And Other Stories - Contents: Song of Miriam; Soul of the Newly Born; Tiny Tramps; Three Wise Men of Gotham; Withering of a Rose; Lady with the Carnations; Silence of the Maharajah; Angel's Wickedness; Nehemiah P. Hoskins, Artist; an Old Bundle;.

In the 1920s, the young J. R. Ackerley spent several months in India as the personal secretary to the maharajah of a small Indian principality. In his journals, Ackerley recorded the Maharajah’s fantastically eccentric habits and riddling conversations, and the odd shambling day-to-day life of his court. Hindoo Holiday is an intimate and very funny account of an exceedingly strange place, and one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century travel literature.

With reference to India.

Uma Parameswaran's earlier works have earned her praise and awards. What was Always Hers won the Jubilee Award for the best collection of short stories published in 1999. Of the title story, that appeared earlier as The Sweet Smell of Mother's Milk-Wet Bodice, reviewers had this to say: "A deftly wrought novella possessing the quiet elegance born of outrage."(The Globe and Mail) "Uma Parameswaran has written with the insight and lyricism of the fine poet she is." June Callwood "It is activist literature, woman-empowering fiction, and it has a political edge." (Herizons) Of her novel, Mangoes on the Maple Tree, Andreas Schroeder has said, "A hymn to the joys and sorrows of family, in the best, most inclusive sense of the word."

After the success of her collection The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet, Vandana Singh returns to the short story in Ambiguity Machines. Her deep humanism interplays with her scientific background in stories that consider and celebrate this world and others, with characters who try to make sense of the people they meet, what they see, and the challenges they face. An eleventh century poet wakes to find he is an artificially intelligent companion on a starship. A woman of no account has the ability to look into the past. And in ‘Requiem,’ a major new novella, a woman goes to Alaska to try and make sense of her aunt’s disappearance. Examining the revolutionary potential of speculative fiction, Singh dives deep into the vast strangeness of the universe without and within to explore the ways in which we move through space and time: together, yet always apart.

‘Balzac could not have done better’ —The Financial Express In this sparkling collection of stories, India’s best-known writer addresses some pertinent questions: Why do we believe in miracles? Can a horoscope guarantee the perfect wife? Is the Kamasutra a useful manual for newlyweds? Margaret Bloom arrives in Haridwar from New York to save her soul. But she soon discovers that there are temptations even on the banks of the holy Ganga. Madan Mohan Pandey, amateur astrologer and scholar of ancient Hindu texts, finds to his horror that his doe-like bride is not quite what he had expected. Pious Zora Singh, Pride of the Nation, rumoured to be a chaar sau bees and a womanizer, silences his detractors by earning the Bharat Ratna. Devi Lal makes his peace with a fickle God when his daughter-in-law delivers a son, following secret visits to the Peer Sahib’s tomb. And Vijay Lall, emboldened by his miraculous escape from death, decides to act upon his silent obsession with Karuna Chaudhury, which takes him to a shifty soothsayer behind the Khan Market loo. Khushwant Singh returns to the short story after decades to deliver a truly memorable collection—humorous, provocative, tongue-in-cheek, ribald and even, at times, tender.