Dr Suroopa Mukherjee's review in World Literature Today, Oklahoma, Sept-Oct 2008 issue

Murli Melwani's *Indian Short Stories: From Colonial Beginnings toPost-modern Tales* is a historical overview of what he describes as the"step child of literature", the Indian short story in English. As a genre short stories are neglected by both publishers and critics, though authors,including mainstream novelists have experimented with the form, mainly because of its brevity, and the free play it allows with themes, style and characterization.A short story can be philosophical, political, lyrical and subversive.

What Melwani suggests is striking; as a literary form it is especially suitable to deal with the wide range of Indian experiences, so that thematically it is more expansive and faithful to the nuances of a multicultural, diverse nation like India than the Indian novel in English.

At a time when the Indian novel in English is being noticed in the literary scenario, winning both awards and accolades, this seems a timely critical interjection.Melwani makes it very clear that he is not discussing individual stories, so that each chapter is period based and gives us brief pen portrait of authors and their works, ranging from established writers, to lesser known names, to those whom we discover for the first time.

To that extent there is nothing predictable in the choice of works and the way they have been placed in thehistorical, socio-political context. The analysis never palls because each author, and the list is comprehensive and wide ranging, is accompanied by sharp, insightful comments on different aspects of writing and reading.Normally this sort of capsule presentation of a particular period, covering a decade, can give a sense of sampling rather than providing an in-depth literary analysis; it is to Melwani's credit that he is both astute and incisive in his commentary, however brief they might be.

At times why he includes a writer can be a trifle whimsical, but his individual author analysis is rarely sketchy. Thus we get an interesting analysis of why Melwani feels Ruth Pawar Jhabvala is a better short story writer than a novelist. Sometimes he provides startling juxtapositions such as Jhabvala'suse of satire as compared to Kushwant Singh's satirical writing.We also get to know about Keki Daruwala's short stories, a lesser known aspect of the poet. The space that is given to authors can vary. So Anita Desai gets as much space as Hamdi Bey or Jug Suraiya. Some authors are barely mentioned in a catalogue style, which can be frustrating and can take away from the flow of the argument.

At times one gets the sense that key themes such as the politics of Indian writing in English is given too little space, though here again the analysis is sharp and insightful.Melwani's contention is that the question of Indian writing in English is asked 2 decades later, so that when Ruskin Bond and Bunny Rueben are writing short stories in English the question of authenticity is no longer a key issue.

However it is in the postmodern tales that Melwani becomes a little too predictable, and one begins to feel the absence of a more contemporary treatment of modern literature in relation to complex times. Many a time the analysis becomes too cursory, almost superficial, and the book ends up endorsing what it had claimed to challenge.

In the final analysis it would seem that the step motherly treatment given to short stories is largelybecause key writers, mostly novelists and poets, merely experiment with short stories so that it remains a side activity. A pity that a neglected literary form with enormous potential, which Melwani suggests in away that is often tantalizing and intriguing, can only arouse luke warm interest in the reader. The portrait gallery suggests mediocrity rather than real genius.This aspect has been brought into the argument but only with reference to individual writing rather than as a matter of critical contention. However Melwani successfully draws our attention to works that are less known, and to authors whom we tend to neglect. I for one would be tempted to pick up the works of Attia Hosain and Padma Hejmadi.

Reviewed by Suroopa Mukerjee, author of *Across the Mystic Shore*,Macmillan New Writing, 2006

I was raised in Shillong. Educated at St Edmund's College. Left in 1980 to head an export company in Taiwan. After 25 years in Taiwan, moved to Miami in 2005. In 2007 moved to Plano, Texas.Author of "Stories of a Salesman(collection of short stories),"Deep Roots"(a three-act play),"Themes in Indo Anglian Literature,"(literary criticism)," "Indian English Stories: From Post Colonial Beginings to Modern Times"(literary criticism)" Forthcoming:"Themes in the Indian Short in English"A number of my stories have found their way in anthologies

My recent journalistic writing in The Dallas Morning News and NeighborsGo(a subsidiary of The Dallas Morning News)
Sweetening the melting pot
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-east_murli_28edi.ART.East.Edition1.26c7a32.html
Wine article
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/opinion/stories/DN-north_murli_01edi.ART.North.Edition1.465abbb.html
Birds of a feather: NG
http://neighborsgoblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/09/west-plano-resident-creates-bo.html
Asian Fusion NG
http://neighborsgoblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/07/murli-melwanis-story-tells-of.html
Highpoint tennis
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/opinion/stories/DN-north_murli_0222edi.ART.North.Edition1.46bac98.html
Super Sunday
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/opinion/stories/DN-north_murli_0207edi.ART.North.Edition1.4567da9.html
Tennis n relocations
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/opinion/stories/DN-north_tennis_0120edi.ART.North.Edition1.37aaa1f.html
Finding Tennis Partners in Plano
www.neighborsgo.com/stories/14149
Lark in the Park
www.neighborsgo.com/stories/16125
Celebrating Asian American culture
www.neighborsgo.com/stories/15494
Fight Anxiety during Eco downturn
www.neighborsgo.com/stories/23543
Reunions:
www.neighborsgo.com/stories/24920
Polo
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-east_murli_09edi.ART.East.Edition1.4a5c618.html
Longhorns
http://www.neighborsgo.com/stories/26612
Birds
http://www.neighborsgo.com/stories/21416

Dr Suroopa Mukherjee's review in DesiLit Magazine, U.S.A., dtd 3rd Jan 2008

Murli Melwani's *Indian Short Stories: From Colonial Beginnings toPost-modern Tales* is a historical overview of what he describes as the"step child of literature", the Indian short story in English. As a genre short stories are neglected by both publishers and critics, though authors,including mainstream novelists have experimented with the form, mainly because of its brevity, and the free play it allows with themes, style and characterization.

A short story can be philosophical, political, lyrical and subversive. What Melwani suggests is striking; as a literary form it is especially suitable to deal with the wide range of Indian experiences, so that thematically it is more expansive and faithful to the nuances of a multicultural, diverse nation like India than the Indian novel in English.

At a time when the Indian novel in English is being noticed in the literary scenario, winning both awards and accolades, this seems a timely critical interjection.Melwani makes it very clear that he is not discussing individual stories, so that each chapter is period based and gives us brief pen portrait of authors and their works, ranging from established writers, to lesser known names, to those whom we discover for the first time.

To that extent there is nothing predictable in the choice of works and the way they have been placed in thehistorical, socio-political context. The analysis never palls because each author, and the list is comprehensive and wide ranging, is accompanied by sharp, insightful comments on different aspects of writing and reading.Normally this sort of capsule presentation of a particular period, covering a decade, can give a sense of sampling rather than providing an in-depth literary analysis; it is to Melwani's credit that he is both astute and incisive in his commentary, however brief they might be.

At times why he includes a writer can be a trifle whimsical, but his individual author analysis is rarely sketchy. Thus we get an interesting analysis of why Melwani feels Ruth Pawar Jhabvala is a better short story writer than a novelist. Sometimes he provides startling juxtapositions such as Jhabvala'suse of satire as compared to Kushwant Singh's satirical writing.

We also get to know about Keki Daruwala's short stories, a lesser known aspect of the poet. The space that is given to authors can vary. So Anita Desai gets as much space as Hamdi Bey or Jug Suraiya. Some authors are barely mentioned in a catalogue style, which can be frustrating and can take away from the flow of the argument. At times one gets the sense that key themes such as the politics of Indian writing in English is given too little space, though here again the analysis is sharp and insightful.

Melwani's contention is that the question of Indian writing in English is asked 2 decades later, so that when Ruskin Bond and Bunny Rueben are writing short stories in English the question of authenticity is no longer a key issue.However it is in the postmodern tales that Melwani becomes a little too predictable, and one begins to feel the absence of a more contemporary treatment of modern literature in relation to complex times. Many a time the analysis becomes too cursory, almost superficial, and the book ends up endorsing what it had claimed to challenge.

In the final analysis it would seem that the step motherly treatment given to short stories is largelybecause key writers, mostly novelists and poets, merely experiment with short stories so that it remains a side activity. A pity that a neglected literary form with enormous potential, which Melwani suggests in away that is often tantalizing and intriguing, can only arouse luke warm interest in the reader. The portrait gallery suggests mediocrity rather than real genius.

This aspect has been brought into the argument but only with reference to individual writing rather than as a matter of critical contention. However Melwani successfully draws our attention to works that are less known, and to authors whom we tend to neglect. I for one would be tempted to pick up the works of Attia Hosain and Padma Hejmadi.

Reviewed by Suroopa Mukerjee, author of *Across the Mystic Shore*,Macmillan New Writing, 2006

HOW I WROTE THIS BOOK
What does one do when one’s bread-and-butter job comes in the way of personals interests?

Well, When I was the CEO of an export house in Taiwan, I read the books I enjoyed, which are collections of short stories written by Indians in English and scribbled notes on them. Then when I went moved to the U.S.,I put the notes together.

That is how Indian English Stories. From Colonial Beginnings to Post- Modern Times was written.

The “Contents” page will give you the names of the authors I commented on in the book.

THE BEGINNINGS. 1835- 1935
(a) Kylash Chunder Dutt
(b) Cornelia Sorabji(c) S.B.Banerjea
(d) Dhan Gopal Mukherjee,
(e) A.S. Panchpakesa Ayyar
(f) Shankar Ram

THE FIRST FLOWERING: 1935-1945
(a) Mulk Raj Anand
(b) R.K.Narayan
(c) Raja Rao
(d) Manjeri Isvaran
(e) Others(i) Khwaja Ahmad Abbas(ii) Ela Sen(iii) Louis Gracious

THE FIFTIES
(a) Attia Hosain
(b) Khushwant Singh
(c) Others(i) G.D.Khosla(ii) S.K.Chettur(iii) Sachindra Muzumdar(iv) N.S.Phadke

THE SECOND FLOWERING: 1960 - 1970
(a) Ruth Prawar Jhabvala
(b) Bunny Reuben
(c) The Gentle Voices
(i) Ruskin Bond(ii) Kewlian Sio
(d) Bhabani Bhattacharya
(e) Others(i) R.de L. Furtado(ii) Leslie de Noronha

BLOSSOMING: 1970 - 1980
(a) Padma Hejmadi
(b) Keki N. Daruwala
(c) Anita Desai
(d) Hamdi Bey
(e) The Voices of Youth(i) Jug Suraiya(ii) Vivek Adarkar
(f) Arun Joshi
(g) Kamala Das
(h) Manohar Malgonkar
(i) Shashi Deshpande
(j)Others(i) Sasthi Brata(ii) Jai Nimbkar(iii) Sujatha Bala Subrahmanian(iv) Raji Narasimhan(v) Juliette Banerjee(vi) S.B. Capoor(vii) Nergis Dalal

AN EXTENDED SPRING: 1980 – 2006
(a) Vikram Chandra
(b) Nisha Da Cunha
(c) Lavanya Sankaran
(d) Radhika Jha
(e) Manjula Padmanabhan
(f) Shree Ghatage
(g) Diana Romany
(h) R.Raja Rao
(i) Temsula Ao
(j) Githa Hariharan
(k) Anita Nair
(l) Vijay Lakshmi
(m) Esther David
(n) Sangeeta Wadhwani
(o) Anjana Appachana
(p) Meher Pestonji
(q) Susan Visvanathan
(r) Amit Chaudhuri
(s) Sheela Jaywant
(t) Others(i) Anuradha Muralidharan(ii) Amardeep S. Dahiya(iii) D.V.S.R Murthy(iv) Deepa Agarwal

PROSPECTS

Documenting the Short Story. Reviewed published in The Statesman dated June 8,2008

As the name suggests, the book under review is about short stories written in English by Indian authors. Murli Melwani has traced the growth of the short story in its historical and cultural context. He feels this genre has been treated as a side activity by novelists and hence neglected by critics. Melwani examines how much of the traditional story telling is preserved and how much of the form, refined in the West, has been accepted. According to him, this genre enjoys a few advantages over the novel.

The intellectual, isolated from the life of the masses, can record his isolation and unrelatedness better. A view, that may not be shared by others. While documenting the short story from early beginnings to post-modern times, Melwani's treatise features writers, inconsequential to the ordinary reader, but, who perhaps could throw some light on anecdotes of Indian life for students of literature and sociology. Thus, apart from a few others, Cornelia Sorabjee's The Love and Life behind the Purdah finds a place in the early section.

Translated stories have been excluded, so Tagore's work doesn't feature here, but Melwani pays obeisance to him, admitting his influence on Indian writers to be all-pervasive'. The freedom struggle, Gandhi and Gandhian way of life, fables, beliefs, the middle class, the rich and the poor, the Bengal famine form the backdrop for the stories, so, Melwani is perhaps right when he says this genre shows India in all its entirety.

The founders, Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Raja Rao are dealt with in some detail. He is frank in appreciating as well as disapproving. He condemns Anand's verbosity and pompous diction. Of adapting English to express vernacular idioms, he says, it is a successful means of conveying the flavour of regional speech when used moderately. R.K. Narayan's repeating situations and characters in different combinations, irksome to some, is appreciated by Melwani. He also praises Narayan for remaining detached in all his stories. Raja Rao's experiments with form interest him.Numerous writers, both men and women from the South, whom one doesn't normally encounter, are covered by Melwani.

One agrees with this author when he says, more women are writing short stories now, than at any other time. He features a great many of them. Ruth Prawar Jhabavala, Attia Hossain, Ela Sen, Padma Hejmadi, Kamala Das, Sujatha Bala Subramanian, Raji Narisimhan, Juliette Banerjee, Nergis Dalal, Susan Viswanathan, Shashi Deshpande, Jai Nimbkar, Anita Desai and a host of others are presented by Melwani. He shows us how these writers brought renewed life and extended subject matter to the Indian English story. Their work is of a remarkable standard and variety, and they contribute to the modern consciousness, both Indian experience of a changing social structure and the pattern of daily living. Both exotic and common place.This study of women writers provides a useful guidance to further reading.

Melwani is among those very few who realise the importance of anthologies. This is the only way little known writers, whose stories may not be inferior in any way to that of their better known counter parts, can draw the attention of readers. Along with popular writers, lesser known, too, find a place in this treatise which is in keeping with the true spirit of a historical survey. Writers of Indian origin who live abroad are mentioned in passing, for this book deals only with Indian writers of this subcontinent, both living and dead. In the closing chapters of this book, Melwani seems to be in a mighty hurry.—

Reviewed by Neeta Sen Samarth The Stateman.
(The reviewer is a freelance contributor)

Review published in BR International, March 2008 issue.BR Int'l is published in Hong Kong

Indian English Stories is a critical and historical survey of the Indian short story in English. As a genre the short story has generally been neglected by Indian writers, publishers and critics. Murli Melwani makes an unconventional claim in his book and follows it up with very cogent arguments. He claims that the short story form is more flexible than the longer form of the novel and therefore capable of reflecting a broader spectrum of Indian experience than the novel. Considering that India is a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society, I find merit in that argument, especially at a time when India is emerging as a powerful player on the world stage. With greater interaction between Indians and foreigners, the area of experience is bound to widen, thus providing newer themes for writers. The plasticity of the short story form will be able to capture and convey the new experiences.

I find Melwani’s approach to his subject matter in this book refreshing. He does not merely study individual stories or writers. He studies the short stories of well known as well as lesser known writers against the political, social and cultural background of the times. He examines how the political, social and cultural events influence particular writers and how the contemporary events are reflected in the writers’ work.

The foregoing sentence may give the impression that this book is a social tract. It is not, because the main focus in the book is the literary quality of a particular short story writer’s work. Melwani studies a writer’s approach to characterization, atmosphere, theme, dialogue and style in the context of the larger events.

The first short story in English was written in 1835, shortly after Lord Macaulay’s bill introduced English as the medium of instruction in India. The book divides the era from 1835 to the present day into different periods: 1835-1935, 1935-1950, 50-60, 60-70, 1980-2006.The author uses this method of classification to blend a historical survey with a critical study.

Between 1835 and 1935, the writers proudly documented the customs and traditions of Indian life. These writers prepared the way for the giants who between 1935 and 1950 corrected the impression of India and its inhabitants created by the colonial writers and portrayed India as it really is.

The emphasis shifted in the fifties to other subjects with satire being the predominant approach. In the sixties, seventies and eighties the themes expanded exponentially and every aspect of Indian life and nuance of experience provided themes for the short stories.

The language in which such analysis is presented is anything but bookish. Melwani has an easy, conversational style, which draws the reader into the narration.

Murli Melwani writes in the Preface,” Reading the stories I have discussed in my book gave me hours of pleasure. If my book can convince the reader to turn to the stories themselves, my pleasure would be increased manifold.” Indian English Stories is a virtual story-tasting fest. The fest will whet the palates of a legion of readers; there is no reason why Murli Melwani’s “pleasure” should not” be increased manifold.”

Reviewed by Amar Vaswani, Atlanta,USA

Review published in The Indian, September 2007 issue. The Indian is published in Hong Kong

Murli Melwani, in his book, Indian English Stories, reverses some commonly held perceptions about the Indian short story in English.

The Indian novel in English has long been held as the preeminent mirror to Indian life. Fine, Melwani says, that is true so far as certain broad themes, like the colonial experience, the place of faith in Indian life and two or three others, are concerned. What about the nuances of everyday living, the little dramas that are enacted in the privacy of our thoughts and relationships, especially since Indians are expected to, outwardly, conform to certain norms and patterns of behaviour. Indians basically enjoy inner freedom; to think, feel and act as we like in the privacy of our lives. Only the short story, with its brevity, its concentration and sensitiveness, can capture these moments. The short story form thus has dealt with a wider area of experience than the novel.

By the time Murli Melwani has finished surveying the themes, the backgrounds,the characters and approaches of the dozens of writers who practiced this form between 1835 to the present day, the reader, certainly the present reviewer, accepts this truth.

Indian English Stories is the first comprehensive study of the Indian short story in English, from both a historical and critical perspective. Melwani’s approach to the study of the short story form differs from the conventional one. The usual approach is to discuss a few individual stories of a particular author. What Melwani does is to take the whole body of an author’s work and look for patterns in it. If he finds one, he points it out; if not, he does not impose one.


The author, to use a cliché, begins at the beginning. He starts with the first ever story written in English by an Indian, way back in 1835. He comments briefly on the work of most of the writers who wrote for the next 100 years. Most of the writers of that period wanted to show off India, documentary-style, to their Western readers.

The big names came in the 1930s- Mulk Raj Anand with his social concern, R.K. Narayan discovering comedy in the round of daily life, and Raja Rao with his experiments with language and form.

In the fifties Khushwant Singh made his appearance; his stamina remains undiminished today. His contemporary, Attia Hosain, captured the poignancy of Partition in finely chiseled stories.

The sixties boast of writers like Ruth Jhabvala, Bunny Reuben, Ruskin Bond( prolific even now) and Bhabani Bhattacharya.

In the seventies there was a sudden burst of creativity. Authors like Anita Desai, Keki Daruwalla, Padma Hejmadi, Kamala Das, Manohar Malgonkar, Shahsi Despande and others explored new themes.

The young writers of today have continued this trend. Prominent among them are Vikram Chandra, Nisha Da Cunha, Lavanya Sankaran, Shree Ghagate, Githa Hariharan, Anjana Appachana, Meher Pestonji, and Susan Visvnathan, to mention a few among a talented gallery.

Melwani’s manner of writing is easy and informal, conversational almost. His approach differs from author to author. He allows the stories to make their impact on him; he records the impressions these made on him. This is in contrast to the conventional practice of judging a story with certain established literary princples

Indian English Stories is a great introduction to a genre of writing which is largely ignored. Murli Melwani’s enthusiasm for its practitioners is bound to be infectious. It has certainly led this reviewer to make a resolution: to certainly read the authors discussed in the book. I believe it will affect other readers in a similar manner.

Writing is Fundamental

By a strange coincidence, the better halves of most of my buddies are either teachers or librarians. Since I enjoy reading, I could not be better connected. One of my connections, Kathy Letchworth, teaches eighth grade in a middle school in Plano. On the last Friday of every month, she invites a guest speaker to address her students.

"I would like you to share your life lessons and give them advice," she told me. Since I haven't attained guruhood as yet, I told Kathy that I'd settle for something more prosaic. I'd prefer to talk about the importance of writing in everyday life.

I am a person from the Orient, and I was not sure what my first classroom experience in the U.S would be. My doubts were unfounded. Kathy's students were polite, disciplined, interactive and respectful.

I made my points briefly (I hope). Writing figures into many everyday activities, from framing an e-mail, compiling a to-do list, writing a memo in an office to sitting down to pen an old-fashioned letter. I asked the class to think of the situations that occur in the course of a day that call for some sort of communication by writing. It became clear that words are like money. Words are the notes and coins we use when we transact business, deal with issues that affect our interests, and, above all, when we express our feelings.

The interaction threw up two interesting facts: First, we spend as much time each day writing as we do eating our three basic meals – that is, 43,200 minutes a year; second, IM (instant messaging) is considered old hat now, since TM (text messaging) is more flexible.

There was occasion to share with the students instances where my published writing had telescoped distance and connected me with like-minded people; introduced me on a personal level to wonderful people whom I would never have come to know otherwise; and, closer to home, had helped to turn acquaintances into friends.

Once the interaction started, the questions went beyond writing. The healthy curiosity of the young touched on my background, my travels and my opinions on issues like arranged marriages. One fact startled them: I've seen girls and boys in a Third World country attend an open-air school where, because trees grew at great distances from each other in that arid climate, different grades shared two sides of the same tree.

The greatest surprise came a few days later, when Kathy forwarded me handwritten letters from each of her students – 21 in all. The students shared their reactions to my views on writing.
Reading these responses gave me a sense of fulfillment. They were my reward. I could not have asked for a better one. Asia wrote: "I never thought of writing in the way you explained it. I always thought the writing process was: plans, drafts, editing and final copy."

I had told them that writing was more of a mental and less than a physical act. Whether the medium is the computer, TM, IM or plain old-fashioned paper, the process of writing remains the same. Asia went on to make a critical connection: "Maybe one day I will use this information for writing music."

I was gratified to see that most of them had been forthright. "When you said writing creates magic, I wasn't sure I knew what you were talking about. After you explained it, it made me realize I can write stories and make them come to life," wrote Angel.

Hunter framed his reaction this way: "Writing is one way I can release all my feelings. ... I can just spill it out, all on paper."

The letters proved that the young are willing to open up, share their thoughts and feelings and bridge the generation gap, if we older folk have the time to listen

Appeared in The Dallas Morning News dated 5th June 2008

Review published in Muse India, Issue # 21,Sept-Oct 2008

Review by
By Shaleen Kumar Singh, Jul 26, 2008Budaun, India, drshaleen111@yahoo.co.in
Indian English Stories — A review

Though we have seen in past few years innumerable books of criticism on Indian English Poetry and Fiction being published, there has remained a dearth of books of criticism on short fiction. Murli Melwani’s critical and historical survey of Indian English stories, covering a broad spectrum from colonial beginning to Post-modern times, addresses this dearth. Indeed it is the first comprehensive study of this genre.

India has been the land of stories. The Jataka Tales and the Panchatantra stories continue to be read even today. The Katha Sarita Sagara, the largest collections of stories in the world, has been the inspiration for the Arabian Nights and others tales which traveled to Europe via the Middle East.

In the beginning the writers proudly documented the customs and traditions of Indian life. Between 1835 and 1935 we have a succession of writers with this aim. Cornelia Sorabji, Dhan Gopal Mukherjee, A.S. Panchpakesha Ayyar, Shankar Ram, among others, prepared the way for the giants who wrote between 1935 and 1950.

Among the giants, Mulk Raj Anand corrected the impression of India and its inhabitants created by Kipling and other Western writers. R.K. Narayan highlighted the drama of everyday life. Raja Rao incorporated elements of Indian folk tales in his stories.

In the fifties, Khushwant Singh observed Indian life with a satirical eye and Attia Hosian conveyed the horrors of Partition in restrained prose.

In the sixties, Ruth Jhabvala captured the foibles of Indians with a foreigner’s objectivity. Bunny Reuben introduced cinematic techniques to the short story. Ruskin Bond found moving moments in common lives. Bhabani Bhattacharya captured exotic aspects of Indian life.

In the Seventies Anita Desai brought the intensity of her novels to her stories. Keki Daruwalla set his stories in unusual locales. Padma Hejmadi wrote about life in South India. Jug Suraiya and Vivek Adarkar were the voices of youth at the time. Arun Joshi wrote parables of Indian life. The subject of Manohar Malgonkar’s stories was the army. Kamala Das brought the sensitivity of her poetry to her stories. Shashi Deshpande dealt with the questions of a woman’s lot and place in Indian society.

The writers who came in the eighties, and continue to write today, have branched out into newer territory. Life in the city - Bombay in the case of Vikram Chandra, Bangalore in that of Lavanya Sankaran, Calcutta in the case of Amit Chaudhuri - is very much the subject of scrutiny. Nisha Da Cunha writes about the states of women’s minds. Shree Ghatage examines the demands of tradition, family obligations and personal freedom on an individual. Gay life is the subject of R. Raja Rao’s stories. The exploration of new areas of India and the heart goes on in the stories of Githa Haiharan, Anita Nair, Sangeeta Wadhwani, Anjana Appachana, Meher Pestonji, Susan Visvanathan, and others.

Melwani is optimistic about the future of Indian English short stories. The richness of ideas and themes will provide more and more opportunities for story writers to pen stories of significance, beauty and power. Melwani’s book is a seminal work which will, in future, guide the critics to give the short story the same respect and study as they do to Indian English Poetry and Fiction.
_______________________________________________________________
Indian English Stories (from Colonial Beginning to Post Modern Tales), by Murli Melwani, Sampark: Calcutta, 2007, Rs-300/-Pages-174

Respected Dr. Shaleen,
Nice Review. Only a few can do it like you have done. Hope to get more from you.
Dr Kalpna Rajput, Budaun, IndiaAug 03, 2008