Ramesh Chandra Shah is an Indian poet, novelist, critic and the author of Sahitya Academy Award winning novel, Vinayak. He was honoured by the Government of India in 2004 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award. Ramesh Chandra Shah was born in 1937 in the hilly village of Almora in the Indian state of Uttarakhand in family with moderate financial means and educational background. He graduated from Allahabad University and secured his masters (MA) in English literature from the same university in 1960. He obtained a doctoral degree (PhD) on the thesis, Yeats and Eliot: Perspectives on India, from Agra University. He began teaching in the high school at Barechhina (Uttaranchal) and later taught in remote colleges in the small towns of Sidhi and Panna in Madhya Pradesh before moving to Bhopal. He retired as HOD English Literature from Hamidia college in 1997. After which he chaired Nirala Srijnanpith, a literary chair instituted by Bharat Bhavan[9] till 2000. Shah is credited with several books composed of poems, short stories, travelogue, essays and novels.