Damn History

What attracted me towards Govind's stories was a strange kind of innocence which is reflected there. The injured in the story – be it a person, a character or his/her feelings – about whom we don't know much nor the author tells much, just the feeling of being injured... it comes out with such passion that is seldom seen in other story-writers.”So said Nirmal Verma about Govind Mishra's short stories. Another prominent short story writer of Hindi Shailesh Matiyani opined – 'Even though writing on both the worlds – the inner and the outer – Govind Mishra saved himself from the dangers of both realism and romanticism. That way he comes to belong to the tradition of not so much Jainendra, Ajneya or Nirmal Verma but that of Premchand.'Having created more than a thousand characters in his fiction, Govind Mishra's portrayal extends from villages, to towns, to cities, to metros and even up to foreign melieu. 'Few writers have such a big range' – said Srilal Shukla of Rag Darbari fame.'Damn History' attempts to present in English for the first time, representative stories of the author, selected from more than fifteen collections of his short stories in Hindi, 1965 onwards.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ContentsIntroduction: Between Isolation and Commitment —Pgs. 51. Beyond Comprehension —Pgs. 152. This Much Light —Pgs. 263. Wrong Number —Pgs. 404. The Beginning —Pgs. 495. Jehad (The Holy War) —Pgs. 556. Devaluation —Pgs. 737. The Swing —Pgs. 808. Antahpur (The Harem) —Pgs. 919. A Drop...Complicated —Pgs. 11210. Friend —Pgs. 12311. The Evening Beat —Pgs. 12912. The War —Pgs. 13913. Pagla Baba (The Madcap Saint) —Pgs. 15614. Michael Lobo —Pgs. 16415. Damn History! —Pgs. 175