Premchand’s 137 th Birth Anniversary Premchand (1880-1936) Even one hundred and thirty seven years after his birth, the fact that the Birth Anniversary of Premchand – who was my paternal grandfather (Dada) - is celebrated on July 31 st , with immense joy and fervour, at different places across the country, particularly in his beloved village of Lamhi ( near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh). Numerous seminars and discussion; dramatized performances of his stories; serialisation of his literary creations on TV and other social media, which are held on the occasion, bear testimony to his vast popularity and continued relevance. Premchand’s life holds an intrinsic interest although his was an ordinary enough life, at least till the point he achieved public acclaim. He himself was not only conscious of this fact but also tended somewhat to overstate it. In a passage, he claimed that his life was like “a stretch of plain and level ground”...