“The Free Radio” is a story that appeared in the anthology of short stories East, West in 1994. Salman Rushdie, the writer of the short story, tells the story of Ramani through the eyes of a retired schoolteacher, the narrator. 

The Free Radio Summary

“The Free Radio” is the story of Ramani, a rickshaw driver who falls in love with a widow. However, the narrator, who is a guardian to Ramani, disapproves of the relationship.
During this time, the government conducts campaigns to sterilize men. One day, the narrator meets Ramani, and he is astonished to see Ramani’s consent and his expectation for a free radio as a gift from the government.
After that, Ramani tells almost everyone in the town that he will soon receive a free radio. His daydream shatters when the other men in the caravan beat him black and blue.
After the incident, he leaves the town with his family to Bombay to pursue a career in acting. Later, the narrator receives letters from him about his successful life in Bombay.

Analysis 

The Free Radio Theme

The main theme of Salman Rushdie’s “The Free Radio” is perception versus reality. In the short story, Ramani’s imaginative mind perceives a completely different world which is opposite to his reality. 

Ramani is such a gullible young man who is easily excited whenever someone stirs him up. For instance, when the widow flatters him by comparing his look to the Lord Krishna, it makes him feel good.

She tells him in the street to make him believe and others think they are lovers. But his perception is not right, because the widow falls in love, not because he is handsome but because she thinks, Ramani can feed her and her children.

Similarly, we see other instances, such as his announcement of the free radio, and the other is leaving for Bombay. 

The fantasy of the radio comes to Ramani’s mind after the local health officer has brought a big white caravan to the town. It is the time of Emergency, and it is mentioned in the story, “This was the time of the State of Emergency”. (Rushdie 22)

In that dark time, one of the grotesque things that the government has done is running sterilization camps and enforcing the mass to take part in it.

That is the reason the health officer takes the caravan to the town to perform vasectomy. It is stated in the story in the following line, “every night men were taken into this van for a while and things were done to them.” (Rushdie 24) 

Though the things that are done to the people are unfair, Ramani perceives the reality differently. For him, the vasectomy is an avenue to have a free radio. He believes in it because factors such as past experiences, desires, preconceived notions influence our perception,

In Ramani’s case, his view on the radio is shaped by his past experience when he was a child. During one of his meetings with the narrator, Ramani says confidentially when Laxman the tailor had a vasectomy; the government sent to him a radio.

People from every corner of the town thronged to listen to the radio. Therefore Ramani also expects the same will happen to him, and he will too receive a brand new battery-operated transistor radio if he sterilized himself. 

Moreover, Ramani himself reveals to the narrator “It will be excellent to have” (Rushdie 26) a free gifted radio. He thinks having a radio will uplift his objective social reality. As a rickshaw driver, he will definitely try to improve his social condition. 

Thinking of the radio, Ramani gets excited. He is so excited about the gift from the government that he tells everyone about it. He does it because of his subjective social reality. But Ramani has blurred his view of the social reality to an extent that he finds it hard to distinguish between both. 

When he tells everyone in the town about his radio. Most ignore it as his another reverie. But he tries his best to make them believe in it.

Therefore, whenever he sees any of those people whom he has already told about his arriving radio, he mimics holding the radio in one hand nearby his ear and imitates the radio broadcasts with full enthusiasm:

“Yé Akashvani hai,” he announced to the streets. “This is All-India Radio. Here is the news. A Government spokesman today announced that Ramani rickshaw-wallah’s radio was on its way and would be delivered at any moment. And now some playback music.” (Rushdie 27) 

The people almost believed in his imaginary radio. In reality, perception and reality are both different.

One is a manifestation of the mind, and the other has nothing to do with the mind. For the former, belief is needed whereas, for the other, there is no need for belief. 

His mind stimulates pleasure from having thoughts related to the radio. The harsh reality is that the government has stopped giving incentives like free radio to the mass.

This is suggested from the conversation between him and the narrator- the “scheme was a dead duck, long gone, long forgotten. It had been over – funtoosh! – for years.” (Rushdie 26) Almost everyone in the town except him knows that such a scheme no more exists. 

However, Ramani continues believing in his subjective social reality. But somewhere it seems like “he was trying to bring the radio into existence by a mighty act of will.” (Rushdie 28) He has put his best effort to believe in the radio.

In the end, Ramani comes into contact with reality when he revisits the caravan, probably to ask for his free radio. The people in the caravan beat him black and blue.

“His hand was no longer cupped by his ear” (Rushdie 29) which means that he has realized that he will never receive the radio.

The next instance is Ramani decides to become a film star. Ramani’s armbands friends flatter him with movie dreams. His friends stimulate in him the dreams of the movie star. They tell him,

“Such a handsome chap, they told him, compared to you Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh are like lepers only, you should go to Bombay and be put in the motion pictures.” (Rushdie 22)

They implant in him the thoughts such as that he is more handsome than Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan and he should pursue his career in the film industry. 

They encourage him to become a star because they know if his mind is happy then they can easily exploit him economically, “they knew they could take money from him at cards and he would buy them drink.” (Rushdie 22)

Ramani is handsome, and he thinks that being handsome is enough to become a hero. As a result, his mind is filled with dreams of film star. 

However, after the failure of his first dream, he switches his positive illusion. Ramani decides to pursue his second dream, to become a star. He sells his only way of earning, his rickshaw, and goes to Bombay. Before he leaves the town, he tells the narrator-

 “Goodbye, teacher sahib, I am off to Bombay, where I will become a bigger film star than Shashi Kapoor or Amitabh Bachchan even.” (Rushdie 30)

Ramani’s letters to the narrator show that he has become a big movie star. But this could be another dimension of his dream. He tells that he lives a prosperous life. 

However, it should be noted that Ramani cannot write, which means he hires a professional writer to write his letter.

The reason for sending the letter to the narrator is probably it is only the narrator whom he can tell his fantasy. The narrator knows why he has gone to Bombay.

The way he mimics the broadcasts in front of those who already have known about his radio, in the Bombay he is probably repeating the same thing. Therefore, it is possible that the prospering life that he has described in his letters is more of his imagination, less of his reality. 

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The Significance of the Title

The story primarily moves around Ramani and his free radio. The story sets against the backdrop of the emergency in India. The narrator mentions, “This was the time of the State of Emergency”. (Rushdie 22)

It was a time of social unrest. During this time of unrest, the government launched a sterilization campaign. During the campaign, men were forcefully sterilized.

From the government, the sterilization campaign was fully supported. In the story, the local health officer brings a big white caravan to the area, and he has permission to park it under the banyan tree. Though the government fully supports the campaign many people don’t like it.

It is mentioned in the short story, Ramani’s “arm-banded cronies who were guarding it against the anger of the people,” (Rushdie 29) because many don’t like to be sterilized.

Despite the disagreement, they take men forcefully into the caravan inside the caravan every night and perform nasbandi. The narrator says, “every night men were taken into this van for a while and things were done to them.” (Rushdie 24).

To instigate the common people to go for sterilization, the Government appeased them with free radio. This is suggested in the conversation when he meets the narrator after his marriage. He reminds the narrator that in his childhood he saw Laxman, the tailor, receiving a radio from the Government just after the nasbandi.

This suggests how a powerful entity like a political party manipulates the weaker section of the society and Laxman, a representative of common people, falls prey to the propaganda of the Government.

But from the narrator, we come to know that the free radio scheme was no longer effective. Everyone in the country except Ramani knows about it. However, Ramani thinks the free radio is still a reality.

For the government, the free radio is an incentive through which the government can fulfill its goal, but for Ramani, the free radio is more than an incentive.

We come to know about Ramani’s operation from the conversation between the narrator and him after his marriage. The narrator asks him if he has gone to the caravan for sterilization. Ramani informs him he has gone to the caravan to make it possible to marry his woman.

Unlike other men, Ramani supports the idea for three reasons:

first, it is the only way through which he can marry the widow because the widow does not want more children from her second marriage. Therefore, it is the best way to keep both of their wishes fulfilled.

Second, vasectomy is in favor of the government. Moreover, he thinks he will receive a personalized gift, “a brand-new first-class battery-operated transistor radio” (Rushdie 24) from the Central Government on account of agreeing to perform a vasectomy. Therefore, he voluntarily goes to the caravan where other people are taken forcefully.

The last reason is it is a way to escape from his grim reality. By profession, he is a rickshaw driver. For someone who earns a meager amount of money, a first-class radio is a way to escape from the grim aspects of poverty.

He knows he can never afford such a radio. The importance of a gift like a radio for a rickshaw driver is more important than the other two reasons.

Therefore, for him, escaping from his reality is more important than losing his adulthood. If marrying the widow was the only reason behind his losing adulthood, then he would not think of the free radio for almost a year.

If he had no expectation, he would go to the extent of imagination where his reality and imagination are blurred and hard to differentiate. Moreover, he would not go to the caravan a second time. Had he no hope, he wouldn’t go there.

Therefore, he is excited about his “highly special and personalized gift” (Rushdie 24) and tells everyone in the town that he will receive it soon. He fantasies about having the radio with him whenever he sees any of those people whom he has told about the free radio.

He puts one of his hands up to his ear, acts as if he is holding the radio, and mimics broadcasts with full of vigor:

“Yé Akashvani hai,’ he announced to the streets. ‘This is All-India Radio. Here is the news. A Government spokesman today announced that Ramani rickshaw-wallah’s radio was on its way and would be delivered at any moment. And now some playback music.” (Rushdie 27)

He imagines it for a year so intensely that the fear of its opposite is also created in his mind. The opposite is that he will never have the radio and continue living all his life in hardship. If we want something, then we will have the fear of losing the thing. The same thing happens with Ramani.

Therefore, he tries his best “which was much more tiring than driving a rickshaw, more tiring even than pulling a rickshaw containing a thief’s widow and her five living children and the ghosts of two dead ones;” (Rushdie 27) to turn his poor life into something better by his total effort of will.

Finally, when he goes to meet the men in the caravan for the second time, the reality gives him a tight slap. He realizes that is a reverie that he has been thinking about for one year.

To ease the gravity of his mistake, he again flees from his reality and catches another fantasy that is becoming a star. He leaves one and catches another.

The Free Radio Characters 

The character of Ramani

Ramani is the protagonist of the short story. Ramani is a naïve, poor rickshaw driver. 

He falls in love with the widow and later marries her. It is the widow who first steps into the relationship, and Ramani accepts her with her five children and loves her. His love is revealed when he meets the narrator after his marriage. 

The narrator asks him if he has gone to the caravan. He replies everything is totally fine and says, “I am in love, teacher sahib, and I have made it possible for me to marry my woman.” (Rushdie 25) He makes it possible to marry the woman through vasectomy. 

However, it seems his wife does not value his sacrifice. Ramani’s cold relationship is later unveiled when he is beaten inside the caravan, his wife doesn’t come down from the rickshaw to see her man. Had she cared for him, she would have come down from the rickshaw and come to Ramani.

Her unmoved posture compels the readers to think that she marries him not out of affection but because of her security and her five children. She befools him to believe that she also loves him. 

So the gullibility of his nature makes him vulnerable. We can explain this based on some instances of the story. The first example is when he believes he will receive a free radio for his sterilization and next, when he decides to pursue acting career after the encouragement of his friends. 

In this regard, please read the theme of perception versus reality above. 

Because of his gullibility, the narrator advises him at certain points in his life since he had a good relationship with his late parents. For example, the narrator warns him of his rowdy friends by telling him he is wrong. However, he never regards them seriously and follows what he likes. 

The Thief’s Widow/ Sexism in the Story

The widow is a beautiful woman whose husband was a thief. After the death of her husband, she has nothing to support herself and her five children. 

Her hardship can be sensed from the words of the narrator when she comes to bania shop “to buy some three grains of dal” (Rushdie 20). She is so poverty-stricken that she can afford only three gains for the whole family. She is so needy that “Her children must have gone hungry to pay for the ride” (Rushdie 20) in Ramani’s rickshaw.

Under compulsion, she probably takes the path of prostitution to earn a little for her family. This is suggested when the narrator comments on the thief’s widow during her visit to bania’s shop to buy dal. He tells us, “people saw men at night near her rutputty shack, even the bania himself they were telling me but I personally will not comment.” (Rushdie 20)

Like the other men, the narrator seems interested and passes a comment on her personal life. But he feels ashamed when he decides to talk to her on behalf of Ramani, he tells, “I risked being shamed by a . . .no, I will not call her the name, she is elsewhere now and they will know what she is like”. (Rushdie 22) 

He feels ashamed as he thinks of himself as someone who is “not without importance in the town” (Rushdie 23) He feels his image of a respected schoolmaster will be stained by talking with her.

The narrator fails to understand that she is a woman whose husband has not left a single paisa except five children on her back. In such utter poverty and dire need, Ramini stands for her as a savior. Though she initially starts the relationship by taking Ramani for a ride in his rickshaw and courts Ramani to make him fall in love with her.

Once she tells him he looks like Lord Krishna in public so that others also see and hear them. She probably does that first, to express herself as someone who wants others to accept her as not as a widow, but as a woman who has a life to live on, second, to allure Ramani.

From her point of view, she comes closer to Ramani for her security and her children. That might be the reason for remarrying Ramini. Her marriage to him is more for economic support and less for love.  

Seeing her with Ramani, the narrator blames her for her ongoing relationship with Ramani. He thinks that she uses Ramani as her target.

The narrator’s usage of words such as “the witch” (Rushdie 29), “the thief’s widow had her claws dug into his flesh” (19), and “she had decided already to put her hooks into Ramani.” (20) suggest that he compares her actions with that of a predator. 

On one hand, the narrator disregards the widow with total contempt for her means of living, but on the other hand, he also can’t accept when she comes into a relationship with Ramani. This is an example of sexism.

No doubt Ramani is innocent, but he is aware of the predicament of marrying a woman who has five children. Though initially, the widow is more interested than Ramani, soon he becomes equally interested in her.

Ramani loves her and hadn’t he loved her he would not have proposed to her to marry him. However, she rejects him for not willing to bear any other children. If her sole intention is to get married to him for economic dependency, then she would have accepted him. 

No matter what the point is, the narrator blames her for Ramani’s vasectomy because he thinks the widow is a femme fatale who has brought disaster to Ramani’s life.

The narrator’s view of her is a sexist view. Therefore he could not see anything good in her. His discrimination against her is apparent because he never addresses her by her name throughout the short story. Therefore, we never get to know her actual name. A woman bears the stain of her husband, that is thievery. He addresses her by the stain of her dead husband. 

Just because she is ten years older than Ramani, therefore her advancement towards a young man, according to the narrator, is inappropriate. His view on a widow like her is reflected when he meets the widow while she visits the bania shop. He tells her: 

“you must find some person of your own age, or, better still, go to the widows’ ashrams in Benares and spend the rest of your life there in holy prayer, thanking God that widow-burning is now illegal.” (Rushdie 23)

According to him, the best thing for a widow would be leaving everything behind and devoting the rest of life to God. The question is if he thinks the widow should do this because she is a woman, then would he consider the same for a man? If not, then it is sexism. 

The narrator 

The narrator was an old retired teacher who is respected in the town. He spends most of his time sitting under the banyan tree and smoking hookah.

The narrator does not like the widow for two reasons: first; the widow is almost ten years older than Ramani. She is the mother of seven children, and out of seven, five are alive. He thinks Ramani could have had a better partner than her.

Another reason for disliking the widow is that she could have stopped Ramani’s dreams of becoming a star. Instead, she, too, flatters him in the public by comparing him to Lord Krishna for her benefit. 

The narrator cares for Ramani because he knew his parents when they were alive. He always wants to keep him from bad company and out of trouble. Despite his efforts, he fails to persuade Ramani. 

For instance, one day Ramani passes the banyan with his empty rickshaw, and the narrator calls him. The narrator asks him if he has gone to the caravan. Ramani informs him that he has gone to the caravan to make it possible to marry his woman.

The narrator becomes angry and chides Ramani. Ramani responds that his woman wants no more children and vasectomy is in the national interest. Moreover, he will receive the radio at no cost as a gift from the government. After hearing his words, the old man feels despair and asks Ramani to leave the place.

Since Ramani hardly follows, he feels angry at him. He expresses his frustration over Ramani’s relationship at the beginning of the short story.

“We all knew nothing good would happen to him while the thief’s widow had her claws dug into his flesh, but the boy was an innocent, a real donkey’s child, you can’t teach such people.” (Rushdie 19)

As a respected ex-schoolteacher, he wants Ramani to listen to his words and see things from his point of view. But Ramani does not listen to him and therefore he feels bad for not listening to him.

The narrator is unreliable; he narrated the incidents of the story based on gossip. For instance, we come to know that the widow remains unmoved while the men beat Ramani in the caravan.

In the paragraph above, we have judged the situation based on the narration of the narrator. It is obvious he is not there at the scene, so what he has is a third-person narrative of the incident.

Since we know the narrator dislikes her, considers her useless, and “the widow of a good-for-nothing.” (Rushdie 19). Therefore, probably the reality could be opposite to what he has told us. 

A sexist

Discussed above.

Works cited

Rushdie, Salman. “The Free Radio”, East, West. Vintage Books.