Radha Binod Nayak
Radha Binod Nayak (b. 1943) has been writing since 1970. He has published seven collections of short stories, three plays, an edited anthology of Odia short stories and several critical pieces. Known for an unconventional, highly personalized style (his initial stories were labeled ‘stories-of-ideas’ by critics), Radha Binod’s stories celebrate social practices in countryside India, Indian values and wisdom, beside the juxtaposed ambience of collapse of euphoria of a just gained independence. His later stories rue vanishing ways of life he had known as a child and youth, and neo-colonial symptoms encroaching Indian society in recent years. But at the end of the day, the stories talk optimism, as the author’s unwavering avowal of Indian tenacity offers a ray of light to his collective anxiety. He lives in Bhadrak, a north coastal district of Odisha.
