The View from Here

‘The erudite Kannada scholar and critic D. R. Nagaraj wrote, “To read fiction is to know the fate of a society through its metaphors. But quite often literature consciously takes upon itself the responsibility of exploring the state and fate of this society…” This is precisely what the stories in this collection do: they may speak of past and present, but really it is the future—that we fear and dream of and hope for—that we want to speak and hear about. And these stories we share, most through the gift of translation, live through their metaphors; the metaphors the writers and translators hold in their hands like blessings—or timely curses…’ Githa Hariharan, from her Introduction, ‘At the Pace of a Thousand Storms’ ‘Can poetry be political? … The poems in this anthology tell us without doubt or apprehension: “Yes, poetically political if not politically political.” And as we finish reading these poems, we realize that politics and poetry, in their real spirit, are two ways of telling the truth, and have been engaged—and continue to engage—in an endless conversation.’ K. Satchidanandan, from his Introduction, ‘Poetically Political’ During the seven years of its existence, from 2015 to 2022, the multilingual journal of culture Guftugu resolutely asserted India's diversity against the attempt to force fit the country into a single mould. Selected from the twenty-two published issues of Guftugu, The View from Here arms us with prose and verse that bear powerful witness to the many Indias, past and present. Twenty stunning stories and more than fifty memorable poems are, together, unflinching in their insistence on diversity, dissent and, most of all, equality.