Nirmal Verma (3 April 192925 October 2005) was a Hindi writer, novelist, activist and translator. He is credited as being one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani (New Story) literary movement of Hindi literature, wherein his first collection of stories, Parinde (Birds) is considered its first signature.
Biography
Nirmal Verma was born on 3 April 1929 in Shimla, where his father worked as an officer in the Civil and Services Department of the British Indian Government. He was the seventh child among his eight siblings. One of his brothers is one of India's greatest artists Ram Kumar. He is survived by his wife, Gagan Gill who is a writer.
He wrote his first story for a students' magazine in the early 1950s. He completed Masters of Arts in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. Thereafter he started teaching in Delhi and writing for various literary magazines.
His activism streak was visible even during his student days; in 1947–48, he regularly attended Mahatma Gandhiji's morning prayer meetings in Delhi, even though he was a card holding member of Communist Party of India, which he resigned in 1956, after Soviet invasion of Hungary. The very activism was soon to be reflected in his stories, which added a whole new dimension to the Indian literary scene.
He stayed in Prague for 10 years, where he was invited by Oriental Institute to initiate a program of translation of modern Czech writers like Karel Čapek, Milan Kundera or Bohumil Hrabal to Hindi; he also learnt Czech language, and translated nine world classics to Hindi, before returning home in 1968, as the result of Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
From 1980–83, Verma served as chairman of Nirala creative writing chair in Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal. In 1988–90 he was director of Yashpal Creative Writing Chair in Shimla.
In his popular novel A Torn Happiness, August Strindberg looms large over the heads of many characters.
He died on 25 October 2005 in New Delhi.
Awards and milestones
- Jnanpith Award in 1999, the highest literary award for Indian writers.
- 'Kavve aur Kala Pani', A collection of seven short stories, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1985.
- Padma Bhushan in 2002.
- Jnanapith Trust's "Murtidevi Award" for his book of essays, Bharat Aur Europe: Pratishruti Ke Kshetra (1991).
- Jury member Lettre Ulysses Award for the art of Reportage −2003.
- He was a fellow with the International Institute for Asian Studies.
- Library of Congress catalogues most of the works of Nirmal Verma in its collection.
- India's highest literary award, for lifetime achievement, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2005.
- On the publication of his book, "The World Elsewhere", in 1988, by the Readers International in London, BBC Channel Four telecasted a film on his life and works.