Relapse: A Novel

About the Book In A man comes home to find a note from Bindo- his estranged lover asking to meet. Everything about Bindo angers him- her beauty, pride and poise; the sexual attraction she continues to exert upon him.

He recognizes in himself again the agonizing jealousy which had forced her to leave him. And he fears her uncanny ability to pierce the barriers he has erected around himself.

Yet the tow meet- in each other’s houses, in restaurants and parks across Delhi- still attracted to each other but haunted by their past, still inflicting pain, locked in a battle of doomed love. But when, after a drunken evening, he wakes up in Bindo’s bed at her feet, he finds himself stripped of all ego, and helpless.

Bold and ahead of its time, Relapse is an intense exploration of physical and emotional desire and the inscrutable ways of men and women in love. A compact love story of visceral impact, and a portrait of Delhi that now exists only in memory, relapse in a modern classic.

About the Authors Srikant Verma was a novelist, short- story writer, journalist and literary critic, but he is best known as one of the most significant figures of the Naya kavita movement in modern Hindi poetry. Written in the realist mode, his poems are marked by mirror to the evils in society. His most famous Sahitya Akademi Award. Other works include the poetry collections Bhatka Megh, Maya Darpan and Samvad; a travelogue Apollo Ka Rath; and a book of interviews, Beeswin sadi Ke Andhere Mein. A part of the Indian National Congress, he was also a Member of Parliament for almost a decade. Srikant Verma died in 1986.

Krishna Baldev Vaidis a noted Hindi Playwright, novelist and short- story writer. He is also an academic who taught English at various Indian and American universities before retiring from the State University of New York. A prolific writer, Naukrani ki Diary, Guzara Hua Zamana and Nar Nari; the plays Mona Lisa Ki Muskaan, Bhookh Aag hai and Pariwar Akhada; and the short- story collections Mera Dushman, Bodhisatva ki Biwi and Pita Ki Parchhaiyan. His work has been translated into Japanese, Polish, German, Russian, Italian as well as several Indian languages.

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