Story of an orphanage for girls, their miserable life under a warden. Finally the Church realize their folly and appoints a new warden, who is young and energetic. The reforms he made changed the atmosphere so drastically that the countenance of the inmates changes. The Church is happy with him, but then the new warden has his share of problems and the priest helps him solve it.

They were playing jigsaw puzzle, and finally it was Jisy’s turn, and when she picked up the last piece, Shijo said. No Jisy, wait.’ Jisy looked at him puzzled. He said. ‘The picture is already complete now?’ ‘No.......?’ looking at the picture she said, ‘the middle of the roof is blank.’ ‘What does it mean?’ Shijo asked. No one answered. Shijo continued. ‘See the building will be complete only if all our pieces are put together and kept in place. Similarly our home...

The stories are presented in a novel way. They are rich with the original illustrations as appeared in the leading periodicals when publishing these stories. These sketches have been drawn by creative, talented artists, and this book is an attempt to preserve those rich sketches, which otherwise would be lost from readers’ memory in course of time.

‘Where are my stories?’ Her mother asked ’Oh that?..... Are they stories?’ ‘Yes, where are they?’ ‘What type of stories are they?’ Mother asked with a smile on her face. That question sounded silly like asking what kids are they to a mother. ‘What all have you written. I tore them off.’ ‘Tore them?...... My stories?’ Suchitra could not control her agony. The estrangement and insensitivity of the postmodern writers are confined to their stories alone. In personal li...

The story Vrishabhathinte Kannu is about an accident in which a four year old boy gets killed together with his paternal uncle. The story centers around the sub-tenant of one of the flats in the building, who was so friendly with the child. He is moved by the incident, and decides to go to the hospital to see the child. It is the traumatic experience of this man the story is about.

Behind him was the security guard of the morgue, and still farther behind in the dark cold room were the cold bodies wrapped up in white linen. He remembered what Hiren Mehta had said, and what Mehta’s son had said. Beyond the eyes of the evil planets, fatalist beliefs, and lives predetermined in a four dimensional field of the world, he saw the indefinable, and unforeseeable, but definite death. Back in the building he was climbing the staircase, and when he reached t...

The story Amme Avar Nammude Akaasam Katteduthu is about women laborers, who over the past few decades were being phased out of work, mainly by automation, and then by influx of cheap labor from neighboring states. In this story the houses where women from the colony across the road works as household help, are being razed to the ground to give way to four colossal multistory buildings. The women lose their job and find life hard going, especially when their drunkard husb...

Making sure that Arun doesn’t hear her, Jyothi asked Mathu. ‘Your husband does not come any more, eh?’ ‘No,....’ She said with visible comfort. ‘I wish he does not turn up any more. What about your husband?’ ‘He came last month, and then I said I am jobless and that I need money. He went back immediately and never again turned up. I never said I got a job in the building work.' (Amme, Avar Nammude Akasam Katteduthu)

This anthology of short stories won the Nalappadan Award (instituted after the famous poet Nalappat Narayana Menon) in 1998. The story Alakkuyanthram is about the plight of child labor in India. A ten year old girl is forced to do menial job in a wealthy house because her mother falls ill. It is about her interaction with the 4 year old daughter of her mistress. One day she takes the little girl to her shabby looking hut much to the chagrin of the little girl. She faces ...

‘How come you didn’t get even a single order?’ John Mathew could not get it. ‘You say you have visited 10 - 15 houses, and yet no order. You have gone to a wealthy area. Venu closed his eyes without having to utter a word. And slowly he drifted into a slumber. In sleep, he saw dark skinny children with small chests and big unhealthy belly. In front of them poverty was strewn around like dirt in carpet of affluence, and he with his machine with unlimited capabilities swe...

The story Pachhappayyine Pidikkan (To Catch a Grasshopper) won the Padmarajan Award in 1997. Padmarajan was a well-known film director and film maker. The story is about a five year old girl who goes out to catch a grasshopper on her elder sister’s wedding day. The situation in the family is so desperate that the girl thinks she should do something to have more money. There is a belief that if a grasshopper enters your house, it brings wealth also.

The impatient horn of the car was heard outside. She said, ‘Raju I never expected all these.’ She took her suitcase and walked to the door. She kept the suitcase on the floor and turned to Rajasekharan. He was standing motionless. She went to him. ‘Are you sad ?’ Again the car horn was heard and he did not say anything. ‘They’re calling, shall I go?’ She went through the door, and stood for a moment holding the door; then taking out a key from her hand bag said. ‘Thi...

The story Koorakal is about a middle class family. A wife, husband and two children. The unwilling wife is forced to terminate her third pregnancy much to her wishes, since their financial background does not allow them to have one more child. She is in a dilemma, and finally had to give in.

It’s the conscience that troubles me, she thought. I now have a guilty conscience. But it has got to be done. There is no other go. These days you have to live, and live happily too, for which, at least, you have to pay a deaf ear to this beat of the wings. You will be happy tomorrow when memory of this nightmare ceases to haunt you. We should bring our children back, she thought. I am missing them very much. Fifteen days seemed longer, and I can’t stand this solitude a...

The collection contains the author’s well-known stories Kumkumam Vithariya Vazhikal, Prakrithanaya Thottakkaran, Thimarpur, Maniyarayilninnu Odippoyavar. The story Maniyarayilninnu Odippoyavar is about a couple plotting to run away on their wedding day. It could be a dream, dreamt by both the bride and the groom, but that haunts them throughout their life. He leaves his wife for delivery after 7 months at her home and leaves for Delhi which is 2000 kms away. On reaching ...

A closed door came to her memory. She realized the turmoil that was brewing in her mind, but hardly knew that it had started some time now. The flowers that were kept in a flower vase were hostile to her. She remembered the loneliness in the evenings when, after leaving all her friends waiting alone for the bus . Her heart swelled with a whimper, and in a moment she could not control her sobs. She kept her face down on the pillow and started sobbing violently. The sooth...

Human relations interest the author. The intricacies of life, the struggle for existence are all raw material for him. The last story Aa Paattu Nirthu (Stop that Song) is about a 5 year old girl who has an HIV infection, and is being boycotted by the inmates of the flats in the building. A really sad story.

It was her 5th birthday. Waiting at the open door for her friends, who never came, she got tired and fell asleep. When her father came from office she was woken up. He took her in his arms and went to the decorated sitting room, where the birthday cake with her name inscribed on it was kept. The cone shaped caps she had bought for her friends to wear for the party were heaped on a table without any takers. The small carry home packets containing chocolates and balloons f...

Nancy the 20 year old typesetter falls in love with a locomotive engine driver. They belong to two different religions. She is an easy-go-lucky girl, flirts with any handsome boy, but there ends it. However her love for the engine driver Rajan gets serious. He was transferred to far away Coimbatore, and she is crestfallen. He tries to ward off the transfer, and then a surprise awaits Nancy in the morning next day.

The train has already started and Nancy somehow jumped onto it. She asked a fellow passenger, which train it is. ‘Venad Express.’ He said. ‘God, this train goes to Thiruvananthapuram, just the opposite way.’ She jumped from the train. You cannot call it normal alighting. It was a fall, head down on to the ground, and in slow motion she imagined the next moments; stretcher, ambulance and glamorous journey to the hospital. Her imagination was all scattered when she lan...

Dr. Gourami’s Hospital is a delivery ward for fishes. The story deals with a motherless child of five and his sorrowing father, both of whom finds solace in the aquarium. The new born babies that swim in the tank give cue to Biju about his own mother who left him couple of years ago. The Sunflowers is the story of a boy who was destined to toil at the age of 17 in a far away city, i.e. Calcutta. He supports his mother as well as the family of her brother too. Though unwi...

After taking bath he got dressed up fast. Renu announced breakfast. He went to call his son Viju. He was standing in front of the aquarium, the same way he left him when he went to the bathroom. ‘What happened Viju?’ He asked. He didn’t say anything. He was just watching the newborn fish babies. He was thoughtful. Finally he asked: ‘Dad do these fish babies really get the smell of their mother in the water?’ ‘Yes dear, all living beings are like that. Children can re...

Mumbai in the early 1970. Juhu-Vile Parle Scheme was the nerve center of film activities, since people related to cinema - producers, actors and actresses, other artists and technicians lived here. Walking in the morning through the streets of Juhu, you will come across light boys holding reflectors, actors and actresses in the act of shooting a take, camera, generator van, director sitting on a chair under a garden umbrella...... People greet each other with the words ‘...

The leading lady Sunanda glanced once again through the photos strewn on the table. The figure of the new girl is indeed remarkable, and the snaps in bikini were excellent. Her young body is better than mine, Sunanda thought. My bosom is heavier and firmer, but the other parts of the body have grown out of proportion. Yoga and other exercises didn’t help much to stall the onslaught of aging. This girl’s face is also cherubic, a trait leading lady should possess. Is dire...

Story of an orphanage for girls, their miserable life under a warden. Finally the Church realize their folly and appoints a new warden, who is young and energetic. The reforms he made changed the atmosphere so drastically that the countenance of the inmates changes. The Church is happy with him, but then the new warden has his share of problems and the priest helps him solve it.

Sir, it is Jisy’s turn tonight. I came because she’s not well.’ ‘Turn?’ She nodded. ‘Turn for what?’ ‘Today is Tuesday, and it is her turn to come to you, Sir. The old Warden Sir had made it like that. Tuesday it is Jisy, Thursday me, Saturday Deepa and if in between he wants somebody he will tell it. ‘What for?’ The moment it was blurted out he understood the absurdity of his question. In a moment a lot of things rushed into his mind, like standing in front of a b...

The stories portray human relations, especially between man and woman, children and their parents, the poor and the rich.

Suchitra is writing a story. Sitting in her room with doors closed, creating a world of her own, she is getting ready to write a story. A sheet of paper that she pulled out in haste from her Social Science notebook lies in front of her with a sentence, “Mother is an evil character”. Writing the first sentence was easy for her. In fact all her stories begin by portraying somebody as an evil character. That first sentence, for her, flows out from the tip of her pencil t...