story

2) The writer not openly stating his views
3) Unreal and absurd, the bajooka coming to life,

Surendra Prakash, is a modern story writer, his story Bajooka, is a narrative of horri, a character who he
borrows from Prem Chand’s Godan. There can be found many stark differences between the kind of
story told by Prem Chand and that of Prakash, similarly there are numerous differences that can be
found between Prakash and other writers, especially those that preceded him.

Primarily the length of the story is considerably much shorter than that of Prem Chand and other
writers, this also extends to the writing style and character development. Rather than showing or
painting out the entire complexity and/or duality of the characters, with long dialogues and
monologues. subtle gestures, brief thoughts, form the slight glimpses we get into the inner working of
the character’s personality. In this respect we pay more attention to the action rather than just the
dialogues, what the characters do, and how they do it, is just as important as what they are saying.

The story has a start, middle and end, but the clever use of symbolism helps in keeping the writer’s true
intentions ambiguous, though we have a good idea of what the moral of the story is, we can’t say very
confidently that this was the only message that the writer wanted to portray, even ages after this piece
was written we may find new interpretations and meanings in the dialogues between the bajooka and
Horri.

The absurdist element, a scarecrow has come to life, and he is cutting the harvest, he appears in front of
a local tribunal and he is respected by the villagers. What makes this absurd, or unique is not that there
is a talking, walking scarecrow, but more importantly the setting of this creature. Horri’s village is not
part of some magical land (tilsim reference), or near some world which is familiar with inanimate
objects, it is a completely ordinary small village, into which this creature has popped into. This is what
makes the entire plot very absurd, yet still doesn’t take away from the seriousness of the story.