Mother Earth – By Appadurai Muttulingam
Translated by Padma Narayanan
My father was a strict man. As a boy, I walked and talked quietly whenever he was around and quelled any...
The Rat – By Ashokamitran
Translated by Vasantha Surya
THAT they had done it for two nights in a row made Ganesan very angry. Without sparing a single morsel, the...
Water Play – By Perumal Murugan
At first he was somewhat confused and hesitant when they invited him. “Me?” he whispered disbelievingly under his breath. But then desire and eagerness...
The Cart Track – By Ayyanar Edadi
Translated from the Tamil by Padma Amarnaath
The sun began to rise. It slowly ripened, warming the east with its heat. Velu and Chellaiah worked...
Refugee Girl – By Appadurai Muttulingam
Translated by: Aniruddhan Vasudevan
The girl in the green-yellow-white waitress uniform was a refugee. She could be either from India or Sri Lanka, or perhaps even...
The window – By Sundara Ramaswamy
Translated by E. Annamalai and H. Schiffman
The cot I was lying on was near a window. I had collapsed on it one evening a...
Mylapore – By Maa. Aranganathan
Translated from the original Tamil by Nakul Vāc
It came and went like a flash of lightning. The ticket he had purchased was still in...
“Dostoyevsky’s Face” – By Jeyamohan
Translated by Nakul Vāc
No one had expected Pa Kavundar1 to fall that soon! There were very few in our village that did not expect or wish...
Eldorado – By Sujatha
Translated by Ramesh Ramachandran
Sister-in-law, who opened the door struggled to recognise him. When she did, she was shocked. She stammered, swallowed spittle and asked,...
Lunch – By Ashokamitran
Chaturanga said:
Subbanna screamed at seeing me. ‘You here? Thought you were in Vijayawada!’ The whole street was startled.
‘I came here on a transfer.’
‘How long...















