Bhisham Sahni's memoir now in English

The autobiography of Bhisham Sahni, writer of the highly-acclaimed "Tamas", is now available in English.
"Today's Pasts", the English version of "Aaj Ke Ateet", is not only a powerful poignant memoir, but also vitally documents the history of India in the 20th century, says publisher Penguin India.
In addition to being the story of Sahni's life and art, "Today's Pasts" also chronicles the great cultural high points of modern India: the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), the Progressive Writers' Association, the Nayi Kahani movement. The stars of Hindi and Urdu literature enter and exit the text as friends and familiars.

Written by one of the most significant personalities of 20th century Hindi theatre and fiction, the book traces the experiences of not just Sahni, but of an entire generation that lived through the movement for India's freedom, the horrors that came with the Partition and the challenges faced by a newly-independent nation.
Also included is the growth and development of Indian film and stage, the literary milieus of Hindi literature, the cultural efforts of the Non-Aligned Movement, globally, and the headlines of the world brought on by the advent of modernity.
The book has been translated by Snehal Shingavi, an assistant professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin, where he teaches South Asian literatures in English, Hindi and Urdu.

Rawalpindi, where Sahni was born in 1915, in the first few decades of the 20th century is a prosperous, bustling town, witnessing the first stirrings of the freedom movement. It is in this place and time that a delicate child grows into adolescence, at the heart of an unusual family. '

Adulthood and the horrific business of Partition drive the young man to Bombay, then Ambala and finally Delhi.
As he gathers life experience, Sahni hones his politics and talent as a writer to gradually become one of the icons of modern Indian literature.
Sahni's oeuvre encompassed novels, plays, short stories and essays. "Tamas", his best-known novel, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 and was subsequently adapted into a National Award-winning film by Govind Nihalani.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1998, and the Shalaka Samman, the Delhi government's highest literary prize, in 1999.