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  • Shekhar Ek Jeevani

    By Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

    Shekhar: Ek Jeevani is an important, thoughtful and a creative work relating to philosophy of life. Ego, fear and sex – Shekhar’s life and personality moves around these instincts and he tries to find the essence of his life as if wanting to sacrifice it. With such a dedication, many an achievement appear to have filled the composition in the form of a novel. It is an incomplete life-history of a revolutionary. This tale, despite its incompleteness, is full of humanity’s accumulated experiences.

    Shekhar is one such character in Hindi literature who is very lonely. He is rebellious, existent and curious. His life is a continual search for meaningfulness. In this search, approaching death does not disappoint him, but fills him with a new awareness and he tries to gain life once again. But, Shekhar is not a determinist. Agyeya has called Shekhar’s philosophy as the philosophy pertaining to search for freedom.

    Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan popularly known by his pen-name Agyeya, meaning beyond comprehension. He was a pioneer of modern trends not only in the realm of Hindi poetry, but also fiction, criticism and journalism. He was one of the most prominent exponents of the New Poetry and  Experiments in Modern literature. He edited the Saptaks, a literary series, and started Hindi newsweekly, Dinaman.
    He did his BSc in Industrial Science 1929. After graduation he was included in Punjab University’s Cosmic Ray Expedition to Kashmir. He then joined M.A. English, but couldn’t complete his studies as he joined the Indian Independence Movement’s underground activities. In the infamous Delhi Conspiracy Case he was kept in Lahore for one month, then spent three and a half years in jails of Delhi and Punjab. Later he remained under house arrest for almost two years at home. His classic novel-trilogy Shekhar: Ek Jivani was a product of those prison days. The third part of the novel was never published because the manuscript was seized by the jailor and never returned.