Sanket By Ranjeet Desai

Sanket is yet another collection of short stories by Ranjit Desai. The stories assembled in this book were published earlier under another title. In the later years, however, they were not available for the readers. So a few of the stories based wholly on rural life were assembled again under the title "Sanket` and published by Mehta firstly in 1991 and secondly in 2006. In all, there are 12 stories in this book. Each story highlights a peculiar feature of the ruralites. One might think that these ruralites are very innocent, they are very cunning, very selfish, very helping, very... They are not just one quality or other. They are a mixture of qualities. As and when required the hidden emotions, hidden qualities come to the surface revealing the true nature of the bearer. Sometimes, their innocence is tested and sometimes their cunningness. But still the will to live is the basic nature behind every living thing and that reflects well in the lives of all these farmers and peasants. The author has charactrised animals as well which have a very noble place in all the ruralities minds. He describes this noble relationship between animals and human being very well. आटपाडीच्या हंबीरराव मोहित्यांचा एकुलत्या एका मुलानं ‘यशाचं कडं’ जिंकलं; ‘बदली’च्या गावी जाताना शंकर मास्तरांना रामूच्या पत्रानं दिलासा दिला; दोन दिवस उपाशी असणाया गाईच्या ‘आंबवण’साठी द्रौपदीनं जीवाचं रान केलं; ‘हंगाम’ गाठण्यासाठी जीवाचा आटापीटा करणाऱ्या भरमूचं तान्हं पोर मात्र तापानं फणफणलं होतं; बुढ्या ‘पाशा’ने पैजेसाठी सवाई पाश्याशी कडवी झुंज दिली; रानडुक्कराची ‘शिकार’ करताना रामूच्या आवडत्या खुज्या कुत्रीनं आपल्या जीवाचीही पर्वा केली नाही; धनगरांच्या पाल्यावर ‘राखण’ करताना सिद्दाच्या रावज्यानं लांडग्याशी कडवी झुंज दिली; महेंद्राच्या पाठीमागून माद्या पैलतीराकडे निघाल्या, तेव्हा ‘हस्ता’च्या पावसाच्या उभ्या सरी कोसळत होत्या; ह्या अनर्थाला तोच मानव कारणीभूत आहे, हे ओळखून वाघाने त्याचा ‘सूड’ घेतला; ....ह्या घडणाया प्रत्येक घटना जणू एक अघटित ‘संकेत’च घेऊन जन्माला आल्या होत्या!