Harishankar Parsai (22 August 1924 – 10 August 1995) was a Hindi writer.
He was a noted satirist and humorist of modern Hindi literature and is known for his simple and direct style.
He wrote vyangya (satire).
He was born in Jamani village near Itarsi in Hoshangabad district, Madhya Pradesh.
He completed his M.A.
in Hindi from R.T.M.
Nagpur University.
After pursuing writing along with his service for some time, he quit his job and took writing as a full-time career.
He settled in Jabalpur (M.P) and started a literature magazine called Vasudha.
Despite it being highly praised, he had to stop the magazine after the publication suffered economic losses.Parsai died on 15 August 1995 in Jabalpur.
According to The Hindu, by the time of his death, Parsai had revolutionized the art of satire writing in Hindi.He won Sahitya Akademi Award in 1982, for his satire, "Viklaang Shraddha Ka Daur" '??????? ??????? ?? ???'
Hari Shankar Parsai used to give answers of readers in a column "POOCHHIYE PARSAI SE" in a Hindi News paper DESHBANDHU published from Raipur and Jabalpur.
A collection of 21 selected stories translated into English by C.
M.
Naim was published in 1994: Inspector Matadeen on the Moon (Manas Books, Chennai).
It was reprinted in 2003 by Katha Press, New Delhi.