BEFORE WE PROCEED Has your best friend ever

BEFORE WE PROCEED Has your best friend ever done something you thought was wrong ? What did you do then? What was your reaction? Did you keep quiet or did you tell your friend what you thought ? In this story, there are two friends who had to decide what was more important – friendship and enmity or the sense of what is right and what is wrong?

ABOUT AUTHOR BY PREMCHAND Premchand passed his matriculation exam with great effort in 1898, and in 1899 he took up school-teaching job, with a monthly salary of eighteen rupees. In 1919 he passed his B. A. with English, Persian and History. Premchand whose original name was Dhanpat Rai Srivastava, was born on 31 July 1880, in village Lamahi near Varanasi, where his father was a clerk in the post office. Premchand has written about 300 short stories, several novels as well as many essays and letters. He has also written some plays. He also did some translations. Many of Premchand's stories have been translated into English and Russian. Godaan (The Gift of a Cow), his last novel, is considered the finest Hindi novel of all times. [2] The hero, Hori, a poor peasant, desperately longs for a cow, a symbol of wealth and prestige in rural India. Hori gets a cow but pays with his life for it. After his death, the village priests demand a cow from his widow to bring his soul to peace. In Kafan (Grave), a poor man collects money for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food and drink. He passed away in 1936.

LET US ENJOY THIS STORY: FAIR PLAY Jumman Shaikh and Algu Chaudhary were two good friends with great bond of friendship. Jumman had an old aunt. She transferred her property to her nephew Jumman on a condition that he would take care of her as long as she lived. For few years it went well but soon Jumman and his wife grudged even the food and insulted her. She swallowed these insults but when her patience crossed her limits. She talked to him and said “my son, it is now obvious that I am not wanted in your house. Kindly give me a monthly allowance so that I can set up a separate kitchen”. Jumman turned red and insulted her. As a result the aunt decided to take the case to the Panchayat and nominated Algu Chaudhary her head Panch and said “The voice of Panch is the voice of God”.

The Panchayat held under an old banyan tree. Algu said to the aunt “Chachi, you are aware of my friendship with Jumman”. She replied “God lives in the heart of the Panch and you listen to call of your conscience”. He forgot his friendship and gave a fair verdict in the aunt’s favour. Jumman took it in the wrong way and became his enemy and wanted his revenge. After sometime Algu had a problem of the payment of his bullock from Samjhu Sahu refused to pay it because the sold bullock died before the expiry of the period of the payment. So , Algu Took the case to the Panchayat and there Samjhu nominated Jumman as his head Panch, now his enemy. His heart sank his all hopes collapsed.

As Jumman became the head Panch. He realised the responsibility and dignity of the office. He gave the verdict in Algu’s favour forgetting his revenge and enmity. This verdict was to Algu’s surprise and amazement. He stood up and said “ This is the victory of the Panchayat. This is justice”. Both friends embraced each other and their tears washed away their all dirt of their hearts and misunderstanding was removed. The moral of the story – one should not deviate from the path of justice and truth for friendship or enmity

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