Hyderabad, April 10 -- Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, better knownby his pen name Munshi Premchand, was one of the most famouswriters of the pre-independence period. His stories had a strong emotional quality about them and he was able to capture the struggles of human life in a very realistic manner. He wrote in Hindi and Urdu and authored more than a dozen novels and about 300 short stories.

One of his stories, written in 1938, is titled Idgah (place where Eid prayers are offered). It is a beautiful story about a small boy named Hamid who lives with his grandmother Ameena. The boy's parents have passed away and that is the reason why he is living with his grandmother. Howeverthe old lady is very poor and lives a hand to mouth existence in a ...