Gyan Chaturvedi's 'Pagalkhana' now in English

New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) Padma Shri-winning Hindi author Gyan Chaturvedi's allegorical novel "Pagalkhana", which talks of societal changes in the post-liberalisation period in India, has now been translated to English.

Translated by Punarvasu Joshi, "Mad House" is a social commentary attempting to do a 'Tikkun Olam' (improve the world) where everyone finds themselves in, publishers Niyogi Books said.

In a way, there are two prime characters in this novel - 'The Bazaar', representing the free-market forces, and 'The Citizen', whose reincarnations are trapped in a vicious cycle of distress and fears which manifest themselves in myriad situations.

But, fundamentally, it is only one character. Somewhere, his dreams have been stolen, somewhere else, his memories have been abducted. In another situation, he has forgotten who he is and in yet another one, he is looking for a lock to safeguard himself from the prying eyes of the Bazaar - but the Bazaar is looking for him.

The number of crazies, questioning the Bazaar and its 'wisdom', is on the rise. The Citizen is not crazy, yet he is deemed crazy. He is running away from the world and its worldliness. He is in hiding because he wants to save his self from being hijacked by the Bazaar, the publishers said.

In this cat and mouse game between the Citizen and the Bazaar, Chaturvedi manages to capture the subtle as well as profound changes related to people's psyche, belief systems, notions of honour and self-respect, politics and the dynamics within society that have occurred post-liberalisation, the publishers said.

It is in this rein of the free-market economy and excessive consumption that the nameless characters of "Mad House" find themselves. PTI ZMN RB RB