Swadesh Deepak

Swadesh Deepak is an Indian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. He was born in the year 1943 and started his literary journey at the age of 14. His family settled in Rajpura town following the partition of India. He witnessed the bloodshed of the partition in his childhood, which left many imprints on his mind. His father had severe tuberculosis, and his lungs eventually became inoperable due to the disease removed. His family was taken in by his maternal grandpa, and he grew up in Ambala. Deepak holds a master’s degree in both English and Hindi. For 26 years, he taught English literature at Ambala’s Gandhi Memorial College. Starting out as a short story writer, he began a literary journey as a writer of short stories and his initial work was published in Hindi newspapers.

Lal Pheete ka Tukdha (1957) was his first published story. He used the pen name Swadesh Bharadwaj for his early works. The short story “Santa Singh Ka Beta Banta Singh,” published in the early 1960s earned him recognition, and there was no turning back from that. He later published his stories in Dharmayug, a popular magazine. “Ashwarohi”(1973) was his first published book of short stories. Later, he published two novels, “Number 57 Squadron” and “Mayapot.” He became a successful actor and playwright after publishing the play “Court Martial” in 1991. Deepak was honored with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2004.