For Now, It Is Night Stories

“An enthralling — and welcome — reclamation of Kaul’s fiction. . . Kaul’s work shimmers with questions of reality and illusion, home and exile.” – The New York Times Book Review

17 lively short stories provide an irreverent examination of exile, drawn from the ever-observant pen of one of Kashmir's most celebrated writers

Hari Krishna Kaul, one of the most celebrated Kashmiri writers, published most of his work between 1972 and 2000. His short stories, shaped by the social crisis and political instability in Kashmir, explore – with a keen eye for detail, biting wit, and deep empathy – themes of isolation, individual and collective alienation, corruption, and the social mores of a community that experienced a loss of homeland, culture, and language.

In these pages, we will find friends stuck forever in the same class at school while the world changes around them; travelers forced to seek shelter in a battered, windy hostel after a landslide; parents struggling to deal with displacement as they move away from Kashmir with their children, or loneliness as their children leave in search of better prospects; the cabin fever of living through a curfew . . .

Brilliantly translated in a unique collaborative project, For Now, It Is Night brings a comprehensive selection of Kaul’s stories to English readers for the first time.

Born in Kashmir, Hari Krishna Kaul (1934–2009), was forced to leave in 1990. Kaul started his literary career writing short stories in Urdu and Hindi but switched to writing in Kashmiri in the mid-60s. His first collection of short stories in Kashmiri, Pata Laraan Parbat, was published in 1972 and immediately established him as a major writer. Three collections of short stories and numerous television and radio plays followed. His only novel, Vyath Vyatha, was published in 2005. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Kashmiri fiction in 2000.

Kalpana Raina was born in Kashmir and lives in New York. She is a senior executive, board director, and adviser with over thirty years of experience in both corporate and not-for-profit sectors. This is her first work of translation.

Tanveer Ajsi is an independent art historian and cultural theorist. He has written extensively on theatre, performing arts, visual arts, and literature.

Gowhar Fazili teaches political science and sociology.

Gowhar Yaqoob is an independent research scholar based in Srinagar.