Selected Satire: Fifty Years of Ignorance [Paperback]

Selected Satire: Fifty Years of Ignorancebrings together about 20 satire pieces of eminent Hindi writer, Shrilal Shukla. Most noted for his novel Raag Darbari, for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Award, Shukla also wrote several collections of satirical essays and short stories.
The pieces in this volume include his socio-political and cultural satires, where he caricaturizes politicians, mocks the bureaucracy (many of whom were his friends), and picks on the so-called developmental schemes of the government. A couple of pieces are also about small town attitudes and pretentions of intellectuals. The overall flavour is of an irreverence to authority and humour drawn from everyday occurrences.

Most noted for his novelRaag Darbari, for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Award, Shrilal Shukla also wrote several collections of satirical essays and short stories. He was a recipient of the Jnanpith Award and the Padma Bhushan. Matt Reeck previously translated Intizar Hussain'sThe Chronicleand Manto'sBombay Stories. His poetry and his translations have been published in many national magazines. He won a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to India, and he has received PEN and NEA translation grants for his translation work from Urdu.