Embers of Social Revolution in Rajinder Singh Bedi's Short-Stories

Bedi acknowledges that he writes about the common people, their joys and sorrows and that he did not strictly subscribe to any ideology. He feels that it is his social realism and his candid approach to writing that led people to label him as a progressive and he did not mind this tag. Like his contemporaries he could not help being stirred by the partition of India, and this is often the backdrop of major literature produced during this period including that of Bedi. The writer who had the greatest influence on Bedi’s craft was Anton Chekov. Bedi wrote nearly eighty short stories, including “Garam Coat”, “Lajwanti,” “Apne Dukh Mujhe de do”, “Kalyani”, “Grahan”, “Where is the Funeral Procession”, “Give me your Sorrows”, “Too Tall for Marriage”, “Dus Minute Barish Mein,” and “Vitamin B”. Bedi’s stories candidly display human emotions and his subjects belong to the middle and lower middle-classes. With sharp precision he navigates the everyday lives of common people; while placing them in their cultural milieu, he explores the social inequalities and economic problems that middle classes in India face.