Pandey Bechan Sharma, better known by his pen name Ugra ('extreme' or 'fierce', Hindi उग्र) (born Chunar, North-Western Provinces, 1900, died Delhi 1967) was an Indian writer noted for his provocative, usually satirical, journalism, fiction and autobiography.
[2] In 1924, he was imprisoned for nine months for editing the first issue of the newspaper Swadesh, opposing British rule: fleeing from Gorakhpur, he sought refuge first in Calcutta and then Bombay, where he was arrested.
[3][4] Upon release, he returned to Calcutta, editing the magazine Matvala until the 1928 controversy over his short-story collection Choklat, which led him to move to Bombay to work on silent films.
[5] In the words of Ruth Vanita, "he delighted in iconoclasm; few writers of the time match his unsentimental depictions of the family, whether urban or rural, as a hotbed of violence, neglect, hatred, sexual depravity, and oppression";[6] "his fiction tends toward the didactic and generally has a social message.
His writings champion the causes of nationalism, oppressed women, and lower castes, and critique corruption in high places, alcoholism, gambling, adultery, prostitution, and communalism.
The story describes an illicit sexual relationship between Babu Dinkar Prasad, an upper-class Hindu man, and "a beautiful lad of thirteen of fourteen.
The title of the story refers to "a name for those innocent, tender and beautiful boys of our country, whom society’s demons push into the mouth of destruction to quench their own desires.