NIRMAL VERMA (1929-2005) was an acknowledged master of Hindi prose and one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani (new story) movement in Hindi. Born in Simla, a hill station locale that recurrs in his stories, he studied History at Delhi University's presitigious St Stephens College and taught for a time while also developing his writing skills. A student activist and idealist, he nevertheless regularly attended Mahatma Ghandi's morning prayer meetings in 1947-48, even though he was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party of India. He resigned his Communist Party membership in protest against the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Later in the 1950s he went to Prague and experienced the changes that culminated in the Prague Spring. He initiated an important translation program of key Czech writers to bring their works into Hindi, including Karel Capek, Jiri Fried, Joseph Skvorecky, Milan Kundera and Bohumil Hrabal. He left Czechoslovkia and returned to India in 1968 in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion there. Throughout his life he was known as a major voice among the Indian intelligentsia for consistently upholding the right of individual liberty and freedom of expression. He famously took a stand against Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Emergency (1975-77), and he also advocated the cause of a Free Tibet. He traveled widely in Europe and the USA from 1959 to 1970, while also reporting regularly in The Times of India, earning the title "an Indian writer exiled in Europe."