Panchlight and Other Stories

Phanishwar Nath Renu
Translated from the Hindi by Rakhshanda Jalil
ISBN 978-81-250-3841-2; Binding: Paperback; Price: Rs.275/-; Pages: 152; Rights: World
Set in Bihar, that vast hinterland of India, the diversity of the stories in this collection represents the work of Phanishwar Nath Renu (1921–77), one of Hindi's foremost writers.
Renu's world is rural Bihar—a world of poverty, ignorance, helplessness, superstition and exploitation. The characters in his stories are the landless, the disenfranchised and the marginalised. He writes of passions spent, hurts unresolved, dreams unfulfilled, in the context of a changing world and a crumbling social order. But his work is anything but bleak. Its universality and the energy come from Renu's ability to rise above the human condition and look deep within into the human heart.
Rakhshanda Jalil's translation brings to the reader a writer and storyteller in supreme control of his craft.

Phanishwar Nath Renu (1921–77) was born in the village of Aurahi Hingua in the Purnea district of Bihar. His novel, Maila Anchal (1954) hailed him as a stalwart in the Nayi Kahani (New Story) movement. His short story, Maare Gaye Gulfam was made into a major Hindi feature film. Renu's work speaks to the reader of all that is enduring in the human heart.

Rakhshanda Jalil has edited two collections of short stories and published six works of translations. Her recent works include Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi and Naked Voices and other Stories, a translation of stories and sketches by Manto. She works as Media and Cultural Coordinator at Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi and has also taught English in the universities of Delhi and Aligarh. She runs an organisation named Hindustani Awaaz to popularise Hindi and Urdu literature.