title: Netaji: Collected Works: Volume 1: An Indian Pilgrim: An Unfinished Autobiography
author:  Subhas Chandra Bose 
description: `Bose's retrospective self-analysis, and meticulous accounts of his inner-struggle as a truant schoolboy searching for holy enlightenment, would be a useful reference point for those who tend to interpolate an amoral, fantastic streak in Bose from his subsequent alliance with Nazi Germany ...' Subrata K. Mitra, University of Heidelberg, Germany, Contemporary South Asia, issue 8, no 1
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  **_The first autobiography in an Indian language_**
  
  
  
  
  
  Poet, philosopher and merchant, Banarasidas had no precedent in literature or
  tradition that might have inspired him to write his life’s story or guided him
  in his task. His motivation to write his story was simple: ‘Let me tell my
  story to all.’ Completed in the winter of 1641, in Agra, _Ardhakathanak_ is
  the first autobiography in an Indian language.
  
  
  
  
  
  Banarasidas charms us with his transparency and frankness, revealing as much
  of himself as possible. And he punctuates the fast-flowing narrative of his
  life every now and then to muse on the nature of human existence. The result
  is an astonishing account that is more modern than medieval in tone, and free
  of formulaic conventions and stylized ornamentation.
  
  
  
  
  
  At the end of his ‘half story’, Banarasi becomes as intimate to us as an old
  friend. We know the ups and downs of his life almost as well as we know our
  own and we