REMEMBERING SOM NATH ZUTSHI KASHMIRI SHORT STORY WRITER , DRAMATIST AND TRANSLATOR

                                                                                

                               

SRINAGAR 1947... SOM NATH ZUTSHI WITH OTHER   WRITERS ..

 Writers Navtej Singh, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Somnath Zutshi and others in Srinagar, 1947.

 SOM NATH ZUTSHI ( 1923-1996)

  Born at Habba Kadal ( near Raghu Nath Mandir  ) in Srinagar city, Som Nath Zutshi started writing in Urdu and later shifted to Kashmiri. He did his BA with  English literature and Urdu as his main subjects. At the young age of 20 years, he joined 'Anjuman e Arbab e Shauq'. For some time, he acted as  Secretary Progressive Writers Association of Kashmir. Along with Dina Nath Nadim, Som Nath Zutshi was a pioneer of  Kashmiri short story writing. While Nadim wrote  “Jawaabi Card”, Zutshi’s short story “ Yeli Phol Gaash”  also appeared simultaneously in 1950. It is believed that while Nadim wrote his story in 1948 and it was broadcast the same year, Zutshi wrote his story in February 1949. Zutshi’s Rasul, a character that he created for his short story “ Yeli Phol Gaash “ was inspired by short stories of the progressive genre that were appearing in the country during that period. This short story has been translated into English as, "When the Light Dawned"  and included in Neerja Mattoo's book,"  The Greatest Kashmiri Short Stories Ever Told". I believe both these stories are the first short stories written in the Kashmiri language. 

Aziz Haroon, Noor Mohammad Roshan, Mirza Arif,  Akhtar Mohi ud din, Ali Mohammad Lone, Amin Kamil,  Umesh Koul, Sofi Ghulam Mohammad and many more followed them immediately.

This was a period when, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas, Balraj Sahni, S H Raza,  Devinder Satyarthi and many other progressive writers, poets and painters were frequent visitors to Kashmir acting as catalytic agents for creative activity in the valley.

Som Nath Zutshi wrote dramas in Kashmiri as well. His Radio drama 'Viji Vaav'  was awarded first prize in All India Radio Drama competition of 1955.He has published more than 20 dramas .

                                            

                                       

                                                                  ( Som Nath Zutshi )

    

Apart from writing short stories and plays,  Zutshi also translated 'The Inspector General'   (  Nicolai  Gogol ), Wild Duck ( Henrik Isben) and Trial (  Franz Kafka) into Kashmiri. And for the translation of  'The Inspector General' , he was awarded the Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1974. Considered the high point of Gogol's stagecraft and a masterpiece of dramatic satire, the Inspector General lampoons the stupidity and greed of provincial Russian officials. An ironic play by Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck tells the story of a misguided idealist whose compulsion to tell the whole truth brings disaster to a family.

The 'Trial' is Kafka's gripping novel, a psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K, an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released but must report to court regularly, an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life, including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door, becomes increasingly unpredictable. His short stories collection, " Yeli Gaash Phol" won him the covetous Sahitya Akademi award posthumously in 2003.

In 2010, Sahitya Akademi published a Hindi translation of his short stories in a book titled," Jab Ujaala Huva ".Another collection titled," When The Day Dawned " was published in English recently. The stories were translated into English by Prof Shafi Shauq.

                        

                                                                          

                                                               

About the short stories included in the collection, 'When the Day Dawned', Prof Shafi Shauq writes this:-

"When the Day Dawned is a remarkable collection of short stories by Som Nath Zutshi, the pioneer of the short story form in Kashmiri literature. His work captures the spirit of the valley with a sincerity and purity that transcends time. In each tale, Zutshi conveys the beauty and authenticity of his homeland through characters that continue to resonate with readers today. Lauded by literary giants such as Padma-Shri Rehman Rahi and Padma-Shri Pran Kishore Kaul, this collection is an invaluable treasure in Kashmiri literature, preserving a legacy that will endure for generations."

( Avtar Mota )

PS

There was another Kolkata-based Som Nath Zutshi,  a psychoanalyst by training, who wrote on cinema. He translated works by Banaphool, Mrinal Sen, and Somnath Hore.

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