Muchchad Gadh and Other Stories

In this collection of delectable gris-noir short stories, the women make a statement. They are sexually liberated and fearless. They play with guns and knives and axes. They may be slightly broken but they aren't uninteresting. An amorous khayal singer in old Delhi-the Begum of Ballimaran-is nonchalant about taking a vulnerable poet to bed. Sejal, a nubile dacoit is running away from her lover, Rana, through thick jungles because he seems inclined to give up thievery. A young convict is trained to become an assassin under the patronage of her senior—the bald, scarred Bai Sa, and a car crash survivor, invited to deliver an inspiring lecture at a college, feels like pushing another speaker off the dais because the latter's sari is shocking pink. There's also a desert village where moustaches rule the roost, and a dark, damp world where the struggle is between glory and fate. Meanwhile, in the hills, through the mist, you spot a failed actor trying to kick the bucket, an ambitious manager trying to use telepathy to knock off his bosses, and a bus parked precariously during a torrential downpour. Therefore, shadows become hoary tales, and a whisper is the learning of a lifetime