Rashmi bookmarks “Vanka”

There is a very good reason why some authors and some works have come to be known as ‘classics’. I just finished reading a selection of short stories by Anton Chekhov (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) and have enjoyed it so much!

It would be impossible to talk about all the stories in this collection: so many have left such a lasting impression on my mind… the pitiable sense of power in ‘Small Fry’; the comedic jab at bureaucracy in ‘The Malefactor’; the conflicting shame and love of an actress daughter in ‘Panikhida’; the mute despair in ‘Anyuta’; the terrible crime of an innocent girl in ‘Sleepy’; the commentary of life and living in ‘Ward No. 6’; the love story in ‘Rothschild’s Fiddle’; the sad anonymity in ‘The Man in a Case’; the deep love of the adulterous ‘The Lady with the Dog’, the religious doubts in ‘The Bishop’…

However, when I think back, one story especially refuses to leave my heart. “Vanka” is the story of 9-year old Vanka Zhukov apprenticed to a shoemaker. At the heart of the story is a letter that he writes to his grandfather on Christmas Eve, telling him about the abusive treatment he is constantly subjected to, and making a desperate appeal to take him back home.

Chekhov’s writing style (what I gather from these short stories) is that he depicts a very small episode from a very mundane life - but, through that slice, narrates the life and times of the country and its people. From an incident that perhaps spans no more than a few hours, an entire back-story is told and an entire life is lived. And therein lies the brilliance of his writing. At one level, there is the pure joy of just listening to a good old story - about a dinner, about a snowfall, about a carriage ride, about a letter, about the night before a wedding - stories that are great anyway. But on a much deeper level, the stories hold up such a stark mirror to reality, discovering that rich and varied reality is indeed an incredible experience.

Through the simple story of a boy writing a letter to his grandfather, we get to meet an average boy, in what is perhaps a routine circumstance (or was, anyway, in the late 1800s) whose short life of nine years has seen more loneliness, poverty and physical and mental torture than a lot of people see in their entire lifetime. Driven to a menial position on account of his extreme poverty, this orphan boy begs his grandfather to take him back, and, in his desperation, promises things in return that he quite obviously could never fulfill. What adds a touch of the bitterly pathos to this tale is the constant reference to Eel, the dog, that gets beaten regularly, yet always comes back from the brink of death, only to go through the cycle all over again.

Vanka finishes his letter and addresses it “To Grandpa in the village”.

It just breaks your heart.

When all is said and done, Eel will just continue to “walk around the stove, wagging his tail.”