Journey in Legend of Khasak

A journey from Astro physics to spirituality

The novel revolves around Ravi, a great visionary in astrophysics, one who had tried to
correlate Upanishads and astro physics and was about to leave to the United States for his
higher studies. But being haunted by guilt for his past sexual relationship with his stepmother
and having cheated his paralysed father and his ruining off ashrams purity by committing a
sin with a yogini prompts him to embark on a journey that ends him up in a remote village
Khasak and runs a single-teacher school there.
Ravi lives at two levels, an ordinary, unconscious level of longing and lust and a mystical
meditative level of detachment and spiritual quest. Ravi came to Khasak to amend his sins
but here too, desire overwhelms him and he has sexual encounters with many women there.
In the search for meaning of existence, he restlessly wanders through Ashrams but faces the
dominating womanly presence all around. This restlessness born out of guilt and despair
leads him and then reality and threatening, begins to interrupt on the travellers resting place
and Ravi now understands that there was no escape from the unyielding commands of
Karma. In the end of the novel Ravis beloved Padma comes in search of him. She is like a
door to outside bright world which invites him with lots of prospects. He agrees to leave
Khasak and join her, but in the he decided not to return and ends himself in his sins with
snake bite.

Nizam Alis Journey from self-ordained Khazi to himself
Nizam Ali flees from home to become a worker in beedi factory and later becomes the owner
of it. Maimoonas marriage shattered him and he could not bear the pain of separation and he
left Khasak. Later he returns and joins the Union of workers and gets himself arrested for
creating Communist revolt. Then he realizes religion was the only way to escape
imprisonment and also it may offers him a respectable place in the society. He misled the
Inspector that he is now new Khazi as spirit of Sheikh had chosen him to be one. He then
promise not to go for any trouble and would be guided by right and this is how thus he
succeed himself getting out of the prison. After getting out he takes revenge on the Mullah
using his own religion and faith. He supports Ravi and his school teaching modern education
and warns Mullah not to interfere in education of young children.
Nizam Ali is solely responsible Neelis death whom he impregnated and gave her some
potion to abort it. On contrary he took care of Ravi when he was down with small pox. Thus
he is both kind and a cruel person. Towards the end of the story, he became himself (Nizam
Ali) again an ordinary human. He again becomes a social man and took care of Mullah when
he was sick.
Chand Umma: The journey of isolation
She is considered as the sinned against woman society and she felt isolation because of a
chastity myth which prevails in society of Khasak at that time. Her husband climbed up the
Tamarind tree, fell down and died. This event branded her unchaste. After that her father also
left the village. This punishing widowhood results unbearable loneliness. After no one left
with her, she now lived for her children, but they also both died, leaving her all alone in life.