Short Shorts Long Shots

While Hindi authors and poets are avidly writing in every conceivable literary genre, the short story is the one in which they have written and experimented the most. They have contracted it to one sentence and expanded it to beyond the length of the novella. In the vast, varied and vibrant world of current Hindi literature, the work of Uday Prakash is avidly read, much discussed and controversial, especially his fiction. Despite and active career as a journalist, translator, and producer, director and writer for television and film, Uday Prakash has steadily published fiction and poetry for two decades. This is the second book length collection of Uday Prakash’s stories to appear in English. The first was published in January 2003 by Srishti Publications, Delhi, under the title Rage, Revelry, and Romance, Except for the story Delhi, which appeared in the magazine Eminence and The Sunday Pioneer, none of these stories have appeared previously in English translation.That which is attractive is also often controversial. Such is the case here. The controversy surrounding the work of Uday Prakash plays out in Hindi literary journals and the Hindi press. In the literature of the West the short story is generally considered the handmaid of the novel, as the lyric poem is the handmaid of the epic poem. That is not the case in Hindi literature. While excellent novels have been and continue to be written, the short story is still the more vital, lively, experimental and honoured of the two genres. Among living Hindi authors Uday Prakash is one of the masters of the art of the short story.