Author: Dalip Kaur Tiwana
Publisher: Macmillan
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 103
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0333 93187 4
Description
Translated from the Punjabi original (Lang Gaye Dariya), this novel by the noted Punjabi novelist, is a depiction of a culture in the princely Sikh state of Patiala , where Maharaja's word was law in all social and moral interactions.
Hide bound in the trappings of feudal society of liveried servants and crystal, of patronage, privileged idleness and unquestioning subservience to family 'honor', Bakshish Singh - royal counselor to the Maharaja of Patiala - and his family find themselves overwhelmed when things begin to change.
Even as the newly-independent nation takes charge of her future, Gurbakshish, the son, and the women of the household, cling to the crumbling mores of the old order - unsuccessfully and with tragic consequences. Still, the old era has ended and a new one must begin.
TRANSLATORS: Bhupinder Singh (1940) is Professor of Sociology, Punjabi University, Patiala, and occasionally publishes poetry under his pen-name Sarvan Minhas. S.C.Narula (1930) translator, poet and reviewer, is Reader in English at the University of Delhi and has specialized in modern verse drama and seventeenth century English poetry.