Avay Shukla obtained his Master’s degree (English) from Hindu College, Delhi, in 1973, and taught for two years at Delhi University before joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1975. Serving in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh in various capacities, he reached the age of retirement in December 2010, completing his official duties as Additional Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh.
He counts as his crowning achievement the establishment in 2010 of two national parks in Kullu District during his tenure as Forest Secretary – Kheer Ganga National Park (, and covering an area of about 710 square kilometres or 270 sq miles) and Inderkilla National Park (covering 104 square kilometres or 40 sq miles). That is partly because the mountains and forests of the state inspired in him an abiding passion for the natural environment. He has travelled to the remotest regions of Himachal on foot, chronicling the lifestyles of the hardy villagers who live there, the local myths, legends and anecdotal trivia which available in abundance. He is President of the HP Trekking Association and is one of the founding members of the Eco-Tourism Society of India. Avay Shukla has been an avid high-altitude trekker for twenty years.
True to his nature, Shukla settled in a small village, Puranikoti, above Shimla and divides his time between that and Delhi. A passable bridge player and a bad golfer, he is game for a trek anytime even now at 69 years of age. His wife of forty years, Neerja, is a special educator and manages her own NGO working with children who have mental and physical disabilities. They have two sons: Sidharth is a digital media executive with a multi-national and Saurabh is a finance and investment consultant. One helps Shukla with the computer, the other with his investments; needless to say, both crash more often than not.
Shukla combines in himself traits of three distinct persona – civil servant, environmentalist, and writer – and gives expression to all of them in his writings. He started serious writing rather late in life, after his retirement, but has done his best to make up for lost time . Avay Shukla writes extensively on subjects as varied as our country’s canvas itself: current affairs, the environment and conservation, the bureaucracy and governance, legal matters, social issues, societal peccadilloes and anything else he can lampoon. His work has been published in the New Indian Express, The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Tribune, National Herald, The Morning Standard and on websites such as Sify.com, The Wire, The Citizen and Hillpost.com. A prolific blogger (avayshukla.blogspot.com), he has published two earlier books:
THE TRAILS LESS TRAVELLED: TREKKING THE HIMACHAL HIMALAYAS in 2015, an account of ten major high-altitude treks, in which he weaves together the tapestry of nature, myth, mountain lifestyles and cultures to produce a rewarding chronicle of travels in the remotest areas and heights of the state.
THE SPECTRE OF CHOOR DHAR: TALES FROM THE MOUNTAINS, a collection of short stories based on the careful documentation of the fables and anecdotes that he gathered during his hill wanderings (published in July 2019).
The writer’s knowledge of his locale is astonishing. Every trek worth knowing in the state of Himachal Pradesh is listed. Every mountain and valley and stream is mapped out. In ‘The Lost Treasure of Dibbi Bokri’, he writes, “The Parbati river, as you know, originates from the glacial Mantalai lake just below the Pin Parbat range …… It cascades furiously down its narrow, thickly forested, habitation-less valley …. before it confluences with the Tosh stream at the village of Pulga.” In ‘The Devta of Jiwa-Nal’, the local legend of the Pandavas’ wanderings in the upper reaches of the state is peppered with accurate descriptions of the locale.
***ENDORSEMENTS:
“Beyond hilarious! …. iconic …. the Wodehouse of our generation! … not only takes the cake, but the bakery as well!” – Kush Verma, retired IAS officer and author of the forthcoming book, “The A-Z of the Civil Services”
“Most acerbic” – Col. Ajai Shukla
“Brilliant!” – Prof. Anupam Shukla
“Didn’t laugh so much in a long time” – Yawar
“A heady cocktail of satire, humour and ground reality” – Yugraj Yadav
“Turns the mirror on our social reality” – Anonymous
“Eye catching jugglery of words. Superb!” – Anonymous
“Says it like it is, but with finely tuned irony” – Anonmyous
“Absolutely scintillating!” – Anonmyous
“Simply the best!” – Anonmyous
“Excruciatingly funny” – Anonymous
“I hate what you say, but I find myself forced to return to the bilge you write because it is so funny” – Anonymous
“Wow! Sarcasm, wit and humour never mingled so hilariously!” – Ramesh Telugu.
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Information on his book Polyticks, DeMocKrazy & MumboJumbo: Babus, Mantris & Netas (Un)Making Our Nation is at https://pipparannbooks.com/book/polyticks-demockrazy-mumbo-jumbo/