Hari Krishna Kaul
Born in Kashmir, Hari Krishna Kaul (1934–2009), was forced to leave in 1990. Kaul started his literary career writing short stories in Urdu and Hindi but switched to writing in Kashmiri in the mid-60s. His first collection of short stories in Kashmiri, Pata Laraan Parbat, was published in 1972 and immediately established him as a major writer. Three collections of short stories and numerous television and radio plays followed. His only novel, Vyath Vyatha, was published in 2005. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Kashmiri fiction in 2000.
This month Archipelago Books publishes a collection of stories, For Now, It is Night, from Kashmiri writer Hari Krishna Kaul. Each story in the collection is punctuated with details of Kashmiri Hindu life. The sensations of reading Kaul are akin to those felt when watching the masters of slow-paced cinema, like Bresson or Bela Tarr. As in a Tarr film, the point is not to extrapolate a larger meaning from a roadside encounter or a simple transaction; the point is to immerse oneself in the details of ordinary life and the texture of a moment.