Ordained By Fate (English Translation Of Award Winning Urdu Novel Ek Chadar Maili Si)

Ordained by Fate, originally written in Urdu, is an extraordinary tale of ordinary people thrown together without choice. Rano, the heroine goaded by an inner psychic urge to survive, is forced to marry Mangal, her brother-in-law, who is a good ten years younger than her and whom she had looked upon as a son, a son who had protected her all along from the wrath of his elder brother Tiloka, a sadist and a social misfit. She is ashamed of and in a peculiar way also happy in the new relationship. In this passion we find the traditional combination of the mother, sister and the prostitute.

Rajinder Singh Bed i (1915-1984) wrote a number of poems and short stories in Urdu, English and Punjabi right from his school days. His first employment was as a clerk in a Post Office in Lahore and later he worked in All India Radio. In 1947 he came and settled down in Delhi. After a brief stint as Station Director in Jammu Radio Station, he migrated to Bombay. He wrote over 70 short stories, and film scripts and dialogues for over 40 films, prominent among them being Devdas, Mirza Ghalib, Madhumati and Abhiman. He also produced and directed Dastak, which won a National Award. He received many Awards and honours, which include, Sahitya Akademi Award, Padmasri (1972), Ghalib Award (1962), besides several Filmfare and regional awards. Ek Chadar Maili Si was awarded the Sahitya Akademi in 1965 and was also made into a film.

Avtar Singh judge (b.1929) is a translator in English and Hindi. He has translated Surendra Prakash's Sahitya Akademi Award winning short story collection Baaz Goyi into English.

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