Khoj

Many generations of villagers grew up watching the flute-playing of snake charmers and the dance of snakes. On Nagpanchami, if a snake charmer does not visit the city or village, it is rare to see the serpent deity. Many Hindi films have used the tune of the flute to entertain people with a modern form of flute playing and snake dance. We have seen many men and women dancing like snakes on every happy occasion when the sound of a flute is played. Today, the game of snakes and monkeys has been banned under the government’s Wildlife Protection Act, according to a law. Therefore, the unused flute-bin instrument has also become useless and broken. These snake charmers are still in the same class in the twenty-first century, a nomadic, wandering, itinerant caste. The difference is that they now have neither a snake nor a flute to play to entertain the snake. He could not study, he wandered all his life, generation after generation, his caste is truly itinerant! Devraj’s young second wife, Urvashi, who challenges the evils of the world, gets caught in the clutches of the law and goes to jail. Her livelihood is snatched away by one section of the law. And with another section of the law, her life’s rhythm is broken. The tune is lost. This novella ‘Khoj’ is the story of a poor person’s struggle, his search to get back that lost tune in life.