"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
There is an accidental killing in a forest-tribal village in Chhattisgarh. The Police Inspector is on his way to investigate. The village-constable, riding on the pillion of the Inspector’s motorbike, suddenly cautions him to avoid a particular spot on the path where grows the Bhulan Kaanda, the tuber whose contact, he claims, induces instant amnesia and makes the victim confused regarding the right path, making him go around and round. The accidental killing throws up an existential conflict between the traditional village system of justice and the formal State court of law. The accused, as also the entire village, find themselves making several rounds to the court in the town to resolve a matter that they had smoothly resolved long back. The amnesia-inducing tuber becomes a metaphor for the institutions of the Government. The story, riveting as it unfolds, dramatizes a subject that has been rarely examined: the post-colonial discord in countries like India between the traditional structures of local governance and the State’s institutions, inherited from alien rulers of the past. Once you start reading the story, it is hard to put this book down. Later, it lingers in your mind raising important questions begging for answers.
Bhulan Kaanda is bound to emerge as a unique novel in Hindi Literature. – Vishnu Khare
Sanjeev Buxy, Translators: K S Ram & Uma Ram
Sanjeev Buxy, (b.1952) is an acclaimed poet and fiction writer in Hindi. A former bureaucrat by profession, his first love has always been literature. He has published six collections of poems, two novels and two memoirs. But he is best known as the author of Bhulan Kaanda, first published in 2012, now made into a feature film that has won ten national and international awards. This novel won the prestigious Premchand Samman in 2012. He has also been honoured with Thakur Puran Singh Smriti Sutra Award and Hemachandracharya Sahitya Sri Alankaran. He lives in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
Uma Ram and K.S.Ram, write regularly for the Speaking Tree, The Times of India. Dr. Uma Ram retired as Professor and Head, Department of English, Government PG College, Jagdalpur (Bastar), in Chhattisgarh. K.S. Ram graduated from Karnatak University in 1974, winning the University Gold Medal for topping in English. He has translated Adi Shankarachaya’s Bhaja Govindam and Annapoorna Stotram (2016), and Kabir’s Dohas (2019), into English. He is author of Bastar and Miscellaneous Poems (2019). Uma and Ram have jointly authored Tribal Songs, Ballads and Oral Epics of Bastar (2012). They live in Bengaluru.
