ભૂખથીય ભૂંડી ભીખ Bhukhthiy Bhundi Bhikh (Begging Is Worse Than Hunger)

દુકાળ છે, અનાજ નથી; કાળુ-રાજુ ભૂખે ટળવળે છે.

This part of the novel is set in a time of famine. The fields have dried up, there is no grain, and the village people are wracked by hunger. Kalu and Raju too pass through this agony. The harshness of the drought hangs over everything.

રાજુ કહે છે શેઠ પાસે ધાન માગ, પણ સ્વમાની કાળુ ભીખ માગતો નથી.

Raju wishes Kalu would go to Sundarji Sheth and ask for grain so they might eat. But Kalu is proud; he will not stretch out his hand to beg before the merchant. To him, living on another's pity is a humiliation.

રાજુ કરગરે, પણ કાળુ ખુમારી છોડતો નથી - સ્વમાન રોટલા કરતાં મોટું.

Tormented by hunger, Raju pleads with Kalu, but he does not surrender his pride. He says hunger can be borne, but one must not sell one's self-respect to beg. Human dignity is greater than a loaf of bread - this is his firm resolve.

ભૂખ કરતાં ભીખ ભૂંડી - ભૂખ શરીરને, ભીખ આત્માને હણે છે.

Here the title 'Begging is worse than hunger' finds its meaning. For Kalu hunger may be painful, but begging is worse still - more shameful. Hunger torments the body, while begging wounds the soul, the dignity.

કપરી સ્થિતિમાં પણ સ્વમાન જાળવવું - એ જ સંદેશ.

Pannalal Patel presents the pride of the human spirit alongside the reality of village life. That even in a hardship like famine a person should keep their self-respect is the message of this excerpt. Poverty may bow the body, but the mind of a self-respecting person stays unbent.