Dilli Mein Neend

Uma Shankar Choudhary is a master writer of long stories. His stories dont intoxicate you, but rather disturb you. You even want to escape from them, but theres an element in the writer that captures the true realities of life. He has long accounts of small things, so much so that you sometimes feel bored. But this is the authors keen observation. All the stories in the collection Dilli Mein Sleep are proof of this. Whether its Rajeshwar Singhs story, Fuchhu Masssabs, or Sunanis, theres a deep anguish in all of them. His stories arent flat. They delve into reality and sometimes transcend it. To do this, he even uses magical realism. His concerns are clear and without any gaps. The stories in this collection are stories of the contradictions of feudal society, while they also reflect the suffering of the lower middle class in post-liberalization urban society. The sufferings of the common man are a distinctive feature of Uma Shankars stories, and this is what sets him apart from others of his generation. Shashi Bhushan Dwivedi