Yashpal Sharma

Yashpal Sharma  pronunciation  (born 11 August 1954) is a former Indian cricketer. He was a middle order batsman who played at the turn of the 1980s.

Early career

Yashpal Sharma first drew attention when he scored 260 for Punjab schools against Jammu & Kashmir schools in 1972. Within two years he was in the state team, and a member of the North Zone team that won the Vizzy Trophy. His first major innings in first class cricket was a 173 in the Duleep Trophy for North, against the South Zone which had Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Venkataraghavan. But he missed the tour to Australia that followed immediately afterwards.

A 99 runout in the Irani Trophy the next year got Sharma a place in the team to Pakistan a few weeks later. He played two one day matches in the tour. He went to England in 1979 as a part of the team that played in the World Cup. He did not play in any match but appeared in three Tests in the series that followed. He scored 884 runs at an average of 58 in the tour matches.

Yashpal Sharma (actor)

Yashpal Sharma is an Indian Bollywood actor & theatre artist. He is best known for his role as Randhir Singh in Sudhir Mishra's 2003 Hindi movie Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, apart from Lagaan (2001), Gangaajal (2003), Ab Tak Chhappan (2004), Apaharan (2005), Singh is Kinng (2008), Arakshan (2011) and Rowdy Rathore (2012). He played Kuwar Singh in Zee's Mera Naam Karegi Roshan. Yashpal is also a stage actor and appears in live plays. He formerly starred in Zee's Neeli Chhatri Waale.

Early life and education

He was born and brought up in a lower-middle-class family in Hisar city of Haryana State (Hindi: ‍हिसार). His father, Prem Chand Sharma, was employed in Haryana Government in the Public Works Department (PWD) - Irrigation Branch. Yashpal Sharma used to live in 'Canal Colony' on Rajgargh Road in Hisar City with his family. His brother Ghansham Sharma recognised his talent and always supported him for his acting pursuits. Since childhood, he was interested in acting and used to actively organise and participate in Ramlila during Dasara (also called Navaratri) festivals.

Yashpal

Yashpal (3 December 1903 – 26 December 1976) was a Hindi-language author who is often considered to be the most gifted since Premchand. A political commentator and a socialist who had a particular concern for the welfare of the poor and disadvantaged, he wrote in a range of genres, including essays, novels and short stories, as well as a play, two travel books and an autobiography. He won the Hindi-language Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel, Meri Teri Uski Baat in 1976 and was also a recipient of the Padma Bhushan.

Yashpal's writings form an extension to his earlier life as a revolutionary in the cause of the Indian independence movement.

Early life and activism

Yashpal was born in 1903 at a village situated in the Kangra Hills. His mother was poor and had sole responsibility for raising her two sons. He grew up in an era when claims to independence from the British Raj were increasingly heard and with a mother who was a keen supporter of Arya Samaj. He attended an Arya Samaj gurukul in Hardwar on a "freeship" basis, due to the family's poverty. Such gurukuls were considered by the British to be seditious schools because they fostered pride in Hindu culture and Indian achievements, encouraging the notion that Aryan Indians would overthrow what they regarded as their temporary subjugation to the British. Yashpal later said that during his schooldays he had daydreamed of a time when Indians would reverse the situation to the point of governing their colonial masters in Britain itself. He was bullied by his fellow pupils at the gurukul on account of his poverty, and he left the school when he suffered a prolonged attack of dysentery.