Land Lust

Joginder Paul (1925–2016) was born in Sialkot (now in Pakistan). His first story was published in the well-known Urdu journal Saqi in 1945, while his first book of short stories in Urdu, Dharti ka Kaal, was published in 1962. The partition of the country resulted in his migration to Ambala as a refugee. His marriage led to another migration — to Kenya, where he taught English, throughout expressing in his stories the angst of being in exile. Back in India in 1965, he was principal of a college in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, for another fourteen years before coming to settle in Delhi for full-time writing.

Joginder Paul published over thirteen collections of short stories, including Khula, Khodu Baba ka Maqbara and Bastian. Amongst his novels are Ek Boond Lahoo Ki, Nadeed, Paar Pare, and Khwabro. He published four collections of flash fiction (afsaanche), a genre with which he is known to have enriched Urdu fiction significantly. A number of his novels and short stories have been translated into Hindi, English and other languages in India and abroad. His fiction books have been previously published many times in English.

Paul is a recipient of many important literary honours, including the SAARC Lifetime Award, Iqbal Samman, Urdu Academy Award, All India Bahadur Shah Zafar Award, Shiromani Award, and Ghalib Award. He was also honoured at Qatar with an international award for contributing to creative writing in Urdu. His fiction has received a lot of critical acclaim, and many Urdu journals in India and Pakistan have published special issues on him. His fiction has been translated into many languages in India and abroad.

Land Lust is a translation of Dharti ka Kaal, Joginder Paul’s first collection of short stories in Urdu.

Sukrita Paul Kumar, a noted poet and critic, was born and brought up in Kenya. She held the Aruna Asaf Ali Chair at Delhi University till recently. Formerly, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, she is also Fellow of the prestigious International Writing Programme, Iowa (USA) and Hong Kong Baptist University.

Honorary faculty at Durrell Centre at Corfu (Greece), she is a recipient of many prestigious fellowships and residencies. She has to her credit several collections of poems in English, many translated into Indian and foreign languages. Her critical writings are mainly on partition, modern Indian fiction, and gender.

Her latest translations include Blind (novel) and Nude (a collection of poems). A guest editor of journals such as Manoa (Hawaii), she has also held solo exhibitions of her paintings. Many of Sukrita’s poems emerged from her experience of working with homeless people and tsunami victims.

A PhD in Indian writings in English, VANDANA R SINGH is an author, translator and editor. She has been Associate Professor of English at GCG, Panjab University, and has worked as a bilingual teacher for the Manchester Education Committee, UK. Her literary translations from Hindi to English include works of Premchand, Krishna Sobti and Geetanjali Shree. Winner of the Award of Recognition for outstanding contribution to literature by the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, she has authored several books on Communication Skills and ELT for Oxford University Press. She has been a consultant editor for several UN organisations and textbook developer for NCERT & NIOS. 

A keen gardener and bonsai enthusiast, she views translation as a social responsibility contributing to building cross-cultural bridges. She is fascinated by words—their origin and evolution.