Hindi author of 'Sara Akash', Rajendra Yadav passes away

NEW DELHI: Noted Hindi author Rajendra Yadav, a pioneer of the literary movement ' Nayi Kahani', died here last night.

84-year-old Yadav experienced difficulty in breathing last night and was rushed to hospital. However, he died on the way, his family said today.

Yadav is survived by his wife Mannu Bhandari, who is also a Hindi writer, and daughter Rachna.

Born on 28 August, 1929, Yadav edited the literary magazine HANS, which was founded by Munshi Premchand in 1930. The magazine had ceased publication in 1953 but Yadav relaunched it on 31 July, 1986.

He was a pioneer of the Hindi literary movement 'Nayi Kahani' along with Mohan Rakesh.

His first novel was 'Pret Bolte Hain', which was published in 1951 and later retitled as 'Sara Akash' in the 1960s. It was adapted into a movie of the same title, Sara Akash, by Basu Chatterjee.

He also translated into Hindi many works of Russian language writers like Turgenev, Chekhov, and Lermontov (A Hero of Our Times), as also Albert Camus (The Outsider).

Besides being a writer, Yadav was also a nominated board member of Prasar Bharti in 1999-2001.