I
It isn't every day that one comes across a book that one can commend so unreservedly: a swift, elegant tale set in the badlands of Rohillakhand
For Ahmad’s storyteller finds himself in a qasbah on the fringes of a haveli that soon reveals a beautiful begum. The poet is smitten, and gladly accepts an invitation to stay the night. The begum’s husband is away, participating in the loot of Delhi, an irony that is not lost on the poet. As befits their decorous times, they swap stories that cleverly weave in and out of each other, exploring the nuances of love and betrayal and revealing, inter alia, the magical power of narrative to configure and reconfigure the worlds in which we live.