By Ashish Arora on October 16, 2011
Premchand Village Lamhi Varanasi
Lamhi, the village which became the witness of the birth of legendary Hindi author Munsi Prem Chand. The village looks just like an ordinary Indian village but became extraordinary due to the name of Premchand who was born here on 31st July, 1880. He died in 1936 and his wife lived here till her death in 1976.
Premchand’s house in Lamhi is a three-storied small but well-constructed building. It is available as a museum for people, who are curious about the life of the noted writer. In the front-side of the airy house, there are two doors and several windows. These are the windows against which Premchand used to sit and see the outside world when he was terribly ill in his last days.
Premchand’s Village Lamhi in Varanasi
The house is now maintained by the government authorities. A gallery of Premchand’s creations is just a stone throw from the house. You can see everal portraits on Premchand’s life, painted on the walls of the gallery. Nonetheless, these paintings depict biography of the great author, and represent his stories in pictorial form as well.
Unfortunately, ‘Soz-e-Watan’, Premchand’s first novel, was burnt by the Britishers. “Many freedom fighters afford their lives for the freedom of the country, and Premchand’s first novel made sacrifice for the noble cause”, says the caretaker of Premchand’s legacy at Lamhi.
Moreover, Premchand died before completing his last novel ‘Mangalsutra’. “His fate did not give him a chance to complete the last creation”, the caretaker says. However, his world-famous novel ‘Gaban’ is now the part of a research aiming to find out the reasons of its huge popularity.
The legend’s place
Further, ‘Lamhi’ and ‘Pousa Ki Raat’, the two novels of the author, are based on the same village. “This is all the work of Premchand, which gave him popularity, and me livelihood”, adds the caretaker, and becomes emotional. His eyes reveal his attachment with his favorite author.
In the legend’s memory, the government has sanctioned a huge amount of money to construct a pond near his house. Almost half of the work has completed, and the rest is awaiting some more money from the government.
