THE GREATEST HINDI STORIES EVER TOLD

by Poonam Saxena

The twenty-five stories in The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told represent the finest short fiction in Hindi literature. Selected and translated by editor, writer, and translator Poonam Saxena, and ranging from early literary masters of the form such as Premchand, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, Bhisham Sahni, Harishankar Parsai, Mannu Bhandari, and Shivani to contemporary greats such as Asghar Wajahat, Uday Prakash, Sara Rai, and others, the collection has stories of darkness, hope, triumph, anger, and irony.

In Premchand’s ‘The Thakur’s Well’, ‘low-caste’ Gangi struggles to find drinking water for her ill husband; in ‘The Times Have Changed’ by Krishna Sobti, the matriarch Shahni bids a heart-breaking farewell to her village during Partition; Krishna Baldev Vaid’s ‘Escape’ is a telling story about women’s yearning for freedom; Yashpal’s ‘Phoolo’s Kurta’ is a sharp commentary on child marriage and notions of female modesty; in Bhisham Sahni’s ‘A Feast for the Boss’ and Usha Priyamvada’s ‘The Homecoming’, ageing parents find themselves tragically out of sync with their family; Amarkant’s ‘City of Death’ looks at the fragile thread that holds together communal peace; Phanishwarnath Renu’s ‘The Third Vow’ features the lovable bullock-cart driver Hiraman; Bhagwaticharan Varma’s ‘Atonement’ and Harishankar Parsai’s ‘The Soul of Bholaram’ are scathing satires; and ‘Tirich’ by contemporary writer Uday Prakash is a surreal tale—these and other stories in the collection are compelling, evocative, and showcase an unforgettable range of brilliant styles, forms, and themes.

Genres: India, Short Stories, Indian Literature

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2020

Reviews

[Reethu Ravi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ghani Miyan is in visible pain as he takes in the rubble that's left of his home, seven-and-a-half years after he returns to Amritsar from Lahore. In another tale, a lower-caste woman is struggling to find drinking water for her ill husband. And in yet another, Shahni is bidding a heart-breaking farewell to her village during Partition.

The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told is a brilliantly curated collection of twenty-five such Hindi short stories, selected and translated by Poonam Saxena. Penned by authors ranging from Premchand, Krishna Sobti, Mohan Rakesh, and Mannu Bhandari to Uday Prakash, Sara Rai, and others, these stories cover a range of subjects such as casteism, India-Pakistan Partition, patriarchy, and communal tension, among others.

The book begins with a brief introduction to the history of Hindi literature - how it has evolved and how various authors adapted different themes through the years. Saxena also dwells on her love affair with Hindi fiction and how she curated this collection. While I cannot commend on how good the translation is and how much of the essence of the original has been lost(because I haven't read the original) I loved Saxena's writing style and her use of simple English. Saxena has a way with words that can grip you to each story.

With some heart-breaking, some thought-provoking stories, and a few satires - there's a bit of something for everyone in this collection. I loved almost all the stories and it'd be really hard to pick a favourite. While I loved Krishna Baldev Vaid's 'Escape' for its brilliant portrayal of women's yearning for freedom, I loved 'Phoolo's Kurta' by Yashpal for its commentary on child marriage. Meanwhile, Sara Rai's 'The Labyrinth' was almost poetic in Kulsum Bano's reminiscence of her life in her ancestral home.

From Chandradhar Sharma Guleri's 'She Had Said So' - a 1915 story on Indian soldiers in World War I - to contemporary author Uday Prakash's 'Tirich', these hand-picked stories have transcended time and language barriers to enthrall readers.

This book is an absolute treat for Hindi literature lovers and makes for a great collectible and a perfect gift. And for readers like me, who are a novice to the world of Hindi fiction, the book makes the ideal starter to get a glimpse into this world.

[Aditi Chikhale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Twain said that the man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. It would have never struck to me to read Hindi literature in English because I can read Hindi. However, the difference between ability and what we do with it is huge. And I would have remained the hypothetical illiterate woman in Mark Twain’s quote. So, this book was a gift in more ways than one. Many a times, I have touched spines of Premchand’s books in Crossword and promised myself that someday I must read them, but when it comes to actually reading in Hindi, I haven’t read anything since 6th standard.

Poonam Saxena has curated the book according to her tastes and discretion. She has made sure to include some classic stories, some new age ones, but all of them have one thing in common. She likes them all. Several themes are captured through these pearls of short stories like belonging, war, promises, dreams, memories, grief. Most of the stories had a melancholy feel to them and maybe that is why they stay with you even after you close the book.

The stories that I really liked were:
Gangrene by Ageya, Escape by Krishna Baldev Vaid, The Homecoming by Usha Priyamvada, Trishanku by Mannu Bhandari, All Night Long by Kamtanath, Dajyu by Shekhar Joshi, Tirich by Uday Prakash,The Labyrinth by Sara Rai.

My favourite without a doubt was Trishanku by Mannu Bhandari because of its relevance to today’s age and how naturally he portrayed the psychological undertones in parenting, growing up, and the way we also internalise things that we seem to hate. The story was captivating right from the beginning.

Whenever I think about translated work, I think about foreign languages like French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese and I am grateful to people who painstakingly translate works so that they can reach a larger audience and open the proverbial window to myriad cultures. But after reading this book, I realize the importance of translating regional works too because there are doors to be opened in our own backyard and a stroll needed to be taken through the much neglected indigenous gardens. I really enjoyed this walk along with Poonam Saxena and wouldn’t mind going for another one soon.

[Kavita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, Hindi, one of the youngest and yet the most controversial language in India. The Hindi belt comprises a huge swathe of the country and includes the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan!!!! So it was always going to be a mammoth task to pick and choose and yet manage to cover a very wide scope in caste and class (like the other books), but also in geographical area.

In this context, I do not understand why Poonam Saxena decided to include so many Hindu-Muslim and post-Partition stories. There is a lot of ground to cover when creating an anthology covering such a large geographical area that is somewhat culturally diverse. I get that this is the hot topic of the day in India, especially in the Hindi belt, but it feels very, very forced. These specific stories were excellent and would have made a great anthology in itself (maybe there should be one about religious co-existence!), but their inclusion took away from exploring different facets of life in this region.

Also, Aleph, shouldn't Punjab get its own book? And Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra?! You give a book to Odia, but not to Malayalam? Crazy!

The Thakur's Well by Premchand : Well, Premchand is a little out of date but nobody writes about caste and gender so evocatively and coolly as he did. Gangi's husband is sick and there is no clean water at home. Gangi goes to fetch water at the Thakur's well secretly, well knowing that she, as a Dalit, would face severe consequences if caught. What she discovers is that whatever your caste, it's a man's world.

Atonement by Bhagwaticharan Verma : When a newly married bride kills a cat, the local pandit is called in to help the household atone. He plans to rack up great expenses for his own benefit. That is, until fate takes a hand. Hilarious look at greedy priests.

Phoolo's Kurta by Yashpal : I loved this story about a young girl who mimics her elders with completely opposite results. Ridiculous customs need to be smashed and it is the young who will do it.

The Soul of Bholaram by Harishankar Parsai : This sounds very much like a 80's comedy and I wish someone had done it. Yamdoot loses the soul of Bholaram and Narad decides to help him find it. Hilarious look at the Indian bureaucracy. Haven't we all suffered from it at one time or the other?

The Third Vow by Phanishwarnath Renu : I didn't exactly like this one but it merits a mention because the famous Raj Kapoor film, Teesri Kasam was based on this story. It's based on the experiences of a bullock cart driver who falls in love with a dancer. Dare I say, I liked the film slightly better?

The Homecoming by Usha Priyamvada : When Gajadhar retires from his railway job and joins the rest of his family at home, he tries to play the 'man of the house' role and discovers that being an absentee husband and father will come with its own consequences. He has no space at home and no clue how the household runs. A bittersweet story but honestly, what was he expecting?

Lord of the Rubble by Mohan Rakesh : Ghani miyan returns from Pakistan years after Partition, only to find his old home in Amritsar in ruins. He mourns, but does not try to find out who murdered the rest of his family, yet leaves the perpetrators feeling very uneasy with their choices. One of the best post-Partition stories I have read.

There were a few boring stories that felt like they just went on and on, such as Trishanku, Forgive Me, Labyrinth, and Tirich. I am guessing after reading so many of these books that I like my short stories to be rather ... short!

This collection gets a 20 percent (5 out of 25 stories) women authors. So that's not bad but could be much better.

Time for Assam next.😊

[Deepan Maitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hindi literature is ever-flourishing and evolving. It can showcase a gigantic slice of Indian sentiments, of their way of living, their harmony and conflicts.

Poonam Saxena’s collection of translated 25 short stories is a treat for the soul. Largely diverse, well-articulated and strikingly charming—these set of stories can prove to be a beautiful welcome into the world of Hindi Literature.

Be it stories of Premchand, Mannu Bhandari or Shivani; or be it Yashpal, Omprakash Valmiki or Kamleshwar….this assorted collection houses thriving authors and short-story writers of India, all of whom are stalwarts in the realm of Hindi language.

A keen observation on basic human lifestyle seemed to the primal focus of most of the stories. Nearly all of them sprouted quite abruptly from a very intelligent setting, with the characters finding themselves in scenarios out of their comfort zone. Even with the speedy pace with which the stories lurched forward or with the air of open-endedness that was a part, the stories somehow fitted all together into a wholesome, colourful piece. With the help of limited colours, fixed count of words and choosy emotions to highlight—the stories will never make the readers feel incomplete. If some of the stories does seem a little too rapid, the psyche of the readers surprisingly makes up for the missing pieces, providing a beautiful experience to carry along.

Characteristic of the kind of literature from a bounded literary period, these tales also often finally culminate to be a treatise on social fallacies, of hypocrisies between human to human and the fogginess of hungry, raw emotions. The concept of the social ladder springs up as an undertone in many of them, whereas in some it does take the primary focus. The limelight sometimes shifts to social evils like child marriage, discrimination, mutual prejudices—providing us a tool to judge for ourselves, and another theme which often looms large is the clash between people set apart by generations of gap, and how their basic needs seem to cross lines with one another. Seemingly enough, the goodness of human nature is often left unsaid, and what cries out are the devils we try to subdue.

Poonam Saxena’s expertise in curating this collection is deserving of enough praise and recollections in the years to come, and I do not see why this set of stories cannot be called a preliminary yet effective introduction to the diversity spanned by Hindi literature.

Thanks Aleph Book Company for the review copy.

[Krutika · Rating 4 out of 5]

• r e v i e w •


Poonam Saxena, journalist and a translator brings together a wonderful set of stories under this title for the readers. Translated from Hindi, these short stories are carefully chosen to please a wide range of people, each with a theme of its own. The list includes many renowned writers such as Premchand, Uday Prakash, Yashpal and the likes. Albeit I did enjoy reading most of the stories, few did not seem too impressive but this is not an uncommon occurence when it comes to translated books. As it often happens with translated works, few stories lacked the actual essence post translation. But what I liked the most was Saxena's introduction to the book in which she speaks of her love towards Hindi literature and how she curated the list.

By the time I finished reading the book, I had my few favourite chapters. A Feast For The Boss, for one speaks of a son who views his aged mother as a liability. The story unfurls painfully with the mother showering unconditional love on her son in spite of his spiteful behaviour. Another favourite was 'Phoolo's Kurta' which subtly speaks of child marriage. 'The Thakur's Well' points out the stark differences in the caste system, something that is still very much prevailing in our country. Tales of partition broke my heart, one being Shahni's forced farewell from her motherland and the other speaking of a man's return to his land decades after the partition. The stories are an eclectic mix, each one unique in its own way highlighting the societal standards and discrimination that comes along with it. Many of the stories carried significant emotional value which were heartbreaking to read given the backdrop it was set against. Saxena's clever choice of stories has clearly garnered much fanfare amidst the readers. If you are ardent reader of Hindi literature and are looking for translated stories that carries different themes, this one's definitely for you.

Rating : 4.2/5

[raj dasani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for anyone interested in India or Indian literature.

[Amartya Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because my father had been pushing me to read more Hindi literature, which I would keep putting off. But as fate would have it, this book turned up and something in my head clicked and here we are. I know that this book has a great collection of Hindi writers because my father's eyes lit up when he saw the author list. He spent the first 20 minutes letting me know which authors he had read, which stories and novels he had read. In fact he even knew the names of successive generations of the author's family that were now contributing in the field of literature. So all in all I knew it was a good choice even before I read the book.

I must firstly appreciate the amazing literary works of the authors in the book. The stories are so simple yet so profound. They touch upon a variety of social topics like casteism, communalism, and women rights. The Thakur's well by Premchand is an emotional well in itself. Gangrene by Agyeya almost made me tear up with its pitiful character and their lives. The duplicitous nature of parents in Trishanku by Manu Bhandari was a treat to read.

Poonam Saxena has also compiled stories on the Partition of India. Stories like Lord of the Rubble by Mohan Rakesh and The Times have changed by Krishna Sobti, have a way of touching the reader's soul. I particularly liked the War by Shaani for asking simple questions on the ravages of war which should be a must read for everyone.

Beautiful collection of stories. Definitely worth picking up.

[Manoj Unnikrishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edited and translated by Poonam Saxena, the anthology The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told presents a carefully curated selection of twenty-five stories from some of the most celebrated writers in the Hindi language. This collection offers readers an immersive experience into the world of Hindi literature.

The anthology features stories from literary giants such as Premchand, Yashpal, Harishankar Parsai, Kamaleshwar, Nirmal Verma, and Bhishma Sahni. Each tale reflects India's evolving social, political, and emotional landscapes. Themes like partition, gender dynamics, societal norms, human relationships, and existential reflections are explored in depth throughout this collection.

Special commendation goes to the translator, Poonam Saxena, for successfully preserving the cultural richness and emotional intensity of the original texts. Her translations are fluid and engaging, skillfully avoiding overly literal interpretations while maintaining the charm and authenticity of the Hindi language.

For reference, the following are the stories included in this collection.

1. She Had Said So (Usne Kaha Tha) - Chandradhar Sharma Guleri
2. The Thakur's Well (Thakur ka Kuan) - Premchand
3. Atonement (Prayashchit) - Bhagwaticharan Verma
4. Phoolo's Kurta (Phoolo ka Kurta) - Yashpal
5. Gangrene - Agyeya
6. A Feast for the Boss (Chief ki Dawat) - Bhishma Sahni
7. The Third Vow - Phaniswar Nath Renu
8. The Soul of Bholaram (Bholaram ka Jeev) - Harishankar Parsai
9. City of Death (Maut ka Nagar) - Amarkant
10. The Times Have Changed (Sikka Badal Gaya) - Krishna Sobti
11. Escape - Krishna Baldev Vaid
12. Where Lakshmi is Held Captive (Jahan Lakshmi Qaid Hai) - Rajendra Yadav
13. Lord of the Rubble (Malbe ka Maalik) - Mohan Rakesh
14. A Death in Delhi (Dilli Mein Ek Maut) - Kamaleshwar
15. The Homecoming (Vaapsi) - Usha Priyamvada
16. Trishanku - Mannu Bhandari
17. All Night Long (Saari Raat) - Kamtanath
18. Forgive Me (Kariye Chhima) - Shivani
19. The Human Measure (Napni) - Doodhnath Singh
20. Fear (Bhay) - Omprakash Valmiki
21. War (Yuddh) - Shaani
22. Dajyu - Shekhar Joshi
23. The Spirits of Shah Alam Camp (Shah Alam Camp ki Roohein) - Asghar Wajahat
24. Tirich - Uday Prakash
25. The Labyrinth (Bhool Bhulaiyan) - Sara Rai

I enjoyed all the stories in this collection. I have read "The Thakur's Well" (Thakur ka Kuan) many times before in other collections. Additionally, I studied "A Feast for the Boss" (Chief ki Dawat), which was part of my 8th-grade Hindi textbook. Reading it again brought back fond memories of my school life. Overall, it was a pleasant reading experience for me.

[Anagha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so disappointed in this book. This should be put under the category of false advertising.
From the inside cover of the book, The twenty-five stories in The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told represent the finest short fiction in Hindi literature. Selected and translated by editor, writer, and translator Poonam Saxena, and ranging from early literary masters of the form such as Premchand, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, Bhisham Sahni, Harishankar Parsai, Mannu Bhandari, and Shivani to contemporary greats such as Asghar Wajahat, Uday Prakash, Sara Rai, and others, the collection has stories of darkness, hope, triumph, anger, and irony.

From this you may think that we actually have these author's stories in this book. Instead it is 25 contemporary authors most under the age of 30. This is amateur hour at its worst.

[Mushda Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Subcontinent stories and the transition of our societal norms, morals and mindset over the years. What's interesting about this particular group of stories is how in some you can see the strife of the caste, religion and economical bounds put and made more profound one story after another.

Interesting read, nonetheless.