Costume of the Dead and Other Stories

Book excerpt: Different Indian scenarios expose a vast, unfamiliar lifestyle for non-Indian readers. This is imbibed from a mixed culture, different languages, strange mannerisms and food habits, foreign gods, local festivals, superstitions, and advanced technologies. India has become a land of puzzles to outsiders. Yet this is something worthwhile to look at, as the author says through her stories. Each story in Costume of the Dead and Other Stories is a memoir for a simple person she met with in the distant past or in the recent present. The characters, drawn straight from life, have grown in size and shape as the story proceeds. They establish their place in humanity by sharing the basic human emotions with their fellow beings. Each story stands either as a window opened to the reader to peep in or a door kept ajar to enter inside, if curious. The persistent diversity of stories makes them unique, the simplicity of narration makes them admirable, and the emotional bondage between beloved ones makes them all the more lovable.