ISSUE 41

Out of Print 41 contains eight stories.

A chapter of Salma’s Women, Dreaming in fine translation from Tamil by Meena Kandasamy is featured in this release of the magazine. The novel is an extraordinary one, structured in chapters that each have an element of strong narrative self-containment. Chapter 31, that we present in Out of Print, describes the conflict that arises when a mother of a man who adheres rigidly to the rules that he sees as defining religious practice, steps outside the prescribed norms. Humiliated and threatened, he confronts his mother, whose thinking as mother, mother-in-law, woman emerge through the story. It was chosen from a selection we made, in consultation with Meena.

Dalpat Chauhan’s ‘Cold Blood’ translated from Gujarati by Hemang Desai, is an uncompromising look at caste identity and how it defines and prescribes the life of the protagonist. Torn apart by the past when, after an exhausting day at the hospital, he offers water to a group of thirsty people and their refusal, ‘pitch-perfect … synchronous … unanimous … rehearsed … and perfected for … centuries’ shocks him, Dr Parikh cries out, ‘Can Bhala’s Dayo morph himself into Devendra? Or is he doomed forever to the life and identity of Dayo?’

Prasanta Das’ walk through his hill town – and his life – as he reconciles to different changes in the geography and landscape while reflecting on himself and his sister’s characters, relationships and trajectories is a wise and gentle and meditation on the process of growing older. Titled ‘How to Sleep’, he waits for rest, and as he does, he listens to the nearby stream and knows, ‘If he kept listening, at some point the stream would become a sea and he would no longer just float and drift but be submerged in it.

Chatura Rao’s cleverly titled ‘Delivery’ takes us into an uncertain diseased world bound by restrictions on movement and social interaction. A delivery man brings goods to a mother living alone. Her child has fallen into a pit on the floor the woman says, and the story carries the reader into a fantasy world of internal landscapes through which the man is ultimately able to bring comfort to the woman and to himself.

Bidisha Satpathy’s ‘Venus’ is part of a new feature at Out of Print, where our editors mentor an author and see their story from submission through to publication. It is not a swift process, and involves a lot of back and forth, and a lot of patience from the author. This story, that captured our attention, struck us as being about transience, and explores the theme from multiple perspectives: a young woman, on the point of departure to Canada, meets a young man at a party. They go back to his place together, and through the stories they offer each other in their fleeting interaction, there is a sense of the passing nature of life and love, and of the lasting depth of friendship.

In Kamalini Natesan’s ‘It Will Rain’, a woman steps out of the norm. For a short period, she leaves behind her duties as wife to a ceaselessly demanding, virile husband, abandons her responsibilities as a householder following a predictable routine, and goes to the park to wait for the rain. And when it rains, and she returns, seemingly dutiful and contained as before, some part of her has shifted, and even though her husband, who has come to retrieve her, paces himself to match her stride, she is ahead of him the whole way.

‘That Evening’ by Saswati Chatterji is about a young girl on the edge of confronting her sexuality and attraction to her schoolmate Megha. She has kissed Megha, and been caught in the act by her classmates, locked into the bathroom by them, and then hauled up in front of the principal. The enormity of what this attraction means is already becoming quite clear in her mind, and she runs away, quite certain that she is alone on this path.

The love and admiration and interest a young girl has for her future mother-in-law is explored in Satyajit Amin’s ‘The Years on Her Ears’. The older woman has been part of the journey of bringing the younger woman into the household. Every earring the older woman dons has a story, holds a clue to her life. In inheriting them, ultimately, it is the small, most fine, quiet pair, hidden among all the rest, that the protagonist feels, represents the core of the person whom she has always so valued.

We are delighted to announce that Zui Kumar-Reddy has joined us an editor at Out of Print. Her work has appeared in the magazine, and she has been part of creating Out of Print Focus, a platform for examining ideas through the stories in Out of Print. Along with former editor, Vandana Devi, she was part of the mentoring team at the Out of Print workshop for Literature at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. More about her on the About Us page.

The art on the cover of Out of Print 41 is by Alyina Zaidi.