Town and the Country Side- A Collection of Punjabi Short Stories

About the Book These thirteen stories in this collection are Sujan Singh's representative stories which gave a picture of the changing contemporary contexts of that time when Punjab was moving from villages to towns, from illiteracy to literacy and from superstition to scientific temper.

These stories record the transition that took place in the social and moral values and in the psyche of the people. Variety of issues such as human survival and rehabilitation, women education, communal harmony, human relationships, feudalism and a new awakening among people to fight it, explicitly reveal Sujan Singh's philosophy of life, his humanitarianism and progressive outlook.

About the Author Sujan Singh belongs to that elite group of veteran Punjabi writers who took Punjabi short-story from its restricted area of 'reading for pleasure' to that of with a solid objective, making it a progressive literary art written in simple, lucid and impressive style.

Foreword I've stuck to my wicket for long, though without scoring many runs. Seventy six years is not a short life-span; and if I count my life from the date of my first publication, even then it is about forty five years. One feels proud of even a few runs, if these help you in registering a victory, and it is this sense of pride that I take from the thin body of my writings.

When I, and others of my generation, started writing, Punjabi literature was still in its inception and its treasure was very scanty. The historians and critics of literature of other languages used to taunt Punjabi people. We took their taunts as a challenge. A number of my co-litterateurs could write very comfortably in English, Urdu and Hindi, which is evident from their hold over these languages today. But they preferred Punjabi for their literary pursuits. Why? Perhaps I shall not be able to tell, but I will always be indebted to them for that.

I have my own reasons for writing in Punjabi. I started my education from Kolkata. My late father, who was uneducated himself, wanted me to start my education in Punjabi; but during those days, there was no provision for teaching of Punjabi in Kolkata. He assigned this duty to a senior Raagi Karam Singh associated with Badi Sikh Sangat. He taught me Punjabi for two years. In the first one and a half year, I learnt to read Bal Updesh' and the text books for first, second and third class, published by Gulab Singh & Sons. These books contained a number of story-based chapters which I enjoyed the most. In the next one year, I learnt to recite Panj Granthi' i.c. a breviary of the Sikhs containing five long hymns, though I was not much interested in that because I could not understand its meanings.

**Contents and Sample Pages**