Our Favourite Indian Stories (2 page)

The inspiration behind this anthology has been the concern that some of the best short stories of India have remained imprisoned within their geographic and linguistic boundaries, flowering and withering away unnoticed. In the absence of translation they have been deprived from reaching a wider audience. What a waste of beautiful thoughts and ideas! How can one talk of understanding India or being Indian without understanding the motivations that drive our countrymen and women spread over distant regions of the country? Can one truly understand the whole without understanding the part?

In my bid to redress part of this problem, over a period of five years, I visited various National Libraries, Sahitya Akademis and bookstores across the country to come up with literary gems. During the course of my search I wrote countless letters, met and interacted with dozens of writers and translators — seeking advice, getting acquainted, pursuing addresses, requesting copyright permissions. The sheer magnificence of my discoveries left me humbled.

I have been fortunate to have shared a special relationship with Mr Khushwant Singh. It all began in the Spring of 1996 when I was asked to introduce him in Jamshedpur at a Rotary District Conference. At first I was hesitant about undertaking such a daunting task. Then, I decided to make use of the opportunity in full measure by telling Mr Singh a few home truths publicly — particularly about women's reaction to his outrageous descriptions of members of their species. There was much laughter from the audience when I described him as a one-man institution pounder as well as a one-man shock therapist. I also described him as a man who had swept through Indian society like a powerful blizzard, bent on changing hypocritical attitudes, taking taboo topics out of Indian closets, giving them a through dusting and painstakingly polishing them up for public viewing. By the end of my speech, I suspected I had overdone the malice bit a little. I waited with bated breath as he walked up to where I was standing on stage. I quite expected him to show his displeasure by reprimanding me. Instead, to my horror, he kissed me on the cheek publicly! I was more embarrassed when the local Press covered the incident in a colourful manner the next morning.

Later, in his popular column,
With Malice Towards One and All
he described me as the fourth Neelam in his life and the act as a gesture of warmth to show his appreciation. He praised my poem
Separation
, which I had written after the death of my husband. My poem was read across the length and breadth of the country. Long lost school friends who responded to my anguished cry of
'With your going away, they have taken the bangles from my arms...'
sought me out. The sheer reach of his column overwhelmed me.

From them on, a warm friendship flowered between us. Mr Singh has been described as stingy, lecherous, malicious, flirtatious. Those who know him closely as I do, have stumbled on to the fact that he is none of these. In fact it is he who has revelled in feeding the gossip mills about this image of himself as
'Not A Nice Man To Know.'
At 80 plus, he is without doubt, India's youngest man and has a fun-filled attitude towards life, which keeps him so. I remember how much he laughed his famous belly laugh when I wrote an article in
The Times of India
about how this tough man has no qualms about taking up cudgels with religious fanatics and pompous politicians but turns into a lamb the moment his wife commands him to follow his strict bed-time hour — 9.p.m.! He is actually as fun loving as a child and hides a soft heart beneath the tough exterior.

This is how I came to requesting my very special friend, savant and confidante, Mr Khushwant Singh to utilise the six decades of his rich experience in literature to select his favourite short stories. That proved to be a very difficult task. What lifts a story from the level of ordinary to extraordinary, to finally become engraved in the mind as a
favourite
? Sometimes it is a childhood association or a fond memory of youth. Many times one just does not know why, but one simply likes a particular story.

The Urdu and Punjabi sections did not prove to be difficult. Mr Khushwant Singh is an authority in these fields. He has been generous enough to include his own translations in this anthology. Making selections from other regional languages — those neither he nor I can read or write, proved to be an intimidating task. We went by the opinions of experts and literature lovers of that particular language.

We are certain the reader will keep in mind that comparing fairly unknown writers to all-time greats such as Munshi Premchand or Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore may not be fair. As is bound to happen, many ideas may have been lost in the translation, despite our best attempts. We appeal to the reader to look beyond these into the story's essence. In some regions, short story writing is still a fledgling craft. We were compelled to include these as being representative of the language. The craft itself merited no special attention; the spark of promise in it did. Such stories have been included in the hope that they will provide a window to the distinctive culture of that region. This is why many stories have a 'regional flavour' about them.

With an ancient history of 5,000 years, India has been the cradle of fascinating folklore, mythical tales and magical fables. Ancient writings of the land: the Upanishads, Panchatantra, Hitopdesh and Jataka tales bear testimony to this. Over the years, India's rich oral tradition has gradually crystallised into the formal short story as we know it today.

The passage of centuries has seen India develop into a social structure with fascinating customs. The Indian consciousness down the decades has recorded all: the wonder, the anguish, the joy, the frustration, the pain and the pride of being born an Indian. Right through the grand sweep of time, the Indian imagination has remained alive to diverse stimuli and has expressed these emotions in creative outpourings. Besides national and geographic influences, each region's writings have been shaped by local influences too. Today's global Indian has aromas of all these flavours in his personality.

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, writers have spoken in myriad tongues which are as local as they are national — as insular as they are global. This is what makes India's regional writing so powerful.

Ms. Neelam Kumar

August, 2001

Premchand (1880-1936) was the greatest novelist and short story writer in Hindi. He was the author of
Sahitya ka Uddeshya
(criticism);
Kuchh Vichar
(essays);
Rangabhumi, Sevasadan, Nirmala, Kayakalpa, Premashram, Ghaban
and
Godan
(novels) as well as several collections of short stories.

Yashpal (1903-1976) was a prominent writer in Hindi. Has published fourteen collections of short stories, nine novels, three volumes of reminiscences and four volumes of socio-political satirical essays. His works have been translated into many languages.

Nirmal Verma (1929—) was born in Simla and lives in Delhi. From 1959 to 1968, he lived in Czechoslovakia where he translated a number of Czech works into Hindi. For a brief while he was a member of the Communist Party of India, but resigned in protest against its support for dictatorships. He has so far published five novels, eight collections of short stories, three travelogues, six collections of essays and three plays. Many of his works have been translated into English, German and French. His awards include
Sahitya Akademi
(1985);
Moortidevi Award
(1997) and the
Jnanpith Award
(2000).

A prominent political journalist, poet, author and fiction writer, Dr. Rajendra Awasthi has pioneered new trends in post-independence Hindi fiction writing. He has more than 60 fictional works to his credit and has received numerous awards including the
National Citizens' Award
(1990); the
Sahitya Bhushan and Bharat Bhasha Bhushan
Awards.

He first joined The Times of India group publication —
Sarika
as its editor (1960-64); left Bombay for Delhi and joined the Hindustan Times Group in 1964, continuing as editor of all periodicals. He is currently editor of
Kadambini
. He holds positions in several prestigious bodies.

Usha Mahajan (1948— ) represents the New Short story style in Hindi. A prolific writer, she is also a freelance journalist. Important among her works are
Savitri Ne Kaha
(story collection);
Samay Ke Sakshi
(interviews with journalists);
Chatur Charvaha
(childrens' stories);
Utho Annapurna Saath Chalen
(research) as well as translations of several books by Khushwant Singh.

A master of the short story
genre
, Tagore was Bengal's leading writer and poet. He continues to hold sway over readers' hearts even after so many years of his death. Tagore's writings have a firm narrative thread and delight young and old alike. In all his writings, Tagore had a remarkable capacity to empathise with people in different situations. His writings reflect a great deal of psychological and creative insight.

Mahasweta Devi (1926 — ) is a progressive Bengali novelist and short story writer. She is the author of over 50 publications and has won several awards including the
Sahitya Akademi Award
in 1979 for her novel
Aranyer Adhikar.
She has taught English in a Calcutta College and works among the tribals for their welfare and for creating new social awareness among them. She now lives in Calcutta. There is a deep influence of the Naxalite movement on her works. She has also been the recipient of
Jnanpath Literary Award
and the
Magsaysay Award
. Her book has been made into a Hindi movie called
Hazaar Chaurasi ki Ma.

Manto (1912-1955) is widely regarded as one of the best Urdu writers. In a literary and journalistic career spanning more than two decades, he wrote over 200 stories apart from plays, film scripts, novels and essays.
Toba Tek Singh Mozail
and
Mummy
are some of his powerful stories. He lived in Amritsar, Bombay and Lahore.

Ismat Chugtai was a leading short story writer in Urdu. Known for her bold writing, Ismat Chugtai is regarded as a gifted woman writer. Her collections of short stories include:
Chotein, Chhui Mui, Kaliyan Shaitan.
She has also written novels like
Ziddi
.

Born in 1934, Ajeet Cour is one of the better known Punjabi writers. Some of her important collections of short stories are
Gulbano, Mahik Di Maut, But Shikan, Saviyan
and
Churiyan
. And among her novelletes are
Postmortem, Dhup Wala Sheher, Khana Badosh
and
Kachche Ranga de Sheher.
She is the recipient of
Punjabi Academy Award
(1984) and
Sahitya Akademi Award
(1986) for
Khana Badosh.

Khwaja Ahmed Abbas (1914-1989) was a journalist, novelist and film producer-director of international repute. A writer with leftist leanings, Abbas published over 40 books in Urdu including
Diya Jale Sari Raat
(novel),
Main Kaun Hun, Ek Ladki
and
Zafran Ke Phul
—all collections of short stories. His other important works include
When Night Falls, Face to Face with Khrushchev,
a 2-part biography of Mrs Indira Gandhi —
Indira Gandhi: Return of the Red Rose and its sequel That Woman.

Gopinath Mohanty was a celebrated Oriya novelist and short story writer. He received the
Jnanpith Award
in 1964 for his novel
Matir Matala.
He lived mostly in Koraput district, the tribal area of Orissa. His novels bear testimony to his knowledge of tribal life.

Born in 1924, Kishori Charan Das is a renowned short story writer in Oriya and English. His
Thakur Ghara
received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1976. A former employee of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, he has travelled extensively on various foreign assignments, the experience of which enriches his stories. A prolific writer, Kishori Charan Das has authored several collections of short stories, novels, essays, poems, abridgements and translations. He represented India at the International Writers' Week at Adelaide in February 1980 and later, toured Australia under the Indo-Australian Cultural Exchange programme.

Born in 1937 at Bhavnagar in Gujarat, Dinkar Joshi is a prominent Gujarati novelist, short story writer, essayist and columnist. He is a scholar on the Hindu epics — the
Mahabharat
and the
Ramayan
. His novel
Prakash-no-Padcchayo,
based on Gandhiji's family life has been adapted into a play in different languages including English. His works have been translated into Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil. Five
State Sahitya Akademi Awards
have been conferred upon him.