Delhi Noir - Omair Ahmad et Al

Fiction

Short Stories

As I mentioned, I have been very into short stories as of late. I have to be honest, the introduction to this collection sold me before I even started on the stories. The stories did not disappoint either. 

These stories feature the grittiness of life in Delhi. After visiting a few times, Delhi is not a place I'd ever want to visit again, for many of the reasons that come to the forefront of these stories. They are not happy ones, nor ones that give you any hope for humanity. Yet people move along with their lives because that's just how Delhi is. 

The authors and stories chosen gel very well together and do an excellent job of portraying the city in a realistic way that is often missing from the sanitized, glamorous life that the rich and famous live. 

Dreaming in Hindi - Katherine Russell Rich

This book appealed to me due to my seemingly never ending quest to speak passable Hindi. Admittedly, I haven't been all that disciplined.

Rich goes to India on a midlife quest to master Hindi. She does, by the end of the book, reach passable Hindi. I was rather confused by this book as she seems to wander around with stories that don't seem to have much to do with her quest for the language. She also seems apathetic about the whole thing by the end of the book and admits in the post script to not using it often again, leaving me to wonder what the point of her trip was all together. Rich doesn't have any profound revelations (that she shares) about her time in India. What she does share in depth is much of the etymology of learning Hindi and how language experts view acquiring a new language.

Verdict: Meh. It was an interesting read, but don't look for any humorous anecdotes or revelations about life in India. Learning any new language is challenging - with or without expert opinions.

Do You Suppose it's the East Wind - Muhammad Umar Memon

This book is a collection of stories that started in Urdu - a language that is a mix of Hindi and Arabic and used by the Muslim world across India. Urdu has it's own colloquialisms and culture that I was fascinated to explore.

I don't know if I walked away with an increased understanding of either one, but it was still an interesting collection of stories.

Verdict: Read it.