Maharishi Arvind Knwoledge Resource

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (30 October 1909 – 24 January 1966) was an Indian nuclear physicist, founding director, and professor of physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Colloquially known as “Father of the Indian nuclear programme”, Bhabha was also the founding director of the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET) which is now named the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in his honour. TIFR and AEET were the cornerstone of Indian development of nuclear weapons which Bhabha also supervised as director.

Bhabha was awarded the Adams Prize (1942) and Padma Bhushan (1954). He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951 and 1953–1956.

Munshi Premchand’s original name was Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, better known by his pen name Munshi Premchand, was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindi writers of the early twentieth century. He began writing under the pen name “Nawab Rai”, but subsequently switched to “Premchand”. Munshi being an honorary prefix. A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the “Upanyas Samrat” (“Emperor among Novelists”) by writers. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 300 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi.

Munshi Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in Lamhi, a village located near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Satyajit Ray filmed two of Premchand’s works– Sadgati and Shatranj Ke Khiladi. Sadgati is a short story revolving around poor Dukhi. Shatranj ke Khiladi revolved around the decadence of nawabi Lucknow, where the obsession with a game consumes the players, making them oblivious of their responsibilities in the midst of a crisis.

In August 1916, Premchand was transferred to Gorakhpur on a promotion. He became the Assistant Master at the Normal High School, Gorakhpur.

At Gorakhpur, he developed a friendship with the bookseller Buddhi Lal, who allowed him to borrow novels for reading, in exchange for selling exam cram books at the school. Premchand was an enthusiastic reader of classics in other languages, and translated several of these works in Hindi.

In 1923, he established a printing press and publishing house in Varanasi, christened “Saraswati Press”. The year 1924 saw the publication of Premchand’s Rangabhumi, which has a blind beggar called Surdas as its tragic hero. Schulz mentions that in Rangabhumi, Premchand comes across as a “superb social chronicler”.

In 1928, Premchand’s novel Gaban (“Embezzlement”), focusing on the middle class, was published. In March 1930, Premchand launched a literary-political weekly magazine titled Hans, aimed at inspiring the Indians to mobilise against the British rule. The magazine, noted for its politically provocative views, failed to make a profit. Premchand then took over and edited another magazine called Jagaran.

Mahadevi Verma was a Hindi poet, freedom fighter and educationist from India. She is widely regarded as the “modern Meera”. She was a major poet of the “Chhayavaad”, a literary movement of romanticism in modern Hindi poetry ranging from 1914–1938 and a prominent poet in Hindi Kavi Sammelans (Gatherings of poets).

She was the Principal, and then the Vice-Chancellor of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, a woman’s residential college in Allahabad.

Mahadevi Verma was born on 26 March 1907 in Farrukhabad. her education was at Crossthwaite Girls’ School in Allahabad. At this school, she met fellow student Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, who would later go on to become a prominent Hindi writer and poet, like Verma herself.

Varma is considered to be one of the four major poets of the Chhayavaadi school of the Hindi literature, others being Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Jaishankar Prasad and Sumitranandan Pant. She drew a number of illustrations for her poetic works like Yama. One of her other works is Neelkanth which talks about her experience with a peacock, which is included as a chapter into the syllabus of Central Board of Secondary Education for 7th graders. She has also written Gaura which is based on her real life, in this story she wrote about a beautiful cow. Mahadevi Verma is also known for her childhood memoir, Mere Bachpan Ke Din and Gillu, which was inducted into the syllabus of India’s Central Board of Secondary Education for the 9th grade. In addition, her poem “Madhur Madhur Mere Deepak Jal” is a part of CBSE curriculum (Hindi-B) for 10th grade. From one of her memoir, Smriti ki Rekhayen, an account of her maid-friend, Bhaktin, is included in Class 12 Hindi Core syllabus of CBSE.

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami was an Indian writer known for his work set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.

Narayan’s mentor and friend Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. The fictional town of Malgudi was first introduced in Swami and Friends. Narayan’s The Financial Expert was hailed as one of the most original works of 1951 and Sahitya Academy Award winner The Guide was adapted for film (winning a Filmfare Award for Best Film) and for Broadway.

Narayan highlights the social context and everyday life of his characters. He has been compared to William Faulkner who also created a similar fictional town and likewise explored with humour and compassion the energy of ordinary life. Narayan’s short stories have been compared with those of Guy de Maupassant because of his ability to compress a narrative.

In a career that spanned over sixty years Narayan received many awards and honours including the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan, India’s second and third highest civilian awards. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament.

Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He lives with his adopted family in Landour, Mussoorie, India. The Indian Council for Child Education has recognised his role in the growth of children’s literature in India. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1992 for Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, his novel in English. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Ruskin Bond was born to Edith Clarke and Aubrey Alexander Bond, in Kasauli, Punjab States Agency, British India. His father taught English to the princesses of Jamnagar palace and Ruskin and his sister Ellen lived there till he was six. Later, Ruskin’s father joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 and Ruskin along with his mother and sister went to live at his maternal home at Dehradun.

He did his schooling from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, from where he graduated in 1950. He won several writing competitions in the school including the Irwin Divinity Prize and the Hailey Literature Prize.

Most of his works are influenced by life in the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his childhood. His first novel, The Room On the Roof, was written when he was 17 and published when he was 21. It was partly based on his experiences at Dehradun, in his small rented room on the roof, and his friends. His earlier works were written without it being meant for any particular readership. His first children’s book, Angry River, published in the 1970s, had its writing toned down on a publisher’s request for a children’s story. On writing for children, he said, “I had a pretty lonely childhood and it helps me to understand a child better.” Bond’s work reflects his Anglo-Indian experiences and the changing political, social and cultural aspects of India, having been through colonial, postcolonial and post-independence phases of India.

Bond said that while his autobiographical work, Rain in the Mountains, was about his years spent in Mussoorie, Scenes from a Writer’s Life described his first 21 years. Scenes from a Writer’s Life focuses on Bond’s trip to England, his struggle to find a publisher for his first book The Room on the Roof and his yearning to come back to India, particularly to Doon. “It also tells a lot about my parents”, said Bond. “The book ends with the publication of my first novel and my decision to make writing my livelihood”, Bond said, adding: “Basically, it describes how I became a writer”.

Being a writer for over 50 years, Bond experimented with different genres; early works include fiction, short stories, novella with some being autobiographical. Later, he tried out non-fiction, romance and books for children. He said his favourite genres are essays and short stories. He considers himself a “visual writer” because for short stories, he first imagines it like a film and then notes it down. For an essay or travelogue, such planning is not needed for him. He feels the unexpected there makes it more exciting.