Best Loved Indian Stories Of The Century

A selection of the most enjoyable and popular short stories from India. Best Loved Indian Stories brings together tales from different parts of the country that have enthralled readers of all ages. This volume, the first of two, represents the best English stories written by Indians in the twentieth century. In these twenty stories you will meet unforgettable characters like the inimitable Muni with his two goats in R.K. Narayan’s classic ‘A Horse and Two Goats', the pious Vishnu in Khushwant Singh's 'The Mark of Vishnu’, the innocent basket-seller with the enchanting eyes in Ruskin Bond's unforgettable 'Night Train at Deoli', the dying grandmother with her eccentric demands in Githa Hariharan's ‘Remains of the Feast’ and many other men and women who have touched our lives over the generations. The authors included in this volume are: Anjana Appachana Anita Desai Attia Hosain Bharati Mukherjee Githa Hariharan K.A. Abbas Keki N. Daruwalla Khushwant Singh Manjula Padmanabhan Manoj Das Manohar Malgonkar Mulk Raj Anand Nayantara Sahgal Nergis Dalai Padma Hejrnadi R.K. Narayan Raja Rao Ruskin Bond Santha Rarna Rau Shashi Deshpande.

The rich and varied body of writing in the Indian languages has grown immeasurably in the last hundred years. This collection of short stories brings together some perennial favourites from this vast treasure trove, written by acknowledged masters of the art and sensitively translated. The twenty-three stories included deal with themes central to modern India: caste, gender politics and emerging changes in the traditional family structure. These are striking vignettes from all parts of the country, evocative of different lifestyles yet reflective of common issues and problems with which we can all identify.

A Selection Of The Most Enjoyable And Popular Short Stories From India. Best Loved Indian Stories Brings Together Tales From Different Parts Of The Country That Have Enthralled Readers Of All Ages. This Volume, The First Of Two, Represents The Best English Stories Written By Indians In The Twentieth Century. In These Twenty Stories You Will Meet Unforgettable Characters Like The Inimitable Muni With His Two Goats In R.K. Narayan S Classic A Horse And Two Goats', The Pious Vishnu In Khushwant Singh'S 'The Mark Of Vishnu , The Innocent Basket-Seller With The Enchanting Eyes In Ruskin Bond'S Unforgettable 'Night Train At Deoli', The Dying Grandmother With Her Eccentric Demands In Githa Hariharan'S Remains Of The Feast And Many Other Men And Women Who Have Touched Our Lives Over The Generations. The Authors Included In This Volume Are: Anjana Appachana Anita Desai Attia Hosain Bharati Mukherjee Githa Hariharan K.A. Abbas Keki N. Daruwalla Khushwant Singh Manjula Padmanabhan Manoj Das Manohar Malgonkar Mulk Raj Anand Nayantara Sahgal Nergis Dalai Padma Hejrnadi R.K. Narayan Raja Rao Ruskin Bond Santha Rarna Rau Shashi Deshpande

This anthology testifies to women`s many concerns, whether witht a way of life, or with being caught inside the fur walls of the home, or in a relationship with someone other than the husband, or being caught at the intersection of many forces within a situation of political violence and armed conflict. In one way or another the woman`s body becomes a site upon which many battles take place; for control, for power, for progeny, but there is seldom a resolution in which the women remains a mere victim, or more acted upon than acting. Whether she is in the palaces of the gods, or caught in the body of snake, or speaking through the spirit of the countrside which witnessed her rape, the woman`s voice is unique, singular and in each story, different. While this gives substance to the cliche that India is a countr where many and varied realities exist simultaneously, it gives the lie to the cliche that all women speak with a sameness and a commonality of experiences.

Sufism in Eighteenth-Century India focuses on one particular treasure from surviving Persian manuscripts in India, Nāla-yi ʿAndalīb, written by Muḥammad Nāṣir ʿAndalīb (d. 1759), a Naqshbandī Mujaddidī mystical thinker. It explores the convergence and interrelation of the text with its context to find how ʿAndalīb revisits the central role of the Prophet as the main protagonist in his allegorical love story with great attention to the circumstances of the Muslim community during the eighteenth century. The present volume elucidates ʿAndalīb’s Sufism calling for a return to the pristine form of Islam and the idealization of the first Muslim community. It considers his Ṭarīqa-yi Khāliṣ Muḥammadiyya as a derivation of the Ṭarīqa-yi Muḥammadiyya, which had an important role in promoting Islam. The book attempts to clarify and systematize all of the concepts which ʿAndalīb employs within the framework of the Khāliṣ Muḥammadiyya, such as the state of the nāṣir and the Khāliṣ Muḥammadī. It addresses controversial topics in religion, such as the struggles between Shiʿa and Sunni Muslims, and the controversies between Shuhūdīs and Wujūdīs. It illuminates two key personalities, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, and two types of relationships, the maʿiyya and ʿayniyya, with the spirituality of the Prophet. The book will be of interest to scholars and students interested in Islamic studies, Islamic mysticism, the intellectual history of Muslims in South Asia, the history of the Mughal Empire, Persian literature, studies of manuscripts, Islamic philosophy, comparative studies of religions, social studies, anthropology, and debates concerning the eighteenth century, such as the transition from pre-colonialism to colonialism and the origins of modernity in Islam.

Twenty classic short stories from master writers across the country This superb collection contains some of the best Indian short stories written in the last fifty years, both in English and in the regional languages. Some of these stories – ‘We Have Arrived in Amritsar’ by Bhisham Sahni, ‘Companions’ by Raja Rao, ‘The Sky and the Cat’ by U.R. Anantha Murthy, ‘A Devoted Son’ by Anita Desai – have been widely anthologized and are well known. Others, like Premendra Mitra’s ‘The Discovery of Telenapota’, Gangadhar Gadgil’s ‘The Dog that Ran in Circles’, Mowni’s ‘A Loss of Identity’, O.V. Vijayan’s ‘The Wart’ and Devanuru Mahadeva’s ‘Amasa’, are less familiar to readers but are nevertheless classics of the art of the short story. This new and revised edition includes three additional classics: R.K. Narayan’s ‘Another Community’, Avinash Dolas’s ‘The Victim’ and Ismat Chughtai’s ‘The Wedding Shroud’. The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories is a marvellous and entertaining introduction to the rich diversity of pleasures that the Indian short story–a form that has produced masters in over a dozen languages–can offer.