‘In Other Rooms, Other Wonders’ is a collection of short stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin, some of which have been previously published in The New Yorker and other journals. The eight faintly interlinked stories depict a feudal world in its dying…
Author: umashankar
I am just a watcher then. Sometimes I watch life, sometimes I watch death; many times I watch in between...
The Immigrant – A Review
Sun sets early on eligible girls in the matrimonial bourses of India. Those blessed with boundless beauty or in affluent lineage may nudge the timeline further by a few odd years, but rarely for long. Nina’s lush hair and pinkish…
Just Married, Please Excuse – A Review
There go the wedding bells for a cute IIM alumnus, oven-fresh from classes, peddling soaps and detergents for an MNC! Déjà vu? Let’s find out. We enter the story through a scene where the thirty years old beau of a…
The Lance in My Heart
Is love a primordial element of life? It depends on the lover, of course! Yet, there are few who have not smouldered in these flames. Indeed, many have turned to cinders. For it is the nature’s trump card to ensure…
Marked
"Drifting, what am I like? A gull between earth and sky." -Du Fu / Vikram Seth The more I think of Internet as a huge river where blogs float like boats, the more I am overtaken by the faithfulness of…
A Tented Image
It was not many decades ago that I was shot but since I live to tell the tale, it is only fair to reveal that the weapon of assault was a grumpy black box sporting a round lens on one…
The Mourning Cat
All night long the cat has wailed, Halting the darkness in its trails; I have groped and gulped water and peed, Turned and tossed in my bed and quailed. The kitten was young and its queries small, The wheels that…
The Last Salute
I don’t want to write about death. Who does? The business is best left to newspapers, God and Pratibha Patil. That last for her amazing powers to grant life to those long dead.Yet, I must dwell for a brief while…
From Privet Drive to Diagon Alley
In a shrewd move of one-upmanship in keeping with the indomitable Indian spirit, I have decided to write a flawsome post, realizing how folks have been writing awesome posts all over the Internet. What is so God-forsakenly flawsome about it,…
Mayan Ambition
Pharaohs had the vision to pile up the pyramids thousands of years ago. Shah Jahan’s flame of love bloomed out in Taj Mahal centuries back. Maya was moulding history at the dawn of the twenty-first century and the saga was…
Of Crows and Swans
Tumbling tonight in tavernous treks, My breath reeking of Sauvignon Blanc, I have courage enough to read the blogs of whitest crows and blackest swans. “Seven best ways to flag off a blog,” She croaked to soak in a hundred…
Gap-toothed Smile
In the recesses of the gap-toothed smile my tears are black. Pallid stars in the inky blue of a dying sky. A fly on the windshield of bliss wriggling in vacuum, Hanging still through swerves and sweeps of a listless…
One Grain Amongst the Storm 