Category Archives: Fiction

‘Lord of the Rubble’ by Mohan Rakesh from ‘The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told’

They had come to Amritsar from Lahore after seven-and-a-half years. Attending the hockey match was an excuse, they were more interested in seeing those houses and bazaars that had become…

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Jean Drèze’s Preface to ‘Rumble in a Village’

At first sight, Palanpur is as dull a place as its name suggests. I’m not talking of the hill station called Palampur in Himachal Pradesh, or of the headquarters of…

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‘Rebati’ by Fakir Mohan Senapati from ‘The Greatest Odia Stories Ever Told’

But oft some shining April morn Is darkened in an hour, And blackest griefs o’er joyous home, Alas! unseen may lower. —Rev. J. H. Gurney ‘Rebati! Rebi! You fire that…

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‘A Ballad of Remittent Fever’

The House of the Ghoshals The river lay ahead. A blue current. A densely-wooded hill sloped upwards on the left. A boy of thirteen or fourteen lay on the ground,…

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‘Swimmer Among the Stars’ by Kanishk Tharoor

As a rule, the last speaker of a language no longer uses it. Ethnographers show up at the door with digital recorders, ready to archive every declension, each instance of…

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‘Em and the Big Hoom’ by Jerry Pinto

‘Someone turned on a tap’ Dear Angel Ears, Outside the window, a Marathi manus is asking mournfully if anyone would like to buy salt. Or at least that’s what I…

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‘The Angel’s Beauty Spots’ by KR Meera

I Angela was killed in front of her children. Her husband was the killer. He thrust the knife deep into her fair-skinned, well-rounded belly again and again. She writhed like…

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The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told

THE SHROUD by Munshi Premchand Outside the hut, father and son sat in silence in front of the firepit already gone cold. Inside, Budhya, the son’s young wife, kept thrashing…

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