"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 PalIt is interesting to learn about different societies and cultures of India. Particularly, when we penetrate from one lifestyle to another, certain facts attract our mind and we often try to collect the interesting parts out of it.
Head Gear is a collection of short tales based on the lives and miseries of the people living in the coal belt of India. This book is an effort to come very close to true incidents although these are not exact truths and all the characters mentioned in the book are fictional and have no relevance with any people living or dead. Each coal mine, irrespective of being active or abandoned, has a story to narrate — from the poor miners of the Malkatta caste who had been engaged in the profession for generations and of the time when the British needed coal and more coal to fuel everything from their steam locomotives to their ambitions of establishing an Empire and a great Indian colony. The book will help readers understand the lifestyle, history, working culture and other common scenario happening in the coal industries of India, especially the miners. These people and their tales have existed or survived parallel to the coal extraction cycle since the advent of large-scale coal usage in India.
Dr. Ashok Kumar
Dr. Ashok Kumar is a retired Deputy Chief Medical Officer from Eastern Coalfields Limited. He served the coal industry as a medical professional for 35 years and published various articles, stories, features and poetries in Coal Patrika, Khannan Bharti and Jyotsna. His passion for writing and literature helped him publish his first book Anubhuti in 1996. This book was a compilation of various poetries on fantasy. He has also written a book on Shreemad Bhagwat Geeta named Maha Sambad in which the shlokas are presented in the form of poetries.
Apart from performing his duty as a medical professional, he has also participated in various Hindi promotional programs and activities. He has also been awarded Raaj Bhasha Samman by Coal India Limited during his tenure. His profession helped him come across various sections of the society, especially the unprivileged and poor workers who used to get free treatment from the company. He stayed in several coalfield belts of West Bengal and attended to various people from different sections of society. He is presently associated with Human Rights and also participates in different social activities and programs.
