Kerala, one of the smallest states in India, is located in the country's southwest corner. Known for its great beauty, religious diversity, and zero population growth, the region also boasts an exceptionally high literacy rate--reportedly above 91 percent--resulting in a large readership for books, journals, and newspapers. The quality of Kerala's literary production is very high, and this anthology represents some of its best short stories. Though educated and enterprising, women from this area face the same problems as women the world over. The stories in this collection explore their lives, giving readers everywhere a greater understanding of what it means to be a daughter of Kerala.

This book is a part of my Mphil thesis submitted to Pondicherry Central University in 2012.

Twenty classic short stories from master writers across the country This superb collection contains some of the best Indian short stories written in the last fifty years, both in English and in the regional languages. Some of these stories – ‘We Have Arrived in Amritsar’ by Bhisham Sahni, ‘Companions’ by Raja Rao, ‘The Sky and the Cat’ by U.R. Anantha Murthy, ‘A Devoted Son’ by Anita Desai – have been widely anthologized and are well known. Others, like Premendra Mitra’s ‘The Discovery of Telenapota’, Gangadhar Gadgil’s ‘The Dog that Ran in Circles’, Mowni’s ‘A Loss of Identity’, O.V. Vijayan’s ‘The Wart’ and Devanuru Mahadeva’s ‘Amasa’, are less familiar to readers but are nevertheless classics of the art of the short story. This new and revised edition includes three additional classics: R.K. Narayan’s ‘Another Community’, Avinash Dolas’s ‘The Victim’ and Ismat Chughtai’s ‘The Wedding Shroud’. The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Short Stories is a marvellous and entertaining introduction to the rich diversity of pleasures that the Indian short story–a form that has produced masters in over a dozen languages–can offer.

Life and achievements of Sonia Gandhi, b. 1946, president of Indian National Congress.

Story of Siva, Hindu deity.

On the completion of fiftieth year of Sahitya Akademi.