“Kar-e-jahan daraz hai…” (Long and complicated are the affairs of the world.) – Iqbal.     Munni apa felt pleased today. She generally regarded herself as the only sane person in her family. And she let everyone know this. “Hmmph, this family! They cannot control their temper. I have suffered all my life for […]

Even from the third floor we could only see the walls around the hostel and the twisted barbed wires like cacti upon them.  To see the road and the vehicles, the trees lining that strip of asphalt, the shops and the shopkeepers, we had to be on the terrace – and the terrace was off […]

Translator: Ujjwal Gupta The wise and gifted of Persia used to say that if Allah had written the Koran in Persian rather than  Arabic, He would have passed off Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi’s Masnavi as the Koran. I doubt if any other country has heaped such fantastic praise upon a poet. Maulana Rumi was a devotee. […]

I was walking towards the ticket window to buy my Metro pass when a man stopped me. Where are you going? he said. Can’t you see where I am going? I said. There is a line here, he said. I am in the ladies’ line, I said. I can’t see any ladies’ line, he said. […]

Brajeshwar was tall and he was thin, a bit like chewing gum, and when he sat in cramped spaces like overfull autos and the backs of buses, his knees would reach his chin, itself over-long, much like his face. His eyes, even, appeared stretched – or drooping perhaps is the right word – extrapolating forever […]

Bangalore Four years ago Sabbah had written eleven short stories about different generations of a family in Madurai. At the time of submission to publishers, she had loved most of the stories. When ten of the stories were picked and arranged into a book called How To Eat in Madurai, Maami, she had still loved […]

Translated by Arunava Sinha Bilu would have to sing at the annual college celebrations. With what amounted to a hunger strike, she secured a sari from her mother and, with it, permission to go to the celebrations dressed in the sari. No, never. In no circumstances would Bilu go to college in a frock today. […]

  Translated from Assamese by Diba Borooah Pahi’s visage is barely visible through the blanket of the dense cloud of shravan   that has descended upon her. Her spirits have certainly been deflated ever since her father had been transferred. Indeed she took a protracted period of time to come to terms with her father’s absence […]

पेन यह एक प्राइमरी स्‍कूल थी. इमरजेंसी के बाद के दिनों की बात है. जेपी आंदोलन के असर में यह गांव अब भी था लेकिन अजीब सी संदेह की‍ स्थिति भी थी. ज्‍यादातर लोग अपनी धोती की लांग उठाकर चलने लगे थे. उनके लिंग के पास जो नसबंदी का घाव किया गया था, वो तो […]

रोली को तल्लीन होकर भोजन करना पसन्द है. जो कुछ उसे नापसन्द है उनमे से एक है – दोपहर के भोजन के समय ऑफिस कैंटीन मे जमा हुए सेल्समैन, एन.जी.ओ. के प्रचारक, घर बेचने वाले, खाता खुलवाने वाले एजेंट और इस नौवीं प्रजाति के अन्य जंतु. वो दाल चावल पर भिड़ी होती है जब कोई […]