fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

mind were beginning to unknot : somethingsoft within her flooded her eyes and poureddown. For her father, for her brothers andsisters, and perhaps for her own self too,quiet notes of prayer were beginning togrow within her. 'Jadaanandaan, pangun,prakritividhira, mukti viklaan' 'GoddessAmbey! All those born deaf, lame, dumband blind, all those who earn release fromthe load of their sins and for whom allroads are closed, redeem all such afflictedones'.Away there, on the banks of the Ganga,funerals, food offerings, the immersion ofashes etcetera went on; the priests kepttaking the signatures of their patrons; wives,holding the hands of their husbands, divedagain and again into the river. And thehordes of hungry, naked and disabled whohad left sated with the halwa-puri feastspread out for them by the worthy sonsof Gokulnath, are today again afflicted bypangs of hunger, and are again on the lookoutupon the banks of the Ganga for someother worthy sons of some otherGokulnath.Chandrakanta, born 1938 in Srinagar, is a Vyas Samman laureate who is known for portrayalof Kashmir in its varted shades and her major books are: ’Ailan Gali Zinda hai’. Kathasatisar, mere bhojpatra,’ ‘abbu ne kaha tha’ and ‘antim sakshya.’ She lives in Gurgaon, Haryana.Raji Narsimhan, Migrating from journalism to creative writing in the seventies, Raji Narasimhan,writing in English, has produced to date five novels, two short story collections, two booksin literary criticism, and three translations from Hindi to English. Her novel, ‘Forever Free’published by Hind Pocket Books in 1979, was short listed for the Sahitya Akadami Award,and was on the English literature syllabus of the IIT, Delhi. ‘Sensibility Under Stress : Aspectsof Indo-English Writing’ was short listed for the Sahitya Akadami Award, and was recommendedreading for students in a number of universities. A second book of criticism, dealing withtranslation processes, is recently published. She lives in New Delhi.fgndi •April-June 2013 :: 119