Rag Darbari by Shri Lal Shukla

Shri Lal Shukla, the author of a classic novel like Ragdarbari Ragdarbari, is a senior and distinguished storyteller in Hindi. His pen’s sarcastic sarcasm with which contemporary social reality has been eroded layer by layer, the first stop, gives him more height. Srilal Shukla has focused his new novel on the lives of the state laborers, masons, contractors, engineers and the educated unemployed and has created an interesting story to keep them in one thread. Santosh Kumar aka Satte Parmatma ji, while not being responsible for the fourth building, not only does his daily life, an average village-countryside and ‘chal-cha-re-youngster’ type of high-profile spends unemployed life, but he is the same Jasoda also aka introduces the vibrant female character like ‘Memsahab’. Apart from this, the author has given his deep sympathy and psychological spontaneity to almost all the major characters of the novel and through them has exposed the various socio-economic contradictions, the powers affecting them and the weaknesses of human nature with utmost artistry. In fact, this narrative of Shri Lal Shukla engraves the tragedy of man becoming brick and stone in the last decades of the twentieth century on a very human and realistic plank.

Birth: December 31, 1925 in Atrauli village of Lucknow district (UP). Education: Graduate from Allahabad University. Creations: Novel: Sun of the Valley of Sone, Unknown, Raga Darbari, Man’s Poison, Boundary Breaks, House, First Stop, Saints of Bisrampur. Story Collection: This house is not mine, security and other stories, in this age. Satire: Angad’s feet, from here to there, my best satirical compositions, some days in Umravanagar, some on the ground in some air, come sit down for a while, the next century city, fifty years of shipping. Criticism: Agnostic: Some ragas and some colors. Vinibandh: Bhagavaticharan Verma, Amritlal Nagar. Children’s literature: Babbar Singh and his companions. Translation: ‘first stop’ translated into English and ‘house’ in Bangla. ‘Raga Darbari’ in English including all major Indian languages. Major honors: Jnanpith Award, Padma Bhushan Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Sahitya Bhushan Award, Goyal Sahitya Award of Kurukshetra University, Lohia Distinguished Award, MP Sharad Joshi Award, Maithilisharan Gupta Award, Vyas Award. Died: October 28, 2011.