Kosala is a 1963

1963 in literature

The year 1963 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*First United States printing of John Cleland's 1749 novel, Fanny Hill . The book is banned for obscenity, triggering a court case by its publisher.*Leslie Charteris publishes his final collection of stories...

 novel in the Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 language by author Bhalchandra Nemade

Bhalchandra Nemade

Bhalchandra Vanaji Nemade is a Marathi writer from Maharashtra, India.-Life:Nemade was born in 1938 in the village of Sangavi in Khandesh. He received his bachelor's degree from Fergusson College in Pune and Master's degree in Linguistics from Deccan College in Pune and English Literature from...

. It narrates the journey of a young man and his friends through his college years.

The novel is not a novel in a true sense. It is an account of years spent by a student, coming from rural Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 to very urbane Pune

Pune

Pune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...

to pursue higher studies. The novel when read by different age groups brings completely different experience and perception. The most noteworthy aspect of this novel is its completely different flavor of Marathi language. No one before and possibly after Nemade (including himself in subsequent work) has successfully attempted such. There is no romanticism associated to the hostel life portrayed in this novel, which is generally done. The central character, Pandurang is unusually cynical despite his age.

"Kosla" has been translated in many Indian languages and also in English. The available translations of "Kosla" are as follows:

• Kosla (Hindi) published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (1983)

- Kosheto (Gujrati) published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (1995)
- Kosla (Kannada) published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (1995)
- Palur Vah (Assami)published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (1996)
- Kosla (Punjabi) published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (1996)
- Cocoon (English) published by Macmillan Publishers India, Chennai (1997)
- Need (Bengali) published by Sahitya Academi, New Delhi (2001)
- Kosla (Urdu) published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (2002)
- Koshapok (Orria) published by National Book Trust, New Delhi (2005)