When I read Hindi literature, it is majorly two authors – Premchand and Sharat Chandra. Funny thing is that both of them mostly wrote in two different languages and I just happen to read them in Hindi. 🙂 I mentioned in one of my old book opinions that I totally recommend reading Premchand in English if you don’t know Hindu or Urdu. While Premchand’s stories deal more with societal problems in North India during his time like poverty, widow remarriage etc. and paint a picture where you can entirely imagine the situation and feel attached to the characters in a heart-wrenching way, Sharat Chandra was a highly acclaimed Bengali author most of whose works, in my opinion, focus on two things – 1) love with strong emphasis on feminism and 2) worldly happenings presented with humor. One of his most famous works is a novel ‘Devdas’ which has been adapted several times as Bollywood Movies. I have read Devdas in Hindi and loved it (maybe because family drama is one of my favorite genres). I have read another collection of his short stories before this one shared here today and while I loved that other one, I did not like this one as much. Of course, I did like it, but slightly less than the previous one because this one has more stories in the form of him sharing his various experiences as stories while sitting in a group of friends (apparently people who knew him were very fond of his story-telling). I enjoyed that but I wished for more. I wished there were more fictional stories as well. Still I recommend reading his works to those who like old Indian tales (I have already mentioned above what are his focus areas when it comes to genre :D). Very few of his works are available in English though.
This was a plain simple book opinion, right? 😀
PS: This is the ninth book that I read as part of the Brunch Book Challenge and as I said, I’ll be logging my opinion about every book that I read as part of this challenge. In case you want to participate in this challenge too, read up about it here.
Life of Srish 
I am a Premchand fan. Have read Godaan, kafan, nirmala. Brilliant portrayal of pre-independence society that hasnt changed much.
Hi 5 Premchand fan! 😀 sadly, I haven’t read any of his novels, only the short stories, over and over again. 🙂 Btw, which language do you mostly read him in?
On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 4:21 AM, Life of Srish wrote:
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I have read him in hindi. I can read hindi very well. Marathi too. But I am struggling with Mrityunjay because it is a very heavy read. But read it if you can get your hands on the translation. It is Karna’s story and I don’t like Pandavas anymore.
Wow! that’s one strong opinion. I am sure then that the book is quite interesting.
On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 10:43 PM, Life of Srish wrote:
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become fan of me I am better than him
will you read my blog http://www.athibanspeaks.blogspot.in
premchand’s stories were part of my curricullum when i was studying in school ..
I seem to have forgotten hindi it seems took me time to read a bit of hindi in the pic 🙂
Oh yes, lot of people find Hindi difficult to read/speak. 🙂
On Wed, Jul 2, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Life of Srish wrote:
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Ji aapne kuch bhooli bisri baatein yaad dila di aaj. Hindi mein fail hote hote bacha tha bachpan mein, and for good reason. A friend gifted me Gunaahon Ka Devta on birthday, which I gifted to her boyfriend on engagement.
That said, I did read SC and PC extensively as a child. Almost every single book by them. And, I find your review spot on. It would be interesting to know about you perspective of favourite characters.
Thanks for your kind words regarding the review, Tatsat. 🙂
As for my favorite characters, there are many or you can say that they keep varying time to time. I love reading the stories and feel intrigued by the characters, but a life-changing one or always in my mind hasn’t happened yet.
Btw, there is this one character in one of Premchand’s short stories Muliya or some other name, this girl who is really fond of dressing up and making merry, and women think her to be shallow, but in reality she is a very beautiful person, inside out. She was a breath of fresh air. 🙂
Thanks for sharing – I will check out SCC once I have finished with Premchand’s short stories, which I got on your recommendation 🙂 Managed to find an English translation. Hope it’s good!
Oh great! 🙂 I hope you like it. Let me know your opinion about the same, dear. 🙂
Can’t read bengali and don’t enjoy reading hindi…so no opinion…though we do have all the works of Sarat Chandra at home…but, have you tried the indo-anglican writers? Amitav Ghosh and Khushwant Singh are really good!
you can’t read Bengali? shame on you 😛 If it helps, I can’t read Punjabi either, hell I can’t even speak it properly. 😛 I so want to read both of the mentioned writers, soon. 🙂
Haha..I can read it…but very very slowly..and only if the language is simple as in newspapers( I say that I am literate but not educated in Bengali)…but, yes, I can speak Bengali fluently…so I am one up on you there!! 😛 😀 But yes, I agree, nothing to be proud of…
totally, nothing to be proud of at my side either
and yes, you are one up 
Just kidding!! 😀
_/\_
Oh, I love Sharatchandra! I think he was quite ahead of his time. His novel ‘Swami’ is still my all time favourite! 🙂
Will read that sometime, you are right actually, i have never thought it this way but he really was ahead of his time
On Sat, Jan 10, 2015 at 2:43 PM, Life of Srish wrote:
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Have you read Idgaah of premchand
of course 🙂