Four levels of The Telegram on the table (Parashu Pradhan):
1. Literal Comprehension
He reads the telegram lying on the table one more time. Although he knows that he is tired, he suddenly feels happy reading it. All-day he has been telling the tourists the history of Nepal and smiling when this tragedy should have made him weep. But everything felt normal to him, he does things that he did every day.
A few days ago he met his friend from his village who sends some sympathy his way but it meant nothing to him. The telegram has been in the same place for a week. He feels that telegram was something he needed to receive to achieve his dreams. All his life he has been trying to speak in English. It’s like English is everything to him. Whenever he explains some historical thing it’s because of his English. He often dreams about New York skyscrapers or lying beside the beach listening to the folk songs. He feels that the foreign lands are calling for him to come to them.
Then, there is telegram which takes him back to the old days and forces him to remember the things that he would rather forget; remember about her. He should have wept and even fasted for some days but he doesn’t do any of that.
He wants to forget about this so starts to think how expensive his rent is for a bad house, if he could rent a nice house, he would call Miss Pande from travel service home for dinner.
Again his thoughts take him back to his home town which he has not visited for a long time. He misses the feel of his home and would love to swap places with any of the guys of his village. As the thoughts of home, the thoughts of that woman comes to his mind too.
Even though he does not want to think about her, he clearly remembers the words written on the telegram, “Your wife died yesterday.” These same words keep repeating in his head.
He tries to sleep but the sleep does not come. It has been days when he received the telegram but today his mind is making an unwanted connection, filling it up with the memories of past and present. He questions himself of not being human, for not even weeping on this tragedy. This thought makes him really angry so he burst into tears. He cries and cries for a long time.
2. Interpretation
The story ‘The Telegram on the Table’ might be trying to portray the difference between dreams and reality. Youths are always ready to sacrifice everything for their dreams, even their friends and family. They feel they can do much better than. But the reality is different on their way towards the dreams, they miss the things that they have left behind the most. Like every other youngster of Nepal, the narrator also seems to have an American dream; to get American lifestyle and to speak English like the natives but still on some part of their heart they have Nepal, still loved more than their dreams. On the other hand, at the end the narrator might be crying not because of his wife’s death but maybe because still after that one big thing which he thought is a hindrance towards his dream being gone, he still has not been able to get anywhere near the dream.
3. Critical Thinking
This story highlights the dreams that youngsters hold to themselves and how important that is. But abandoning your whole family and a woman you are married to doesn’t quite fit in. The idea of not even feeling bad about the death of his wife does make him seen inhuman-ish. I mean how can someone ever feel happy when his wife is dying? If the narrator wants to go to a foreign land he could easily go there and fulfill his American Dream with his wife, there was no need to abandon her.
4. Assimilation
The dream that the main character in the story seems familiar with the present dream of the youth of our country. Right after completing the +2 exams, people are a dream of going to Australia and America. They have this picture that their life in foreign life will be beautiful and happy but the reality that has surfaced recently seems completely different. The people/ students mainly who have gone to foreign life with the aim of happy life seemed to be getting the complete opposite.
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