Exhibition of books on Bihar’s heritage

Research institutes of Bihar organized an exhibition of their publications on the heritage of Bihar during Bihar Diwas celebrations at the Gandhi Maidan.

The exhibition attracted a large number of people during the three-day celebrations, which concluded on March 24, K P Jaiswal Research Institute director Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said, adding it probably reflected growing interest of the people in the state’s glorious past.

K P Jaiswal Research Institute’s publications, Bihar Through The Ages and The Antiquarian Remains in Bihar, evoked a good response from the visitors, Chaudhary said. The Urdu books highlighting different facets of the history of Bihar, published by Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, were also pored over with great interest, he added.

Full report here Times of India

English translation of Panchlight launched

Panchlight & Other Stories, eminent writer Rakhshanda Jalil’s English translation of a collection of short stories by one of Hindi’s foremost writer Phanishwar Nath Renu, was released by Jawahar Sircar, Secretary, Union Ministry of Culture, on  February 17 at India International Centre, in the presence of a galaxy of noted writers including Harish Trivedi, Sudhir Chandra and Mushirul Hassan.

The stories in this collection are set in rural Bihar, a world of poverty, ignorance, helplessness, superstition and exploitation. The characters are the landless, the disenfranchised and the marginalized.

Phanishwar Nath Renu wrote of passions spent, hurts unresolved, dreams unfulfilled, in the context of a changing world and a crumbling social order, thus making the appeal of the stories universal.

Full report here TwoCircles.net

Related stories
Panchlight and Other Stories Jahane Rumi
Bihar in translation Hindustan Times (Khushwant Singh)