Nirmal Verma

Interviews of Nirmal Verma, b. 1929, Hindi author, chiefly on 20th century Hindi literature; includes Hindi translation of some interviews in English.

Is this journey's end... or just the beginning? Toklo, Kallik, Lusa, and Ujurak have finally reached the Last Great Wilderness, the legendary bear paradise they've been searching for. But while his companions think they've come to the end of their long journey, Ujurak feels a deep unrest. Is this truly where they're meant to be? In the Last Great Wilderness, one by one the bears begin to remember their true natures. Toklo feels the urge to hunt caribou and mark his territory as a brown bear should, and Kallik feels the pull of the ice within her. It's only Lusa, happy just to be in the wild, who fears the day when her friends will leave her to follow their own paths.As the bears adjust to this new life, disaster strikes. The friends are forced to venture into the world of the flat-faces to save the life of one of their own. Once there, the end of their journey seems farther away than ever, as a new path spreads out before them.

Extracts from the diaries of this Hindi author describing his daily routine and discussing Hindi literature of his times; includes notes from his travelogue.

Immaculately crafted and passionately imagined, Nirmal Verma's Dark Dispatches confirms his reputation as one of the finest writers and profoundest thinkers in modern India. The novel, set in the Emergency, traces the slow slide of an idealistic journalist into suspicion, fear and despair. The protagonist's fate, his final estrangement from his friends and family, is a result both of the dark times in which he lives and of his own inability to love. Through the life of a single individual, written in brooding and terrifying images, Nirmal Verma tells the story of a nations's tragic failure to create democratic spaces where non-violent and ethically just action is possible.

Articles, chiefly on Hindi literature and contemporary Indic culture.

Letters of Nirmal Verma, 1929-2005, Hindi author, chiefly written to Ramesh Chandra Shah b. 1937, and Jyotsnā Milana, b. 1941, Hindi authors, during 1980-1990.

Travel writings of a former moderate Muslim League leader and some time Chief Minister of Kerala, India.