However, it does reflect the growth of the Malayalam short story over the last 60 years. There’s a variety of themes and forms. So there is the story of a headmaster who steals a packet of rice from a student (The Packet of Rice by Karoor), the cruelty of man-woman relationships (Scooter by Sarah Joseph), the fierce condemnation of religious insularity and totalitarian power (Anal Haq by Basheer), the quietly ironic reflection on the solitude and estrangement of a young Indian in Philadelphia (Sherlock by M.T.), a youth’s dream-like love for a schoolgirl (The Night Queen by S.K. Pottekkat) and more.
The translations are uniformly faithful. The anthology, however, ignores a whole new generation of Malayalam writers. Strange that a ‘contemporary’ compilation should have stories from an earlier generation of writers who are no more and ignores the new generation that’s registered a strong presence in the last one or two decades.
