Munshi Premchand

It is an attainment for the Hindi Literature that at the very initial times of its journey, it got a deft painter of human mind like Munshi Premchand. As a story writer Munshi Premchand had become a legend in his own life time. The themes of his stories are rooted to the rural life with urban social life appearing as the contrast to illustrate a complete picture of contemporary life. They also effected the foundation of a new philanthropic heritage of welfare of society. His distinctive style and content are deeply steeped in the hardcore of reality. In view of variety of topics, he, as though, has encompassed the entire sky of humane world into his fold, and are generally based upon some inspiration or experience. Each of Munshi Premchand's stories unravels many sides of human mind, streaks of human's conscience, the evils in some societal practices and heterogeneous angles of economic tortures. His stories are the strongest assets of our literature, thus are still relevant today, as much as they were five decades ago. His stories have been translated in almost all the languages of India and world.

Tolstoy's writings give us the inspiration that there must be some purpose of human life, if human beings have a sense of true altruism and human service then their human life becomes meaningful. Inspirational stories of legendary writer Leo Tolstoy of the works that show the way to social harmony touching the human mind.

Vardan ("Boon") is about Pratap Cahndra and Brij Rani, two childhood neighbours who like each other. Brij gets married to another man and becomes a famous poet after being widowed. Her friend Madhvi starts liking Pratap after hearing about him from Brij. Pratap becomes a sadhu, and Madhvi becomes his devotee.

Munshi Premchand, a pioneer of realist Hindi fiction as well as one of the most celebrated authors of the Indian sub-continent, lived and wrote during the British colonial period. He has written more than a dozen novels and two hundred fifty stories. Included in this collection are of some of his most famous stories which cover on a microcosmic level almost all the themes dealt in his entire ouvre. Premchand's stories recreate with great fidelity the life in the country side and small towns of India. Even though he wrote in a period which now appears to be a distant past, with a value system which is now on the verge of its extinction, the issues raised in his works are still very relevant. Premchand was a master story teller who has created a wide spectrum of characters ranging from feudal lords, noblemen, government officials, prosperous farmers to landless labourers many of whom have become archetypal characters in Hindi fiction. Written in an inimitable but simple language, these stories provide an excellent introduction to the corpus of Premchand. Replete with satire, irony and incidental humour which is typical of Premchand, these stories also provide a delightful reading. Dinesh Verma, who has translated these stories, is also an author. His collection of stories 'The Fine Print and Other Yarns' about life of expatriate Indians in Paris was published in 2009 by UBS Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. It is now available on Amzaon.com and Createspace.com