The Rat - Ashoka Mitran

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The Rat is a short story, originally written in Tamil, by Ashokamitran, a prominent figure in the post-independence Tamil literature scene. The story, as summarized below, deals with a middle-aged and ordinary man’s attempt to capture a rat that frequently visits his house at night. Before I continue however, it is important to understand the mindset possessed by the writer while crafting this story.

As quoted from an exclusive interview of Ashokamitran with the newspaper The Hindu:

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Ashokamitran is suspicious of anything that has even a hint of the grandiose. Try spinning parallels between philosophical notions and the ordinary characters portrayed in his stories, and pat comes the reply: “Anda madaripretentions kadiyade (there aren't such pretentious here). I have written a story and it should be read and enjoyed as a story.”

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As can be gleaned from the above extract, as well as the story itself, Ashokamitran does not seek to write in the form of complex parables, as is the case with many other writers. Instead, he writes about the world he knows. His stories are set in cities, either Hyderabad or, in this case, Chennai. His characters are mostly middle-class people, dealing with the small and inevitable problems of everyday urban life. He often pays attention to, what is on the surface, an uneventful moment, and then slowly zooms in, giving the reader an up-close look at the inner workings of the human mind. This type of writing style is prominent in “The Rat”.

The story begins with the main character, the narrator operating under the name of the man Ganesan, returning home after work one day. Finding that there is no vadai or udappam left in the house for him to bait the rat with, he finds himself irritated and goes to bed. Around ten-o’clock however, he hears a rustling in the kitchen, the sound of the rat knocking over the jars of oil. He rushes to the kitchen with his wife just as the rat scurries away. He then gets involved in a heated argument with his wife, as to why the latter doesn’t save any dosais or vadais for the rat. The argument ends with Ganesan hurling an onion at his wife, and storming out the front door in search of vadais. Unable to find any vendors selling vadais, he continues searching, walking further and further. Seeing a crowd of 40 odd people in the distance, he makes his way towards them. He observes a man speaking emphatically on political issues to the crowd. Nearby however, he sees awala frying bajis on a cart nearby. After waiting for a while, the vendor fries a batch of vadais and Ganesan takes two, eating one himself and saving the other as bait. He returns home, sets the trap and sleeps. In the morning he finds that the rat has been caught. Rather than killing it, Ganesan walks a fair distance and lets it loose. As the rat scurries away to freedom, a crow swoops down from the sky, snapping up the rat and carrying it away. A sense of dark irony is also created in the final lines by the fact that, even the next morning, the rat had not eaten the vadai placed in the trap.

The story is quite a simple one, dealing primarily with the seemingly ordinary tale of a middle-class urban-dweller in which the writer details his night-out in search of bait for the rat trap. The rat has the last laugh, it gets caught in the trap, and there is devastating irony in it leaving the bait untouched. However, there does appear to be a glimmer of symbolism present throughout the tale. The end of the story, in which Ganesan frees the rat, only to see it killed, examines the complex relationship between man and animal. As is the case with many of Ashokamitran’s other stories, the concept of how humans are in a constant relationship with their surroundings, is reinforced gradually and continually by the narrative as the story progresses. The fight between a man and a rat that he is set to capture, is both physical and psychological in Ashokamitran's story ‘The Rat’. While the former wins the physical battle, the rat gets his moral victory over his captor.

There also appears to be an unmistakable attempt by the author to draw parallels between humans and rats throughout the short story. Just as rats congregate and are entrapped by the irresistible allure of food, so are humans, as shown by the writer. In an attempt to buy bait with which to catch the rat, Ganesan ventures to a nearby opening, where a large number of people have gathered, listening to a man giving a speech, and swarms of them trying to buy food from the nearby vendor. The imagery and descriptive details used by the writer, serve to indicate the lack of difference between the two species, an example of which, is shown below.

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With a long perforated ladle, sizzling hot snacks were being taken out of bubbling peanut oil and placed on a tray from which they were being sold off in bare seconds. Ganesan went and stood near the pushcart. Like submarines immersed in the ocean, 20 chillies doused in batter were frying in the oil. A man nearby kept saying, "Make vadais, ayya! Vadais" But the next time round it was chilli bajjis again. Ganesan, too, said "Make vadais, ayya! There seemed to be a great demand for chilli bajjis. One fellow got out of a car, ordered "Pack up eight bajjis," and went to urinate into the darkness…

An uneasy feeling came over Ganesan. There was a sizeable crowd around the cart. Everybody was waiting for their orders…..................................................................................................................................................

Another interesting theme present throughout the text, is the plight of the lower middle class man. A sense of oddity with a hint of envy is evoked by the sentence:


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Every night in those two rooms, in that little space where the ten of them could not sleep or eat at the same time, four or five rats cavorted and frisked about with the utmost freedom.
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It seems almost as if Ganesan is envious of the rats. While he is crammed into a far too small room with far too many people, the rats wander freely. Another comparison that could be gleaned from the passage would be the comparison of the middle class man to the rat of the story.

The main character’s name is also particularly important. In Hindu mythology, the god Ganesha is accompanied by his mouse. The story behind this is as follows: (As taken from an online source)

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Once there was a demon called Gajamugasuran. He was a great devotee of Shiva and pleased with his presence, Shiva granted him some boons. Gajamugasuran became very proud and powerful and he started troubling the gods. Tired of his antics, the gods asked Shiva to save them from Gajamugasuran. Shiva sent Ganesha to help the gods. Ganesha went with several weapons such as bow and arrow, sword, and even an axe to destroy Gajamugasuran. But the demon had been given boon that none of these weapons could cause him harm, so Ganesha's attempts to destroy the demon proved to be ineffective. Finally, Gajamugasuran took the form of a small mouse and rushed towards Ganesha. Ganesha was very clever and immediately sat on the little mouse. Gajamugasuran was defeated and was forced to apologize for his deeds. Since then, Ganesha is always accompanied by a mouse as his vehicle.
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There are undoubtedly similarities between the two stories. The antics of the rat in the story could be likened to the troubling nature of Gajamugasuran. As a result of Gajamugasuran’s antics, the Gods sent Ganesha to vanquish him. In the story, this could be likened to Ganesha setting out to the market, late at night, for the sole purpose of setting an effective trap for the rat. The weapons of Ganesha, with which he originally intended to vanquish the beast (the bow, arrow, and sword) but proved useless, have been replaced in the story by Rasam, Uppuma, and a raw onion: Each failing to capture the rat plaguing Ganesan’s home. The final victory obtained by Ganesha over Gajamugasuran, has been incorporated into the story by Ganesan finally managing to capture the rat.

Themes:
Poverty
Frustration about poverty
Hunger (seen through all the detailing about vadais)
embarrassment

* guilt about buying perfectly good human food for a rat
* what goes around comes around - Ganesan knows the rat will return - "not the gutter this time... off to the maidan... at least a week..." (page 113)
* you miss the inconveniences too, when they're gone
* author playing with brevity and conciseness of form while portraying complexity of character
* poverty and one's inability to do much about it