The Last Flicker

The story of Jagseer Singh, with his piquant individual and social situation, is actually a story that is very personal in appeal but carries a distinct political message. Lonely, and at the end, left derelict, Jagseer's story is refective of how social hierarchy, caste struggle and economic exploitation can break the soul of an individual and create chaos in social and personal relationship. The tragedy of Jagseer, enlivened all the more by his unrequited love for his friend Nikka's wife, Bhani, and alleviated by his addiction to opium, opens up the feudal environs of the Punjab villages before the reader a bit surreptitiously making the characters and the story grow upon them slowly but surely.

Gurdial Singh (1933-2016), one of the most respected novelists of India, not only enriched the Punjabi literary scene, but was actually one of the pioneering literateurs of Indian literature. The present novel, Marhi Da Deeva (1964), showed his deft handling of the personal as well as impersonal emotions in an experimental mode making him a household name. Recipient of all major literary awards of the country, including the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award (1999), Bhai Veer Singh Fiction Award (1992), the Soviet Land Nehru Award (1986) and the Sahitya Akademi Award (1979), he contributed profusely in the genres of novels, short stories, drama and children's literature. National Book Trust, India previously published the English translation of his much acclaimed novel Parsa.

**Contents and Sample Pages**