Hats and Doctors

Hats and Doctors offers English readers the opportunity to savour, for the first time, the work of Upendranath Ashk, one of Hindi literature s best-known authors. The stories in this collection often display a wry sense of humour, such as The Dal Eaters in which a family of cheapskates journeys to Kashmir. While Ashk s satirical eye is employed to great effect in The Cartoon Hero , where a hapless traveller encounters a petty politician on a train, his talent for capturing human frailties is amply evident in Furlough and In the Insane Asylum . Exhibiting a lightness of touch and a deep engagement with the human condition, these stories come alive in Daisy Rockwell s delightful translation.