Reminiscences (Rajasthani Memoirs): Sahitya Akademi Award-Winning Rajasthani Memoirs

Reminiscences epitomises the author's transcendental quest for the essence of things. It is an anthology of the life and times of seven villagers of Rajasthan. What makes the book, an outstanding addition to literary prose in Rajasthani, is its artistic delineation of interior events, its reflection of literary, cultural and ideological concerns and its skilful weaving of metaphysical insights.

Nem Narayan Joshi (b.1925) is a bilingual scholar and writer in Rajasthani and Hindi. He has several works of research to his credit. He has edited Markandeya Krit Sajjan Vinod, a medieval text. He received Suryamalla Meesan Puraskar in 1995, Sahitya Akedami Award in 1996, and Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award in 1997.
N. Sahal (b.1919) is a well-known poet, critic and a translator. He has more than 30 books in Hindi, English and Rajasthani to his credit including Satyam Shivam Sundaram, in Rajasthani which won the Rajasthani Sahitya Academy Award.

From the very beginning I have been slow and unsteady in writing. During the last thirty years I could write but seven reminiscences. In my village there were some exceptional personages who had exercised a deep influence on me. For years together they lay silent in the deep recesses of my heart. At last I felt suffocated since they turned insistent on coming out. They pursued all possible tactics like crying, weeping, wailing, calling me urgently and others. I was so very pained that I was forced to take them out one by one and indite them. Now they breathe freely fresh air and are quite at ease. Should well-wishers like them I hope to write more reminiscences beyond the boundary of the village.
I have great pleasure in dedicating them at the threshold of my mother tongue, Rajasthani, just as an indigent person offer a 'cowric' at his chosen shrine.