From The Jacket
His timeless tales captured the lives of ordinary people. Through his writing, Premchand gave a voice to the landless peasant, the exploited factory worker and downtrodden women. Just as he was the joyous voice of a child or a pampered nawab of Lucknow.
This empathy for people combined with powerful plots and unforgettable characters made Premchand one of the greatest writers of fiction in Hindi and Urdu, whose books continue to be loved today.
In this affectionate biography, also discover the man behind the words - humorous, hard-working and independent. He plunged into life to savour every vivid aspect of his land and people, facing every adversity with a quiet courage and a smile.
Charitavali is a series of biographies dedicated o the legendary figures of India. The series present the lives of great kings, freedom fighters, political thinkers, social reformers, pioneers of industry, eminent scientists, philosophers, artists, musicians, dancers and film stars, writers and sports people.
These biographies have been written for the reader who is curious about the life, achievements and character of these legends. Full of fascinating stories and facts, written in an easy, story telling style, these biographies will make these great Indians and their times come alive for the reader.
Introduction
A young Urdu poet reached Lucknow to meet the well-known Urdu and Hindi writer, Munshi Premchand. At the entrance to Premchand's house, he met a man casually clad in a vest and dhoti and asked hi for directions.
"I'll take you to Premchand," said the man. He led the young poet to a room on the first floor of the house, asked him to sit down and disappeared. He reappeared a moment later wearing a kurta and said with a broad smile, "Well Sir, now you are speaking to Premchand.
One a visit to Allahabad on a ho day in May, Premchand went to meet fellow writer Mahadevi Verma. Not recognizing him, the attendant at the door said loftily, "Mahadeviji is busy.
"But you have a little time, don't you?" asked Premchand, his eyes twinkling. "Come, let's sit down and talk for a few minutes." When Mahadevi Verma emerged much later, she was horrified to find Premchand sitting under a neem tree in earnest conversation with the attendant, the maliand the chowkidar. He brushed aside her apologies with a laugh. "Out here I've gathered plenty of material for my stories," he said, "which you as a poetess could not have given me.
This simplicity, this humour, even when he was a celebrity, were typical of Premchand. An ordinary looking man with an extraordinary talent and commitment, his name continues to be synonymous with the finest fiction in both Urdu and Hindi.
Young Chandrahasan has come all the way to Banaras from Kerala to meet Premchand. After much knocking about he finally reaches the writer’s house. He makes the appropriate noises to announce his presence but there is no response. So he goes to the nearest door and, a little nervously, peeps into the room: a man with a long bushy moustache is sitting at a small man looks so ordinary that the young visitor is sure that this must be the great writer’s clerk.
He steps forward and says, “I want to see Munshi Premchand.” Premchand looks up, a trifle bemused, puts down his pen and, breaking into a peal of laughter, says, “Of course…but won’t you sit down first!”
Nashad, a young Urdu poet, goes to see Premchand for the first time, in Lucknow. He knows roughly the location of the house but he is not quite sure. So he asks someone on the street, a rather shabby-looking man, wearing only a vest and a not-too-clean dhoti, “Could you please direct me to the house of Munshi Premchand?”
He moves ahead, with the young poet following. They soon reach the house. Then the two go up the staircase and arriving at the first floor they go into an almost bare room. The man asks Nashad to wait for a while and goes into the inner part of the house. He comes out soon, wearing a kurta over his vest.
“Now you are meeting Munshi Premchand,” he says laughing mischievously.
April 1934. A Hindi writer’s conference is held in Delhi. Premchand has been nominated Chairman of the fiction section. He is now at the height of his fame but he makes no special demands on the organizers. In the words of Jainendara Kumar, the eminent Hindi novelist, “He came and stayed like everyone else-getting a camp-bed in the dormitory along with scores of others.” It looks like the general ward of a hospital but Premchand has no complaints. It is best like this. At mealtimes he goes to the canteen and asks for a meal. The volunteer on duty asks for the meal ticket.
Without another word, Premchand takes his place in the queue, and buys the ticket from the window.
Now the scene is Lahore and the year 1935. The distinguished Urdu playwright Imtiaz Ali Taj has asked him over to tea. “Very well, I will be there. But I have so much to do before that.” However, when he arrives at the poet’s house at the end of a hectic day roaming the streets of Lahore, in this crushed, drab dhoti and coarse-linen kurta, he finds more than a hundred cars there, one better than the other. There were judges, barristers, doctors and professors. The entire elite of the city had been invited and it look people, who did not know the man Premchand well, some time to get over the shock that this funny, disheveled man, who looked like a simple villager, was the person for whom some of the most important people of the city has been waiting!
There are many such legends and they all speak of only one thing—the utter simplicity of the man. There was nothing false about him: he was as he was. If there was anything he really hated, it was affectation.
A unique 'autobiography' of one of the greatest storytellers of our times, Munshi Premchand , recreated from his works by the man regarded as 'Premchand's Bowell', Madan Gopal.
Often compared to Gorky and Tolsty, Premchand was not only a versatile writer of short stories, novels, dramas and essays, but also played an active role in the country's freedom movement. His stories took birth from the lives of the common people their vicissitudes and deprivations, as well as their small joys and victories. Premchand rebelled against narrow religious bigotry and, in fighting it though his writing he imbued a whole generation with the idea of anew social order of justice and equality.
About the Author
The author,Madan gopal, has based his narrative on a study of almost everything of consequence written by or on Premchand in Hindi and Urdu, including numerous unpublished letters written by and to Premchand which provide an intimate knowledge of the man the writer and the thinker . Madan Gopal's deep study of the writer whom he reverse has enabled him to tell the story of his life almost as the master storyteller would have told it himself.
For all aficionados of Munshi Premchand, this is a book that must find a place on their shelves.
HINDI FICTION was in its infancy when Premchand appeared on the scene. After Premchand's contribution Hindi fiction reached its fullest maturity and flowering. Premchand gave to Hindi fiction a new social awareness, a new sense of purpose. In his hands the Hindi novel Comes very close to life and faithfully reflects reality. Premchand was an idealist who desired to mould life according to dreams, but he did not close his eyes to the harsh, ugly truths of life. He mitigated nothing, condoned nothing; his work uplifts and exalts the reader. He was truly a people's writer who wrote about the life of common folk in a language they could understand. His appeal goes much beyond the closed circle of the intelligentsia and he has readers among people who have very little education. In this he reminds us of mediaeval poets like Tulsidas and Kabir whose words bring magic to the lives of the people in India.
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