‘Dad, I’m fine.’
After seeing ‘Poorna Bahadur’s sarangi’, the son returned home and said crying. Why what happened father? I asked immediately. The son answered and said, ‘Mother is not greater than father, I understood your struggle through the audio visual through the screen of the film.’
‘Ah! Just got it. How much trouble have your fathers taken to raise, educate and buy good clothes for your sons?’ I asked another question again.
Oh father! He said with tears in his eyes. What did you learn by watching Sarangi movie? I had so many questions to ask him. He was looking for an answer.
After a while, he answered and said – ‘I realized how much a father can sacrifice for his son. In addition to portraying the dedication of fathers in our society for their sons, the writer has sensitively presented the importance of love, sacrifice and mutual relationship in human society through the film ‘Baba’.
‘Aru-aru’ I asked curiously.
Tears fell from his filled eyes, he said. I went on listening. Purna Bahadur struggles to bring his son to his ancestral profession of playing sarangi. But he wants his children not to experience the bitter experience of discrimination in society. That is why he spends his whole life to build a golden future for his son. But what father! Even today there is discrimination in our society? I was shocked by his question.
I was also saddened by my son’s question. If I do not answer his question, I will not be able to pass on the social, ethnic, political and inequality between men and women, rich and poor. Give me the answer, I can’t explain it to his young brain and my son will feel it. My father doesn’t know anything.
Every son of our society thinks that his father is better (hero) than all the fathers in the world, he is the greatest and the richest and the best man. Understanding this child psychology, I asked him again. Did Sir Miss ever teach you about discrimination in class?
The more questions you ask the child, the more interested the child will be and become questioners themselves. And they find the answer in themselves. In order to improve the children’s abilities, parents should answer the child’s questions without giving an immediate answer.
No father! He answered the question I asked above. ‘Then you know that the elder should love the younger and the younger should respect the elder, don’t you?’ Umm know he said.
Yes… If that doesn’t happen, there will be a difference between big people and small people. I am stronger than what. The behavior caused by the mental force that I am bigger than him is also a kind of discrimination. Among these, there is caste discrimination in our society. That’s scary, son.
Was Purna also discriminated against in ‘Poorna Bahadur’s Sarangi’? The son asked.
Yes, that is the difference. Caste discrimination, social discrimination. He asked the question. What is caste and social discrimination?
Society says Gandharva is a caste of beggars and fiddlers. But the son is not a Gandharva caste. Gandharva is the craft and messenger of our country. He who makes sarangi, plays it. The news of the society and the country is conveyed from the city to the remote areas through songs. Our society considers the same Gandharva community as a means of entertainment, and discriminates them as ‘lower caste’.
When the men of the Gandharva community walk around playing sarangi and singing songs, the society considers it fun. But that craft and profession is endangered, the new generation never realizes the need to adopt and save it. Because our social norms are built on the foundation of the comment that the so-called upper castes should not do that work.
Sarangi is also a symbol of existence and identity of our country. Raithane is one of the traditional instruments of Nepal. But today’s Gandharva generation cannot see a future in this profession. If this profession is not only viewed from the point of view of earning money, but also from the point of view of the country’s identity being connected with one’s identity, sarangi used to hang in the living rooms of everyone’s house. The differences of the society were written on the wires. The sounds of discrimination between castes were heard through the auditory system.
Therefore, to remind, show the sacrifice, love and dreams of every father for his son, and to explain the real character of the society, let’s take our children to watch a message film like ‘Poorna Bahadur Ko Sarangi’. A story that inspires you to reevaluate your relationship with your family.
