Prachand Praveer pens 3-volume Hindi story collection
New Delhi: Prachand Praveer who forayed into the Hindi literature world with his novella "Alpahari G?hatyagi: IIT Se Pehle" in 2010 has now come out with a three-part short story collection that essentially deals with some incidents which happen just a day before.
"Kal Ki Baat" (Setu Publication) encompasses human emotions from humour to sadness in an almost musical way with the three volumes named as "Shadj", "Rishabh" and "Gandhar", the first three notes of Indian classical music.
Written in a style similar to the one used in flash fiction, the stories are limited to 1,200 words.
"The three volumes have been written over a period of 12 years. Usually topics such as children, work life, bonhomie with colleagues, humour are often left out in modern Hindi literary discourse," Praveer says.
In the stories, Praveer infuses day-to-day incidents with popular poems and songs which form an integral part of our culture and values.
"This book is part of my journey so far as it started much before 'Alpahari Grihtyagi' (published in 2010) and is still continuing. The titles correspond to the first three notes of Indian classical music, so logically it may have another four volumes in the future. I have picked 114 stories out of 200 to create these three volumes," he says.
Prachand's works have often been criticised by some for their complexities such as in case of "Abhinava Cinema" (and its English translation "Cinema Through Rasa") and "Uttarayana-Dakshinayana" - two short story collections having tales based on the 12-zodiac sign.
On this, he says, "I believe that literature must have the dual edge of encompassing key philosophical insights and a unique way to acquaint or initiate some noble quests. Sometimes it is not possible to avoid the philosophical or linguistic complexities as it is seen in 'Abhinava Cinema', which deals with the Rasa perspective to the world cinema and also in the much-discussed story - Makar (of Uttarayana) - which essentially deals with the philosophy of language."
His books have though been praised by the likes of Harish Trivedi, Gyan Ranjan, Wagish Shukla and Prayag Shukla. Late Vishnu Khare praised him as the most remarkable talent in the history of Hindi storytelling.
Munger-born Praveer, a chemical engineer who studied at IIT Delhi, feels contemporary Hindi literature suffers from a syndrome of political obsessiveness.
"The painful areas are not about moral discourse or human suffering or concern for truth searching, rather the focus has shifted to political issues such women empowerment, election results and political commentary," he says.
Citing Premchand's idea of literature of being the torchbearer to politics, Prachand feels that the current Hindi literature has been delegated to become subservient to political discourses.
He asserts that his effort in "Kal Ki Baat" is to liberate literature from overpowering and forced debates and to prepare readers to have their own thinking and with absolute ease, laugh and share joy, which appears prohibited.
