Keki N. Daruwalla Livres

The iconic title story of this collection narrates how Najab defies his father, the international border between India and Pakistan and the hostile salt desert of the Rann of Kutch for Fatimah. In ‘When Gandhi Came to Gorakhpur’ Shadilal, a small-time lawyer, dithers over giving up his profession and joining the freedom struggle until his mind is made up for him. And when Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni stints on a few silver coins for the poet Abul Qasim, he is visited by terrible nightmares in ‘Of Abul Qasim’. Love across the Salt Desert, which brings together a selection of Keki Daruwalla’s best-received short fiction, presents thematic variety and stunning breadth of vision. His prose is witty, precise and shot through with a unique poetic sensibility. These stories establish Daruwalla, one of India’s best-known poets, as a daring and gifted practitioner of short fiction. Son, have you brought anything? he asked, an edge of iron deliberately introduced into his voice. Yes, replied Najab, as he ushered Fatimah in. The rain stormed down and swept away three years of drought.

Description He had turned footloose, moving from vihara to vihara, an exile not from his faith so much as from the times, and a family is a part of the times... He wrote to his mother-it was some years since he had seen her. He wanted to become a bhikshu, he wrote. A man drifts away from family and home and becomes a monk, yet nothing fills the void. The only constants are dreams and hallucinations where his mother sometimes appears. Another son retreats to his room, then disappears. It has been ten years and the father, Sudhakar, doesn't want to harbour false hope, but the mother, Hemlata, clings to it. Ardeshir and Firoza face a similar predicament. Only their daughter, Arnavaz, hasn't gone missing; she lives with them, even in her absence. A woman, half-estranged from her mother, comes to visit her grandmother, perhaps for the last time. The stories in this collection are among the finest explorations of family ties you will read-ties that injure and heal; ties that can be everything, yet never enough. Keki Daruwalla, a great poet of our time, proves again that he is also a great master of the short story.

Keki Daruwalla's poetry spans centuries and mythologies, showcasing a detailed narrative style. Over time, his tone has evolved from scornful early works to more tender late lyrics that reflect a nuanced acceptance of mortality and human frailty. This essential collection serves as both a culmination of his career and a source of insight and enjoyment for readers.

The author is one of India's leading English-language writers. He has published nine volumes of poetry, the sixth of which - Landscapes - won him the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for Asia in 1987. This volume contains poems from his published collections.

Keki Daruwalla uncommon responsiveness to the natural world, and the rare immediacy of his language.