Parinde

Parinde is Nirmal Vermas first collection of short stories. The publication of this collection of seven stories (1958) marked a new beginning for Hindi short stories. It was not only because of the language of these stories, but also because of a new perspective and technique for understanding human destiny across the vast expanse of history and time. Namvar Singh declared Parinde the first story of the new story movement. He rightly said that what poetry could not do for the Hindi language, the prose of these stories accomplished. Nirmals characters are so natural to their environment that they seem more real than the details-laden characters of so-called realistic stories. In their individuality, they are so vivid and possible that the narrators language does not need to provide extensive details to describe them; it simply illuminates them in their place, and we see how close they are to a part of ourselves. They become a part of our memory, like some subtle experiences of our own lives. In all the stories collected in Parinde, the existential questions arising from humanitys historical situation, its inner yearning for freedom and liberation, find comprehensive expression. Nirmal Verma depicts the circumstances and characters of everyday life in such a way that behind them, we see the long journey of humanitys will to live, with all its questions and doubts.