Mohanaswamy has just lost his long-time partner, Karthik, to a woman. Even as he scrutinizes himself, the choices he's made, the friends and lovers he's gained and lost, Mohanaswamy dreams of living a simple, dignified life. A life that will allow him to leave, even forget, the humiliation and fears of adolescence, the slurs his mind still carries around - gandu sule, hennu huli - and the despair that made him crave to conform. A coming out of the closet for Vasudhendra himself, these stor...

'Much like the great James Baldwin, the acclaimed Kannada writer Vasudhendra has transformed his personal experience of bigotry, shame and tragedy into harrowing but magnificent truth-telling. His work will leave you impatient with other writers.' -Siddharth Dube, author of No One Else.Mohanaswamy has just lost his long-time partner, Karthik, to a woman. Even as he scrutinizes himself, the choices he's made, the friends and lovers he's gained and lost, Mohanaswamy dreams of living a simple...

Mohanaswamy has just lost his long-time partner, Karthik, to a woman. Even as he scrutinizes himself, the choices he's made, the friends and lovers he's gained and lost, Mohanaswamy dreams of living a simple, dignified life. A life that would allow him to leave, even forget, the humiliation and fears of adolescence, the slurs his mind still carries around – gandu sule, hennu huli – and the despair that made him crave to conform. A coming out of the closet for Vasudhendra himself, these sto...

"Mishra transforms a visceral, intimate story of one man's humble origins into a kaleidoscopic portrait of a society bedazzled by power and wealth . . . Run and Hide is a spectacular, illuminating work of fiction." —Jennifer Egan, author of Manhattan BeachGrowing up in a small railway town, Arun always dreamed of escape. His acceptance to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, enabled ...

The future is here. India has just sent its first spacecraft to the moon, and the placid city of Mysore is gearing up for its own global recognition with the construction of HeritageLand - Asia's largest theme park. From behind the formidable gates of Mahalakshmi Gardens to the shanty houses on the edge of town, the people of Mysore are abuzz as they watch their city prepare for a complete transformation. Susheela, an elderly widow, is forced into a secretive new life. Uma, trying to escap...

The protagonist, a collector of antique goods, buys a nude idol of a yakshini from an old man and uncovers it ignoring warnings of its seller. Thereafter he gets infatuated to the voluptuous idol and encounters horrible consequences.

"I phoned a friend, Rajendar Menen, a journalist who is also a student of Mumbai. He is also unusually resourceful and has many contacts. He took me to the Kamathipura area, where the brothels were. At that time, he was writing extensively on AIDS research. We entered a brothel. A girl in her early teens came out of an inner room and greeted Rajen with unqualified puppy-like affection. She rubbed her head against Rajen’s hip, speaking in giggles and whispers. “Even so early in the day, the...

When you bring together 48 stories from 26 exceptionally talented Indian women writers, you can expect imaginations, passions, and emotions to set pages aflame. Ripples is the result of one such effort. It is an anthology of short fiction stories that showcases superior creative writing and is a great representative of contemporary Indian women's fiction writing.

Lakshmi is the youngest daughter of poor north-Indian rice growers, who is sold into marriage to a southern Indian. In a fluid and fast-paced prose, Lakshmi's trajectory weaves with disrespect and violence. She is forced to labour eighteen hours a day, give birth to children she did not choose and carry the burden of captivity. Her story may be one in thousands, but Lakshmi will stoically endure her lot up to the time she envisions the opportunity to grab her destiny in her own hands.

Set in the sleepy sea side town of Gopalpur-on-Sea on the East Coast of India, this is the story of the mock-colonial world of the Coromandel Villa Hotel, whose owner, Arjun Roy tried to escape from the urban life of Calcutta, and his girl Friday Jennifer Da Costa. The story goes back in time and place to trace the early childhood years of Arjun and his beautiful older sister Bula, as well as the unhappy past of Jennifer in Calcutta.It is also the story of Shanti the demented beggar girl who ...

The male and female alter egos, Satya and Maya, come together to create Silent Eloquence as a collection of stories each distinct from the other. Spanning their own age difference and biological distinctions, their collection puts forth the viewpoint of the different ways in which a man and a woman express their innate thoughts on the vast canvas of words, and collate them as stories for everyone to ponder. Silent Eloquence comes in two distinct parts of Satya, the male, and Maya, the fema...

Ann Marie reads fragments of her dead husband's unfinished book, and the many love letters he sent her, and in them the social and political events of the time. As she ponders the writing and the years that the brilliant Jithendran squandered working for a toy company that makes drum-playing monkeys, the narrative gives way to the sweeping saga of a village by the river Periyar. Grappling with issues of equality, love, caste, religion and politics, Thachanakkara is a microcosm of twentieth...