Showcasing Indian storytellers

Aradhika Sharma

The basic criterion for featuring stories in this book would be whether I liked them or not” says David Davidar in his introduction to the anthology.  For the collection, Davidar has selected stories from the second-half of the 19th century when modern short stories started to flourish the world over.  This collection features 39 stories in all and the editor has picked stories from Tagore to the Tharoors — of father, Shashi and son, Kanishk. Although how Kanishk Tharoor’s work can be bracketed in the same category of great authors as Ismat Chughtai, Amrita Pritam, Saadat Hasan Manto or Anita Desai, is anybody’s guess.  Still, in an interview, Davidar says, “The only theme that connects all these writers is that they have written short stories of the highest order.”
In spite of the eclectic and sometimes seemingly strange selection, the reader is given some of the greatest short stories of the nation by consummate writers like Premchand, Saadat Hasan Manto, Tagore, Anita Desai, Khushwant Singh and Vikram Chandra among many others. These authors explored themes like the freedom movement, colonial oppression, tyranny of zamindars, struggle against poverty, floods, misfortune and the persecution of the haves by the have-nots, the eternal struggle to just eke out a life for the protagonists and their families. The voice of the authors, the topics they choose and the styles they adopt do change but that only adds to the fascination of the reading experience.
The authors share stories of the human spirit — sometimes triumphant and sometimes defeated. Especially in the older masterpieces, the truths are universal and the experiences are doomed to be repeated in human life in one form or the other.  These will remain ‘extraordinary’ and always stand head and shoulders above some of the lesser works that Davidar has included in the anthology. 
Approximately half of this compilation comprises stories that have been translated. Compared to novels, many people find short stories more exciting as these have a brisk pace and quick climaxes. However, it is for this very reason that the translator’s job becomes even harder. If a single nuance is missed, the story may waver and meander. The quality of the translations in this anthology tries to be as true to the word and essence of the stories is retained, and even to a primarily English-reading audience, they read well.
Apart from the authors already mentioned, the compilation includes works of writers like Gopinath Mohanty, Muhammad Basheer, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Gulzar, Irwin Allan Sealy, Khushwant Singh, Ruskin Bond, Manjula Padmanabhan, Vikram Chandra, Githa Hariharan and  Cyrus Mistry to name a few. The stories are chronically arranged according to the date of birth of the authors rather than the date of publication of the stories.
In the final analysis, there can always be criticism against the choice of the ‘greatest’ stories (or movies or plays or novels).  Davidar’s choice, even though all the stories are not extraordinary, by and large includes pretty-good Indian stories.  Some of these are unarguably masterpieces that have stood the test of time. Some, from the anthology, will fade into obscurity.  However, the book is a celebration of the Indian short stories and translators.