Dacoity on K Express & Other Stories - Chennagiri Malathi Rao

The stories in the collection were written over several years. They are being published for the first time in book form. Obviously, these stories reflect a world far removed from the present day world of terror attacks, widespread violence, rape and public outrage. All the same, the men and women in these stories live precarious lives haunted by repressed fears and anxieties which characterise modern living.

Terror need not be caused by bomb explosions and suicide bombers alone.  We see in a story like Yatra that the invasion of the body by cancer can create the same kind of terror and chaos as a bomb explosion. Ordinary people, ordinary lives—this is what the stories are about. As the protagonist in Rita says: For long periods nothing happens that you wonder what the point of it all is. Yet the canker of cancer is there waiting to strike at any moment.

Also, witness the ninety-eight year old Narahari in Father Time at the end of a long and uneventful life. The small pleasure of meeting an accidental visitor from Germany perks up his spirits and makes up for all the dull monotony he has endured. He is happy as long as the visitor is not the Looming Shadowy Figure of Death whom he fears as he wakes up every morning. 

These stories are set in no ideological frame. To my mind art and ideology are incompatible partners. As Achebe, the African writer says, literature should not frustrate or anger, it should heal and comfort. So then, this author’s main aim is to tell an uncomplicated story in a playful manner to impart a kind of spontaneous pleasure to the reader.