Bøger af Shrilal Shukla

NA

Selected Satire: Fifty Years of Ignorance brings together about 20 satire pieces of eminent Hindi writer, Shrilal Shukla. Most noted for his novel Raag Darbari, for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Award, Shukla also wrote several collections of satirical essays and short stories. The pieces in this volume include his socio-political and cultural satires, where he caricaturizes politicians, mocks the bureaucracy (many of whom were his friends), and picks on the so-called developmental schemes of the government. A couple of pieces are also about small town attitudes and pretentions of intellectuals. The overall flavour is of an irreverence to authority and humour drawn from everyday occurrences.

DescriptionWhen Durgadas, an ordinary businessman from Delhi, is arrested for murderin Lucknow, the lives of the people he left behind-his family and friends-unravel in unexpected ways. As they fight to prove his innocence and dealwith the upheaval in their lives, they find themselves turning against eachother. Taranath, his eldest son, searches for meaning and strength in religionand ritual when the law seems to fail him. Rajnath, his younger son, findshis marriage with his wife, Neela, coming undone when they decide againsthaving a child until Durgadas is acquitted. His youngest daughter, Chaand,struggles with her attraction towards Vimal, the much older family friend andDurgadas''s confidant. Vimal''s integrity and Chaand''s loyalties are tested aspeople around them try to drive them apart.Fragments of Happiness follows the tumult of ordinary people learning abouttheir own power and helplessness in the face of extraordinary circumstances.Originally published in Hindi in 1973 as Seemayein Tootati Hain-five yearsafter the cult classic Raag Darbari-with this novel Shrilal Shukla proveshimself to be as great a master of tragedy as he was of satire.