The Free Radio
Broad Question
U.G – 2
Give the central idea of the short story “The Free Radio” by Salman Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie’s short story “The Free Radio” is an
amazing creation that bears a scenario of sterilization process done by the
government and a young boy named Ramani who undergoes this process only for
the desire of getting a transistor- radio. Ramani is the protagonist of this story and
the entire story revolves round him.
Ramani is a young boy who has lost both his parents and
has got a rickshaw from his ancestors and earns his livelihood from this . Gradually
he gets in a relationship with a lady who is popular with the name “The thief’s
widow”. Though this lady is elder than him and has five children but Ramani still
loves her and gets married with her.
The narrator says that Ramani gets controlled by his wife.
As she is the mother of five children so she does not want to conceive any more.
So, Ramani needs to undergo vasectomy and he is doing so. And probably this was
the deal of their marriage.
Ramani has another desire of getting a radio from the
central government of New Delhi to destroy his ability to give birth to a child. He
has a dream to have the new radio. And also he has to keep the words of his wife.
So he underwent the process of vasectomy.
“The Free Radio” is a poignant exploration of the human
desire for liberation and the power of imagination. It underscores the resilience of
the human spirit in the face of adversity and challenges the oppressive forces that
seek to stifle individual dreams. Through the character of Ramani, Rushdie implores
readers to recognize the transformative potential of storytelling and to resist the
constraints imposed by society, embracing the power of imagination to transcend
the limitations of reality.
Thus, we can say that this story is a creation of showing
particular gender roles in an Indian culture. Ramani here loses his masculinity and
thus he gets himself out of this prominent gender role of being a father. On one
hand, he is keeping his wife’s words and on the other hand, he is loosing his organ
from his body permanently.
