August 6, 1942 – elsewhere Swadesh Deepak was born in Rawalpindi, in what is now Pakistan. He read English and Hindi literature to an MA, then gave several decades to teaching English at Gandhi Memorial National College, Ambala Cantonment. Between 1991 and 1997, illness drew the curtains. For those years almost no one outside his family and closest friends heard his voice. He returned the only way he knew — head on — making the illness itself his material: Maine Mandu Nahin Dekha, an autobiographical reckoning, and the play Sabse Udaas Kavita. He is remembered above all for Court Martial, which brought him the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2004. He left seventeen books behind — story collections and novels among them Tamasha and Kisi Ek Pedh Ka Naam Lo, and plays including Kaal Kothri and Jalta Hua Rath. Maine Mandu Nahin Dekha now speaks English too, carried over by Jerry Pinto as I Have Not Seen Mandu (Speaking Tiger). In 2006, he went out for a walk. He has been missing ever since.