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The story titled "Pinjara" was written by Upendranath Ashk, a famous novelist, story writer, and playwright. He was born in Jalandhar, in 1910. He worked for All India Radio for many years and invented what came to be known as naturalistic Hindi theater. Upenderanath Ashk had complete mastery over Hindi and Urdu and his books were published in both these languages. In 1940 he moved to Allahabad where he spent the rest of his life. He passed away in 1996.

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"Puure Chaand Ki Raat" is a story written by Krishan Chander, the eminent Urdu fiction writer, who weaved poetry into his prose writing. This love story is set in Kashmir and even if you have never visited this place you can smell the purified and fragrant air of the Valley in Krishan Chander’s writing. Love can take many forms, but if you have loved someone deeply your love for that person will never die. Krishan Chander’s description of nature is realistic as well as mysterious. He creates colorful images, one after the other, with the power of his pen.

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We start the second season with a fascinating story titled "Static A.D." written by Ameta Bal. The story is drawn from the "Anthology of New Writing by Women Writers" produced by the Punch literary magazine and edited by Shireen Quadri. This anthology is a beautiful collection. Get a copy of this book, and you can spend hours reading these fascinating tales. 

 "Static A.D." selected for this program is about what looks like the end of the world, or the world as we know it. There are riots, and people walk on the roads like ghosts searching for food and shelter. The writer uses short sentences with a poetic flair, and she takes us to an apocalyptic scenario that we all dread. Still, it is a place that is probably our journey's end as human species, given the damage we have done to the environment and continue to do.

  Ameta Bal is a postgraduate in Fashion and English Literature. She has worked with Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Marie Claire, and Elle. She is currently learning Korean and spends her time gaming, watching, and reading all things apocalyptic while trying vainly to shun social media.

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The Chessplayers as a piece of historical fiction is a class by itself. At the surface level, it is the story of two petty Nawabs who were obsessed with the game of chess, but at the deeper level, it is the story of the fall of Oudh, and even the fall of independent India. Once the British took hold of Oudh, very little could come in their way to grasp the remnants of the Mughal Empire in Delhi and the rest of India. For the city of Lucknow itself, it was the best of times and the worst of times. People were engaged in all kinds of artistic pursuits and in all kinds of pleasure-inducing activities while the foundation of the state was shaking and the British were eagerly waiting for an opportunity to steal the kingdom. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had his faults, but he was a legendary ruler in many ways. A patron of arts, a poet and musician, a playwright, and an actor, but unfortunately, he had lost touch with the intricacies of statecraft. The game of chess became deadly that not only brought the friendship between the two players to an end, but at a higher level, it was the failure of a dream, a world, despite its shortcomings that had several positive aspects which survived the colonial takeover and are considered great gifts to the tradition of the Indian dance and music. 

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Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore is a writer who needs no introduction to the listeners. He not only rejuvenated Bengali literature, but there is not an Indian genre or subgenre of fiction, poetry, playwriting, philosophy, art, and education that he did not profoundly influence. He was born in Calcutta in 1861 in a distinguished family at the forefront of the Indian renaissance. While on a trip to England, he showed his translation of Gitanjali to poets William Butler Yeats and Ezra Pound, who helped him get the book published by Asia Society. That is how he won the Noble Prize in Literature in 1913; the first non-European to win this honor. He was also awarded a knighthood in 1915, which he renounced after the Jallianwala massacre of 1919. Tagore started writing short stories when he was sixteen. He was a gifted composer and composed more than 2000 songs. His songs are also national anthems of two countries – India and Bangladesh. Tagore traveled extensively and conversed with leading literary, political, and scientific personalities of his time, people like Einstein. He influenced literature and arts, not only in India but globally. The story “The Tale of a Muslim Woman” was composed by Tagore a few months before his death, but it was not published until 1955. 

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IndiStories presents a piece written by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, and the most loved Indian political leader. Because of his education at Harrow School, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the one who was trained in law at the Inner Temple, he acquired deep thinking skills that he used to probe India’s history and culture. Who doesn’t remember his Tryst With Destiny speech that he delivered as the clock struck midnight to usher India into an era of freedom? Nehru called himself an agnostic and a scientific humanist. IndiStories is a podcast for short fiction, while what we are presenting here may be called an essay or a page from a book on philosophy and culture. That may be true. But it is also true that the journey of Hinduism during the ages is also a story. It is not a piece of fiction, but a fascinating story nevertheless. It is a story that is highly relevant to the times we live in. The word Hinduism is being redefined and new meanings are being assigned to it. In this context,  it is important for us to know what Pandit Nehru with his critical scientific inquiring mind thought about Hinduism. This story is excerpted from Nehru’s book The Discovery of India which he wrote in Ahmadnagar Fort Prison for a period of five months, April through September 1944. 

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'The Death of Mahatma Gandhi’ is a story like no other because it is based on the eyewitness account of someone who saw it all. Nayantara Sahgal, the distinguished novelist, is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family. Her mother Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister, was the 8th president of the UN General Assembly,  besides being a governor and a member of parliament. Nayantara is Pandit Nehru’s niece and Indira Gandhi’s cousin. She has published about a dozen novels besides two memoirs and other books. As an outspoken defender of human rights and democracy, she had a falling out with her cousin, Indira Gandhi, and Nayantara penned two books criticizing Indira’s authoritative style of leadership. Indira, on her side, retaliated when she canceled Nayantara’s appointment as India’s ambassador to Italy. Born in 1927, Nayantara leads an active life and lives in the same house in Dehradun, where she has spent the better part of her life. This story is excerpted from her memoir Prison and Chocolate Cake, published in 1954. 

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Famous Urdu novelist and short story writer Qurratulain Hyder once described Professor Gopi Chand Narang, who passed away on June 15, 2022, as a "renaissance man" of Urdu. Narang called his life a safr-e i'shq (the journey of love) for Urdu language and literature. The story of Ghazal included in this episode has been excerpted from the book The Urdu Ghazal: A Gift of India’s Composite Culture. We all love ghazals and that is why we read them and listen to them in the immortal voices of singers like Begum Akhtar, Mahdi Hasan, and Jagjit Singh. But many of us do not know much about its origin, its flowering over the past 300 years. If you listen to this Podcast you will familiarize yourself with the history of Urdu ghazal over hills and valleys, a very dangerous terrain at times, but surviving because of its inner strengths. When significant literary figures depart, they leave behind their work of a lifetime. Professor Narang's contribution will be remembered as long as literary tradition is alive and well in Urdu and scholars are writing about the origins and growth of literary criticism in Indian languages. His legacy is safely protected in between the covers of his books and that is the place where students of language, literature, and criticism will continue to get their inspiration.

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Satyajit Ray was a multidimensional genius who showed his talent in many fields and genres besides films. He was an author, lyricist, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. Ray was born in Calcutta in 1921. He was only three when his father passed away, and he was raised by his mother, Suprabha Ray. He was educated at the Presidency College, Calcutta, and Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan. His first job was at a book publishing company where he designed book covers. This work got him interested in films and literature. Ray was greatly influenced by the Italian film Bicycle Thief in 1948 and determined to be a filmmaker. Starting with a low-budget film Pather Panchali, Ray went on to produce such classics as The Apu Trilogy, Devi, Charulata, and his only non-Bengali movie Shatranj Ke Khiladi. Ray won several prestigious national and international awards, including Bharat Ratna and an honorary Academy Award.  While most of us know Satyajit Ray as a filmmaker, his work as an author of several novels and short stories is less known. Detective fiction and science fiction were two genres where Ray showed his talent as a writer. Ray's short story, "Big Bill," selected for this episode, combines detective and science fiction elements. 

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Ismat Chughtai was born in Badaun in 1915 in a large family of six brothers and four sisters. Her elder brother, Mirza Azim Beg Chughtai, a novelist, became her mentor and encouraged her to become a writer.  Because she wrote openly about female sexuality, she got into legal trouble with the publication of her s short story Lihaaf, which featured a begum having a lesbian relationship with her maid. She was charged with promoting obscenity, and the case went up to Lahore High Court before she was acquitted. Ismat spent a better part of her working life in the film industry. She published eight novels, including one based on the life of actor and director Guru Dutt. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the late 1980s, and she died in 1991. At her wish, she was cremated and not buried