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…
Read MoreTag Archives: Fiction
#DystopianTales: ‘A Lockdown Fantasy’ by Cyrus Mistry
During bewildering times such as the present, the divide between fiction and reality is increasingly blurry and we turn to stories to make sense of our predicament. With our brand-new…
Read More‘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,…
Read More‘The Blue Lotus: Myths and Folktales of India’ by Meena Arora Nayak
POSTOMONI, THE OPIUM GIRL There was a rishi who lived alone by the Ganga. His only companion was a mouse that he had found in his palm-tree hut and had…
Read More‘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…
Read MoreAnimalia Indica
A HORSE AND TWO GOATS R. K. NARAYAN Of the seven hundred thousand villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred million live, flourish,…
Read More‘Finely Chopped Dill’ – A short Story from Cyrus Mistry’s ‘Passion Flower’
Jacintha was angry with the world for making her what she had become. In particular, it was a few individuals she held responsible. Sons of whores, daughters of bitches, may…
Read More‘A Suitable Boy’ by Vikram Seth
Chapter 1 1.1 ‘You too will marry a boy I choose,’ said Mrs Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter. Lata avoided the maternal imperative by looking around the great…
Read More