Essay: A Fractured Man’s Fractured Life and Language by Vandana Chauhan

Vandana Chauhan shares a powerful essay on Indian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer Swadesh Deepak and his memoir, Maine Maandu Nahi Dekha: Khandit Jeevan Ka Collage (2003) where he documents his seven-year-long battle with mental illness.

I know Deepak is on some other planet. 

-Krishna Sobti 

Introduction 

 एक ज़रूरी सलाह

जहाँ ठीक समझें ‘शायद’ शब्द लगा लें क्योंकि कुछ अस्थायी स्मृतियाँ खंडित होती हैं। (Deepak 12) 

An important advice 

Wherever you think fit, add ‘maybe’ as some unsettled memories are fractured. (My translation) 

Swadesh Deepak is an Indian playwright and author who was born in Rawalpindi in 1942. He received the Sahitya Natak Akademi Award in 2004. His popularly known works are Ashwarohi (1973),  Number 57 Squadron (1973), Matam (1978), Baal Bhagwan (1986), Mayapot (1987), Maskhare Kabhi Nahi Rote (1997), Jalta Hua Rath (1998), Sabse Udaas Kavita (1998), Kaal Kothri (1999) and Maine Maandu Nahi Dekha: Khandit Jeevan Ka Collage (2003). The latter is a memoir written by Swadesh Deepak describing his seven-year-long isolation (imprisonment) of living with bipolar disorder. The memoir is written in fragments with gaps in between.