Paper short abstract:

The paper is on the Kashinath Singh's fiction and its enactment on stage and in film.

Paper long abstract:

Kashinath Singh (born 1937) is as one of the "four friends" one of the most prominent senior writers in Hindi literature and recently received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his recent novel "Rehan par Raghu". He is perhaps better known, however, for "Kāśī kā Assī", a longer fictional text in five part based on the dialogues of common people visiting Pappū's tea shop in the quarter of Assī at the Southern end of traditional Banaras, commenting anything from religious obscurantism to daily politics the world over. "Rehan par Raghu" focusses on modernization and changing values between the generations. An aging father from an UP village desperately tries to convince one of his two adult and well educated sons to return home in order to protect the ancestral land property. Deep inside he knows that his efforts are in vain, since the next generation has no understanding of the notion of inheritance. Kāśīnāth Singh's are counter-narratives to the dominating narration of progress and individualization. - A sketch from "Kāśī kā Assī" has been put on stage (script written by Aruṇ Pāṃḍey), ridiculing the interaction between foreigners and traditional Banarsis. Recently, a film under the title "Muhalla Assi" under the directorship of Chandra Prasad Dwivedi with Sunny Deol as main character has been produced.