Katha Vilasam

Katha Vilasam: The Story Within offers a path-breaking series of 50 articles by S. Ramakrishnan, published over the course of four years in the widely read Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan, to a wider reading public through translation into English. The writing style is intentionally direct and compact to suit a magazine readership. Nevertheless, the prose is elevating, even lyrical at times. There are “Aha” moments aplenty. The author uses a unique device in these units. They are “stories within stories”. In each unit, he describes an incident from his own experience and relates it to a short story he has read by a particular eminent Tamil writer. He paraphrases/summarises the writer’s story, melds it into his own reminiscence, and allows the two to resonate and create a musical signature in the reader’s mind. Thus, 50 noted short story writers in the Tamil language are featured here. The avowed purpose of the author was to introduce the readers of Ananda Vikatan (who may have been readers of nothing but magazines) to also delve into the works of excellent Tamil short story writers. The series ran for four years and was very well received by readers. Each unit deserves to be read and re-read not only for the insights and information about writers in different genres, but for the word wizardry and imagery that flow effortlessly through the lines. It is hoped that this English translation will teleport these unique offerings to a wider reading public and bring the works of excellent Tamil writers into the lives of discriminating lovers of literature everywhere.

Elusive and jelly-like, the 13 ghost stories in this volume conjoin two different worlds: ethereal and the real. It features female protagonists who speak of intersecting, universal women-experiences of love and rape, loneliness and betrayal, marginalization and dark dilemmas. These are the elements through which the haunting stories are told in a quintessentially Bengali idiom. The volume s stories are by writers spanning the entire twentieth century: Rabindranath Tagore, Pramatha Chaudhuri, Panchkori De, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay, Mahasweta Devi and the like.

Translation of an Urdu novel; includes critical appraisals of some of the author's works.

This collection, which gathers fifteen stories by contemporary Indian women representing the varied languages and regions of their subcontinent, is now available to an American audience for the first time.

Here are 5 scintillating interviews that capture the magic and the mystery of the world of the contemporary Indian writer. U R Anantha Murthy, Bhupen Khakhar, Mahasweta Devi, Krishna Sobti and M T Vasudevan Nair offer insights into the art and craft of writing, share their hopes and fears and reveal that unique creative urge which makes their work what it is.

He Had Eventful Experiences In A Prison And An Asylum. He Travelled With Sufis And Sanyasis And Did Odd Jobs. At The End Of It, Basheer Has A Bagful Of Stories. Coming From The Man Who Alerted The Map Of Malayalam Fiction Five Decades Ago, This Volume Of Short Stories Is Bound To Be An Unforgettable Experience.

Structured As A Biography Of A Fictional Malayalam Writer-It Is At One Level A Critique Of The World Of Tamil Letters And On Another, A Novel Of Ideas Engaged With The Burning Questions Of To Bring And Existece. Represents The Best Of Tamil Writing Even To-Day, More Than 20 Years After Its First Apperance.