Ramsharan Joshi is a well -known Hindi writer and a journalist. He has been an activist, editor, social analyst and professor of media studies. He has held a number of prestigious positions: Professor and Executive Director at Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Mass Communication, Bhopal, Director, National Bal Bhavan, New Delhi, and Deputy Director, Central Hindi Directorate. He was also a Visiting Professor at Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidhyalaya (MGAHV), Wardha. He held each of these prestigious positions with utmost dedication and sincerity along with his commitment to writing in leading newspapers, periodicals, magazines and dailies in his seven decades of life full of struggles and difficulties. He has written more than a dozen books in Hindi on a variety of contemporary issues and themes related to the socio-political realities of Independent rural and urban India.
Mei Bonsai Apne Samay Ka narrates a number of critical events and life experiences which highlight the courage, grit and determination Ramsharan Joshi exemplifies in his life. It is a social text of his times, of his struggles in the family and society, of his failures and successes and of his vision and hopes for a better social world that he dreams of. Ramsharan Joshi is a sensitive and conscientious thinker and writer who finds meanings even in the most adverse situation facing him personally or professionally. His unfulfilled dream of being a revolutionary is aptly captured in the title suggesting how his life remained contained and confined in his own milieu, did not bloom to the full extent, and thus remained like a bonsai plant. The author is truthful and scrupulous in presenting varied experiences from Baswa to Boston and the quotidian whirlpool of life recording events from as early as seven years of age. The honesty with which the author has spoken about his own desire of love, sexuality, of his failed relationships with women and his close associations with several prominent political and literary personalities of his times is nothing less than a rollercoaster ride for the reader. From the initial years of life starting from the small town of Baswa in Alwar district of Rajasthan where the author was born to his travels in Boston, Belgium, Germany, Mauritius, Pakistan, Beijing, Rome, Libya, Paris and Canada and the USA, Joshi has seen several highs and lows. The caste, class, regional and gender hierarchies and their interlinkages come alive in distinctive social roles played by various characters in this work.