Selected Hindi Short Stories (In English)

Selected Hindi Short Stories is a rare treasure of the most popular and representative short-stories of eminent Hindi writers of the day, translated in English. It also showcases the wide vista of subjects and forms of story-writing in Hindi. Thus, Suryabala's 'Gaura …' (गौरा गुणवंती) written in 1973, was such a powerful story that it was not only published in Sarika, a leading literary magazine of the times, but also declared as 'one of the top stories of the century' by an eminent critic Dr Pushpal Singh. Similarly, Balram's 'Chopped Hands' (क़लम हुए हाथ), written in 1976 -- when he was only 25 -- was published in Dharmyug and became a trend-setting story on rural life. Ashok Gujarati's 'Not That…' (ये नहीं कि ग़म नहीं) and Chitra Mudgal's 'Ghostlife' (प्रेतयोनि) are stories about the mindset, aspirations and beliefs of the modern-day Indian woman. Prabodh Kumar Govil's 'Wait a Minute'(थोड़ी देर और ठहर) is a pre-cursor of science-fiction in Hindi literature. Damodar Khadse's 'When Will…' (साहिब कब आएंगे माँ), Balram's 'Facing the Music' (सामना),' Madhav Kaushik's 'Right at That Time' (ठीक उसी वक़्त) and Manjushri's 'A Daydream' (जागती आँखों का सपना) are heart-rending depictions of the sordid aspects of life we are living. Rajendra Srivastava's 'The Completed Poem' (पूरी लिखी जा चुकी कविता) is a fine example of a short story in the epistolary form. Khadse's 'The Walking Stick' (छड़ी) and my own 'The Mango Tree' (आम का पेड़) have 'the power of filial love' at their center.