Sunday book pick: Upendranath Ashk’s wickedly funny short stories in ‘Hats and Doctors’

The short story form in Indian languages is truly special. I have, at times, been disappointed in short stories in English or European languages in translation, but that has never been the case for Indian languages. In fact, they have whetted my appetite so successfully that I have hungered for the authors’ other works with almost a manic fixation.

This streak continues unbroken with Hindi writer Upendranath Ashk’s (1910–1996) Hats and Doctors, a collection of short stories selected and translated by Daisy Rockwell. Rockwell, who studied Ashk’s literary works for her PhD research, had a long, interesting association with him in the final years of his life. The two would meet at his residence in Allahabad, where Rockwell would try to get him to speak about his writings.

A young student at the time, Rockwell would be intimidated by his capricious nature – he was brusque to the point of rude and was not enthusiastically favoured by colleagues. Nevertheless, his relationship with Rockwell was fruitful, and he came around to not only trusting her with his work but also saw her as a worthy collaborator in his literary legacy. Rockwell’s Introduction to the book, where she writes about her association with him and Ashk’s remarkable...

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