Baldev Saraknama

Biography

Baldev Singh (11 December, 1942), also known as Baldev Singh Sadaknaama, is an Indian novelist and story writer in Punjabi-language. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011 for his novel Dhahwan Dilli De Kingre. As of 2012, he has written 55 novels and various short stories and plays.

Baldev Singh was born in the village of Chand Nawaan in the Moga district. He started his career as a teacher in the Muktsar area and spent some time in Himachal Pradesh as a teacher as well. Later he moved to Calcutta and worked as a truck cleaner, taxi driver, and truck operator.

Singh is known for his novels Sadaknaama and Laal Batti. His novel Sadaknaama was a road narrative of truck drivers from Punjab. It started as a column in Amrita Pritam's magazine Nagmani and was later published as a three-volume novel. 

The stories in the novel were based on Singh's real experiences. He himself was a truck driver for 10 years, while working as a teacher. The book became very popular in Punjabi literature and "Sadaknaama" became part of his name for his fans.

His novel Laal Batti dealt with the red-light area of Kolkatta, for which he studied his subject for over a decade. It was also adapted into play by Manch Rang Manch, and directed by Kewal Dhaliwal. 

His novel Annadaata was about the plights of farmers in Punjab and is also part of the Punjabi literature curriculum at the Guru Nanak Dev University and Punjabi University. He plans to write sequels to both of these books. His play Mitti Rudan Kare also remains popular.

His work Dhahwan Dilli De Kingre was about the legendary rebel Dulla Bhatti. The novel won him a Sahitya Akademi Award for Punjabi in 2011. 

He recently published a monogram on Giani Gurdit Singh (1923-2007), a noted Punjabi writer, for Sahitya Akademi, Delhi’s, "Makers of Indian Literature" series.