"The fifteen stories in this volume, by Hindi writers who achieved prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, suggest the variety and depth of contemporary Indian fiction and the complexity of contemporary Indian life.... Its primary focus is on middle-class urban individuals, and especially on lives marked by alienation and loneliness. Such feelings and problems are universal, but they take on unusual dimensions in the distinctive Indian context. In the background looms a society that is still blessed and burdened with a strong sense of traditional morality, duty, and family ties. These stories should appeal to a wide variety of readers - those concerned with contemporary world literature in general or with Indian literature in particular, those interested in Indian life, and all who seek meaning and identity in a world of changing values and relationships""--