Hats and Doctors

Upendranath Ashk 19101996, was one of Hindi literatures best-known and most controversial authors. Ashk was born in Jalandhar and spent the early part of his writing career as an Urdu author in Lahore. Encouraged by Premchand, he switched to Hindi, and a few years before Partition, moved to Bombay, Delhi and finally Allahabad in 1948, where he spent the rest of his life. By the time of his death, Ashks phenomenally large oeuvre spanned over a hundred volumes of fiction, poetry, memoir, criticism and translation. Ashk is perhaps best known for his six-volume novel cycle, Girti Divarein, or Falling Wallsan intensely detailed chronicle of the travails of a young Punjabi man attempting to become a writerwhich has earned the author comparisons to Marcel Proust. Ashk was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards during his lifetime for his masterful portrayal, by turns humorous and remarkably profound, of the everyday lives of ordinary people. Daisy Rockwell holds a PhD in Hindi literature and has taught HindiUrdu and South Asian literature at a number of US universities. Apart from her essays on literature and art, she has written Upendranath Ashk: A Critical Biography and The Little Book of Terror, a new book of paintings and essays on the global war on terror. She is currently working on a translation of Ashks 1947 novel Girti Divarein.

Hats and Doctors offers English readers the opportunity to savour, for the first time, the work of Upendranath Ashk, one of Hindi literatures bestknown and most controversial authors. The stories in this collection often display a wry sense of humour, such as The Dal Eaters in which a family of cheapskates journeys to Kashmir. While Ashks satirical eye is employed to great effect in The Cartoon Hero, where a hapless traveller encounters a petty politician on a train, his talent for capturing human frailties is amply evident in Furlough and In the Insane Asylumtwo thought-provoking stories that later became part of his novel Girti Divarein. And finally, stories such as Mr Ghatpande and Hats and Doctors give the reader a glimpse of some of Ashks primary personal preoccupations: his health and his hats. Exhibiting a lightness of touch and a deep engagement with the human condition, these stories come alive in Daisy Rockwells delightful translation.