Exile

Suryakant s life begins to unravel as he is forced to quit his government job. To get temporary financial relief, he decides to work for one Ramjoar Pandey and trace his lineage. The journey takes Suryakant back to Sultanpur, his hometown, where he encounters his estranged family. The past slips in and out, as in a dream, and the future congeals into a mass of anxiety and fear. Set in the badlands of Uttar Pradesh, the men and women in the book are faced with ruthlessness, depravity and an intense loneliness, rising from the overwhelming assault of capitalism and consumerism. Akhilesh s inventive prose treads between memory and moment, the states of being and not being, as it follows the lives of ordinary people who discover the thin line that separates freedom from exile. Exile portrays the mortal wounds inflicted by modern civilization on our soul.

Born in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in 1960, Akhilesh is an MA in Hindi literature from Allahabad University. He is the author of several short story anthologies, including Aadmi Nahin Tootataa, Mukti, Shapgrast and Andhera, as well as the novels Anweshan and Nirvasan. His stories have been adapted for the stage, and into movies by Doordarshan, and feature films. He is also a dialogue and screenplay writer. Many of his works have been translated into several Indian languages. He has also written a book of non-fiction work, Vah Jo Yatharth Tha. Akhilesh is the editor of the Hindi periodical Tadbhav. He has also edited ten volumes of Ek Kahani Ek Kitab and eleven volumes of Kahaniyan Rishton Ki as well as Das Bemisal Prem Kahaniyan. Akhilesh has been the recipient of several awards, including the Shrikant Verma Samman, the Indu Sharma Katha Samman, the Parimal Samman, the Vanmali Samman, the Ayodhya Prasad Khatri Samman, the Spandan Award, the Balkrishna Sharma Navin Award, the Kathakram Award, the Katha Award and the Manohar Shyam Joshi Rajkamal Prakashan Kriti Samman. Rajesh Kumar is the writer of a collection of poems, Incest and Other Poems, a short story collection, Escape and Other Stories and a novel, The Other Destiny or Pelanty Gobernor. His fiction has appeared in a number of national and international journals. He is also the author of English Language Communication Skills: Lab Manual cum Workbook. As a translator, he has rendered into English Sanjeev s Jungle Jahan Shuroo Hota Hai as The Jungle Within, Ranendra s Global Gaanv Ke Devta as Lords of the Global Village and Mahua Maji s Main Borishailla as Me, Borishailla. Kumar edits the Vinoba Bhave University refereed research journal of language and literature. Recipient of the state honour for contribution to higher education, he has held high ranks in the university administration system. At present, he heads the University Department of English, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribag.