Send us a textMunshi Premchand was a trailblazer storyteller who is remembered for his path-breaking contributions to both Urdu and Hindi languages. He was born in 1880 and was named Dhanpat Rai Srivastava. He started his writing career as an Urdu writer but later moved to Hindi at the advice of a friend. He is truly the father of Urdu afsana and Hindi kahani. In his creative journey, we find evidence of progress from a softer to a more mature persona, a sign of how he moved from describing familiar social situations to a penetrating mind that was comfortable managing more complex facets of reality. This task required courage and excellent mastery over the art of storytelling. Munshi Premchand is also remembered for his presidential address at the first meeting of the Progressive Writers’ Association in Lucknow in 1936. He died a few months later. In this episode, I read his short story Kafan or The Shroud, which is considered one of his masterworks.

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