Read Twenty One Poems from Magadh by Shrikant Verma.
Shrikant Verma (1931-86) was a central figure in the "Nai Kavita" movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Born in Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh, he did his Masters in Hindi from Nagpur University in 1956, then moved to New Delhi, where he worked in journalism and politics. Verma served as special correspondent for "Dinman", a major Hindi periodical, from 1966 to 1977. In 1976, he was elected a member of the Rajya Sabha on a Congress (I) ticket, and served as an official and spokesman of the party through the late 1970s to the early 80s. He published two collections of short fiction, a novel, a travelogue, literary interviews, essays and five collections of poetry, of which the most important are "Jalasaghar" (1973) and "Magadh" (1984). The latter, a groundbreaking work that remains one of the best-known books in contemporary Hindi poetry. Verma was a visitor at the Iowa International Writing Program twice (1970-71 and 1978), and won the Tulsi Puraskar (1976), the Kumaran Asan Award, and the Sahitya Akademi Award (posthumously, for "Magadh", in 1987).
Rahul Soni is a writer, editor and translator of no fixed address. Founder and co-editor of Pratilipi. Chief editor at Writer's Side. He is translating Geetanjali Shree's novel "Tirohit" for Harper Collins India, and Dharamvir Bharati's "Suraj ka Saatvan Ghoda". Other works in progress include a documentary and a novel.