Mohan Rakesh (8 January 1925 – 3 December 1972) was one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani ("New Story") literary movement of the Hindi literature in India in the 1950s.

He wrote the first modern Hindi play, Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Aashad) (1958), which won a competition organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

[1] Mohan Rakesh's Aadhe-adhure is one of the most significant plays about urbanmiddle class family and poignantly projects the transition of values in the changing urban scenario in India.

[4][5] He started his career as a postman at Dehradun from 1947 to 1949, after that he shifted to Delhi, but found a teaching job in Jalandhar, Punjab for a short while.

[citation needed] His novels are Andhere Band Kamare (Closed Dark Rooms) and Na Aane Wala Kal (The Tomorrow That Never Comes).

One Day in the Season of Rain, Aparna Dharwadker and Vinay Dharwadker's authorised English translation of Ashadh Ka Ek Din, premiered at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States in 2010 and traveled to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Region 3) in 2011.

[8] Prominent Indian directors Om Shivpuri, Shyamanand Jalan, Arvind Gaur and Ram Gopal Bajaj directed this play.