Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Stories
Infinities
a novella, will appear in my short story collection The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet from Zubaan books
in March 2008.
An old Muslim schoolteacher ponders the joys and mysteries of mathematics against a backdrop of religious conflict in a small town in India. This is one
of the most ambitious things I've written.
Conservation Laws
will appear in my short story collection The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet from
Zubaan books in March 2008. A science fiction story about a loquacious tale-teller and his wanderings, it is my tribute to Premendra Mitra, the great
Bengali SF writer.
Oblivion: A Journey
a novelette, will appear in a new anthology series, Clockwork Phoenix, edited
by Mike Allen, in summer, 2008. This story is a tribute to the Indian comic books I read as a child and the great Indian epic, the
Ramayan; it is also my first space-operatic story.
Of Love and Other Monsters
,
a novella, came out as part of Aqueduct Press's Conversation Pieces Series edited by L. Timmel Duchamp, in
October 2007. It will also appear in the upcoming Year's Best Science Fiction anthology edited by Gardner Dozois. The Aqueduct Press
site has a good description of the story.
Life-pod,
a short story, appears in the special issue 100 of the journal
Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction in August 2007. The story features a woman who finds herself on a living space-ship
and must figure out, based on her fragmented memories and the "thought-clouds" of others in stasis, who she is and where she is going.
a short story, appeared in the anthology Interfictions, edited by Theodora Goss and Delia Sherman, in April 2007. There is a woman who reads trashy science fiction novels, a child's birthday, an abandoned old man. Among other things. Syllables of Old Lore and The Choices of Leaves (2006),
two poems, appeared in Spring 2006 in Mike Allen's fine new anthology Mythic. Here is a review from Strange Horizons. The Sign in the Window (2005)
appeared in #4 of the critically acclaimed chapbook series Rabid Transit : Menagerie, in May 2005. In this story a young man suffering from unrequited love thinks he finds a sign from the universe about what he must do. Here is a review from SF Site. The Tetrahedron (2005)
was published in the debut issue of a new international science fiction magazine called InterNova, published in English from Germany. Unfortunately this magazine lasted only two issues, but might reincarnate as a webzine. Here is their site. This story was shortlisted for the Carl Brandon Parallax award. This story also won an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction, 23rd Annual Collection. It features a young university student bored with the man she is engaged to, and the changes in her life when the Tetrahedron appears on a New Delhi street.
Thirst (2004) came out in the tenth anniversary (Winter 2004) issue of The 3rd Alternative . I am really thrilled to have a story appearing in one of the premier British speculative fiction magazines. Here is Tangent Online's review of that issue. Here is Matthew Cheney's review on SFSite. This story was also longlisted for the British Fantasy Award, and it won an honorable mention in both Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction: 22nd Annual Collection and the 18th volume of the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. In 2006 it was included in a fine anthology called "The Inner Line: Stories by Indian Women," published by Zubaan in New Delhi. Features a housewife in small-town India confronting her loneliness and the mystery of her past. There are also various animals and the monsoons.
Delhi (2004)
appeared in So Long Been Dreaming in May 2004 in an anthology of post-colonial science fiction edited by Nalo Hopkinson and
Uppinder Mehan, the first of its kind! The anthology was introduced at the first ever conference on science fiction from Commonwealth countries
held in Liverpool, UK in July/August 2004. Here is a review,
and here is another from SFSite. And there are few honours greater than appreciation from one's
fellow countrymen (not to mention a Delhi-wali); see the review by Nilanjana Roy here. Delhi has also
appeared in the 22nd volume of "The Year's Best Science Fiction" [edited by Gardner
Dozois]. It was also shortlisted for the BSFA Award. A French translation appeared in "Fiction" in Spring 2006 and an extract was broadcast
on BBC radio in Spring 2007. The story features a man who can sense Delhi at different times in its past and future and his wanderings in the city in search of the woman
who will (he is told) give meaning to his life.
Three Tales from Sky River: Myths for a Starfaring Age (2004) came out in Strange Horizons in January 2004, marking my first professional sale as defined by the SFWA. It won an honorable mention in the Strange Horizons Readers' Choice awards for 2004, as you can see here. Also it got a favorable comment in this review. It won an honorable mention in both Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction: 22nd Annual Collection and the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: 18th annual collection (eds. Kelly Link, Gavin Grant and Ellen Datlow. The three tales are part of the mythology of a time when human beings have spread across the galaxy. There are more stories of this kind in the works.
A Portrait of the Artist, (2003) a science fiction poem, was published in Strange Horizons in 2003 and got second place in the 2004 Rhysling Prize for speculative poetry (long poem category). The Wife(2003)
came out in Polyphony Volume 3. I am very glad to say that this story has been selected to be included in that august annual anthology, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (#17). There is a nice comment about it in this review. The story is set in New England and is about an Indian woman going through a divorce; her ruminations lead her to some strange places in her past and present.
The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet
was published next,
in another anthology called Trampoline, edited by the wonderful fantasy writer Kelly Link.
You can read a review here. As for the description, the title of the story says it all.
The Room on the Roof
My first published story, The Room on the Roof , came out in the first volume of a serial anthology called Polyphony (edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake) in September 2002. It is a modern fantasy
set in New Delhi. This
story made it to Tangent Online's Recommended Reading List for 2002. Here is their review.
A thirteen-year-old girl, an artist who may not be all she seems, and lots of rain.