vol I: The south (608 p.)
vol II: the east (584 p.)
vol III: the west (544 p.)
vol IV: the north (644 p.)

Sixteen years! Seems amazing, almost unbelievable! I launched my project Knit India Through Literature in 1992 and started work in full swing around the middle of 1993 – with the belief that to research each of the 15 official languages recognized by the Indian Constitution (it is another matter that later on it increased to 18 within a single year) and to travel across the country to meet and interview the respective writers, it would take me a year per volume. Add another year for going to print, proof reading and the like, throw in an additional year just in case - you still have only six! This was how I calculated things would pan out when I started work in 1993 but the subsequent events proved my arithmetic way off mark, with the tally at sixteen years finally!

This volume on the north Indian languages includes Hindi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Urdu and also Sanskrit. The reason why I have included Sanskrit in this volume is that for centuries, Sanskrit ruled the roost in the Kashmir Valley more than in any other part of the country. The practice of writing a travelogue that offers detailed and interesting information on the state, before venturing into the interviews with the writers of a particular language, continues in this volume too. I travelled widely in the Hindi belt of north India, across the eight states of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand that have Hindi as their official language, and am glad that I have been able to offer the readers a glimpse into the north India that I was introduced to!


I wish to offer these four volumes - South, East, West and North of the Knit India Through Literature project, lovingly put together over the last sixteen years, as ornaments to adorn Mother India. I sincerely believe that they will add to her beauty and charm and serve to enhance her greatness.