THE WEED: AN INDIAN SUPERSTITION

The weed is beautiful short story by Amrita Pritam (1919-2005), a most prominent woman Punjabi poet, novelist and short story writer of great eminence in India. She was born on 31 August 1919 in Gujranwala, Punjab (now in Pakistan) as the only child of Karta Singh Ha Hitkari , a school teacher.  Amrita became a motherless child at the age of 11.  And then the family moved to Lahore.  She began to write at an early age.  Her first collection of poems was published when she was only 16 years old.  And at the same time she married to Pritam Singh, an editor whom she was engaged in an early age.

In a career lasts over six decades, she had over 100 books to her own credit- novels, short stories, essays, Punjabi folk songs and an auto biography, RASHIDEE TICKET (1976).  Moreover than that, most of her books were translated into 30 Indian and Foreign languages.  She honoured many awards and honors like, Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanapith, Padmashri etc...

This story, The weed begins with the marriage of Angoori, protagonist of the story.  Angoori is married as a second wife to Prabhati, a widower who came to his village for the funeral of his first wife.  Prabhati was deeply sorrowed and at this time, Angoori's father approached and offered Angoori to Prabhati as a new wife.  Angoori was a sweet young lady with a dark complexion .  She had a perfect healthy body that any woman would love to possess.  But Prabhati was just opposite to her, an old, short, loose jawed .  There was no parity between them.  Prabhati is a servant of the neighbour's neighbour.  Even though Angoori got married to Prabhati they had to wait for five years to consummate their union.  Mainly there were two reasons for this five years of waiting; Angoori's tender age and her mother's paralutic attack.  Finally after this five years, Prabhati was invited to take away his new bride.  Even though Prabhati's employer protested in arranging of food for Angoori, Prabhati assured that Angoori would manage her own  house.

Angoori's new life in city started.  And this made her a new woman.  Initially she kept her body from both men and woman under a purdah and she used to stay indoors always.  Gradually she began to use jwellery and also began to show them off as almost all young ladies.  Amrita Pritam used to talk her and she could understand Angoori's love for jwellers, her anklet with hundreds of bells etc.  Now Angoori began to see outside world.  Gradually Amrita could understand many thing about village through their conversation.  Especially superstitions about education, love etc.  In village, it is believed that education is a sin to girls, not to men or city women.  There is a queer belief about love in the village is that  a wild weed is the matter of love between two person.  Amrita came to know that marriages are done according to the elders wish not of the girl.  Angoori also adds that her mother warned her not to take pan or betel leaf from anyone, because Weed is the matter of love. 

At the end of the story Angoori asks Amrita to teach her how to read and write like all other city woman.  At this time Amrita ridiculously asks her what she want to write and also  won't she be sinning if she learns writing.  One day when Amrita approached her under the neem tree, after her usuall after noon nap.  She was melancholy sitting and singing  a love song.  Author praised her song sung by a love sick person!.  Now Angoori realized that Ram Tara, a young, energetic, night watch man betrayed her by that wild weed. And now she is fallen in love with him.  Angoori, Prabhati, and Ram Tara takes their cup of tea together.  Angoori cried that "I never took sweets from him; not a single betel even.... but tea..." She couldn't finish.  Her words dissolved to her rolling stream of tears.

Any way this  story portrays the superstitious custom and patriarchal set up in Indian society.  Angoori is a  rustic girl who imbibed all the traditional superstition while growing up.  This story tells that education is a sin to village girls not to men or city women.  This illustrates the Indian face of patriarchy.  And it also depicts that in olden days women had to stay indoors and they hadn't any right to go outside world.  Even they had not any right to wear ornaments and all that.  They had to cover their body under a purdah not only from men, but from woman also.  This story also portrays the wide gap between rustic and city life.  When Angoori starts her life in city she moved all her barriers and beliefs which were in her rustic life.  Even she began to avoid her veil and she began to live in the out side world, which was restricted to all village women.  City women or girl was free from all this kind of restrictions.

This story also portrays the rustic belief about love.  They used to believe that girls fall in love only because of a wild weed."....he gives it to her in a pan. After that nothing satisfies her; but to be with him, her man.."
Angoori says this to Amrita and about her friend who falls in love with  a boy because  of this wild weed.  She assured that love come only through this weed not  from anything else.  When she fall in love with Ram Tara,  she accept this as real.  Village people believes that without a wild weed love is impossible.  And they believe love as something unreal or unnatural.  This story also portrays the marriage set up in the village.  In village father decides the husband for his daughter, not by herself.  In Indian society any girl is ignorant about her future husband and they never sees them before marriage.  How they look? The age? etc all these question are unanswered and it is not a matter at all!. In this story we can see that patriarchal marriage system in Indian villages,
        "A girl when she is five or six, adores some ones feet. He is the husband!
        "Her father takes money and flowers and puts them at his feet".
        "He does it for the girl. So its the girl herself!.
        "Not a single girl ever sees her future husband!