Rainsong

Every night a writer gets a phone call from an unknown woman named Rain. A man in a restaurant wishes the waitress would bring him a fish bowl with a lone goldfish so hed gift it to the woman at the next table. A girl suffering from Electra complex forges a life-long bond of hatred with her mother. Bradley Hudson awaits death, remembering his beloved Munni Begum, but what about the love of Longlatti, who devoutly tends to him in his twilight years? Rafael Tigga converts to Christianity in a bid to escape penury, but he and his tribal kin sign a raw deal, remaining neither Christian nor Hindu in the end. Pratyakshas writing is a statement of non-conformity, and Rainsong an exceptionally brave work. The works in this collection broke fresh ground in Hindi literature. Each one of these powerful, disconcerting short stories and musings is an exploration of the human psyche against the backdrop of modern life – both urban and rural – and sensibilities, with the interiority of the language and narration lending the whole selection an unshakeable intensity.