Sunday, October 05, 2008

Mulk Raj Anand

Now a days I am reading 'Selected short stories written by Mulk Raj Anand seleced and edited by Saros Cowasjee. This book brings together some of the best and most memorable stories from Anand's published collections, each of them illustrating a different mood and tone.
In his this book, Anand draws our attention to the plight of the marginalized, the poor and the illiterate, and penetrates their innermost feelings and emotions.

Mulk Raj Anand (December 12, 1905 - September 28, 2004) was an Indian writer in English, notable for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, together with R.K. Narayan, was one of the first India-based writers in English to gain an international readership.

His first main novel, Untouchable, published in 1935, was a chilling exposé of the day-to-day life of a member of India's untouchable caste. It is the story of a single day in the life of Bakha, a toilet-cleaner, who accidentally bumps into a member of a higher caste.