Few Words about Chitra Mudgal

Chitra Mudgal,She is a leading literary figure of modern Hindi literature and a staunch activist for the cause of women & the downtrodden.. She is the first Indian woman to receive the coveted Vyas Samman in 2003 for her novel Avaan which portrayed the lives and times of the trade union movement when nearly 300,000 workers spearheaded by the famous trade union leader Datta Samant went on a year long strike of the Mumbai textile mills, which finally saw the collapse of the city's trademark industry. This work has been unanimously acknowledged by the critics as a masterpiece of literary work and stands as a classic novel in Hindi Literature. In 2019 she was awarded India's highest literary award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, for her novel Post Box No. 203, Naalasopara. Chitra's another novel earning rave reviews is "Giligaddu". The term is used in the story by a grandfather for his twin granddaughters. The rising loneliness among the senior citizens has been dealt with rather starkly, hitting out at the younger able-bodied generation. Chitra Mudgal was born in Madras(now Chennai) on 10 December 1943. She received her M.A. in Hindi Literature from the SNDT Women's University. Besides writing, she is a devoted social activist working incessantly for under-privileged women, slum-children and downtrodden people through her own organization Samanvay. As a staunch feminist, she is associated with many women’s organisations across the nation. In her words, "Writers today need to go among people to understand them so as to create more lifelike characters that tug at the reader's heart. Only then will the purpose of writing be served. The reader on his part needs to read to be able to understand people better."