Manohar Shyam Joshi

He died on 30 March 2006, at the age of 73, in New Delhi, India. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Bhagwati Joshi, and sons, Anupam Joshi, Anurag Joshi and Ashish Joshi. Upon his death, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called him "one of the most influential writers and commentators in Hindi in recent times".

He was a prominent post-modernist authors in modern Hindi literature, as amiably demonstrated by his cult novel Kuru kuru Swaahaa and his novella Hariya Hercules ki Hairaani. He was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for Hindi, for his novel Kyap, an allegory of modern India, known for its sensitive portrayal of the Kumaoni traditions of his home state of Uttarakhand.

He is often called "the Father of Indian Soap Operas" being the writer of India's first television soap opera, Hum Log. Made in 1982, when television was still a luxury item for the majority of Indians, the serial dealt with the everyday struggles of the middle-class India, making it an instant hit, especial because every Indian could identify with it. Another popular creation was Buniyaad (1987–1988), directed by Ramesh Sippy, a serial based around the life a family displaced by the Partition of India in 1947; both went on to deeply influence an entire generation of Indians as well as the Indian television industry.

Manohar Shyam Joshi (9 August 1933 – 30 March 2006) was a Hindi writer, journalist and scriptwriter, most well known as the writer of Indian television's first soap opera, Hum Log (1984) and his early hits Buniyaad (1987), Kakaji Kahin, a political satire and Kyaap, a novel which won him the Sahitya Akademi Award.