The Book of Indian Kings: Stories & Essays

Title: The Book of Indian Kings: Stories & Essays
Author: Various
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
ISBN: 978-8194365709
Genre: Anthology
Pages: 128
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

I love what Aleph Book Company publishes. Their books are unique and well-crafted. I mean I have so far enjoyed most of their books, so its but natural that I enjoyed the latest in their Olio series. Olio which means a miscellaneous collection of things, just like this series. Each book in this series is carefully curated and edited. From stories of love and lust, to the essence of Delhi, and now The Book of Indian Kings.

What I loved about this collection is that it somewhat may encourage first-time readers of these authors to go and explore more of their works. I think that should be the objective of any anthology in that sense, and it works.

The Book of Indian Kings is a fascinating collection of stories and essays, each with a different touch of hand, and sensibilities. From Manu S. Pillai talking about Krishnadeva Raya to Romila Thapar’s brilliant essay on Mauryan India, to Salman Rushdie’s story The Shelter of the World that appeared first in The New Yorker in 2008 and is ever so playful and magical. Each story and essay is carefully included – it isn’t just about the kings, but how they were – their personal lives, their kingdoms, their victories and losses.

This book needs to be savoured in the sense of reading one piece perhaps a day or finish in about three days or so. What does tend to happen though is the setting of a sense of boredom, but that quickly vanishes, if you jump from one story or essay to another, rather than read them in order.

The writing is lucid. The book is short and to the point. Not a single piece to me stuck out as a sore thumb, which says a lot about a collection. Read it over a weekend or so. You will definitely not be disappointed.

Love and Lust: Stories & Essays

Title: Love and Lust: Stories & Essays
Author/s: Various
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
ISBN: 978-9388292528
Genre: Anthology
Pages: 152
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 stars

How can an anthology on love and lust go wrong when it has writings by Kamala Das, Vikram Seth, K.R. Meera, and Rajinder Singh Bedi to name a few? Can it go wrong at all? Aleph Book Company has got it bang on with these mini-anthologies, titled Aleph Olio. There are a couple of other titles in this series as well, but for now we will focus on Love and Lust.

It isn’t about the range as well, as much as it is about what these writers are trying to communicate. We live in times where perhaps both love and lust are looked down on in most places. Lust a little more than love. Anyway, the point of this collection is to show us both love and lust through various lens – whether it is that of a mother who just won’t have her khatri daughter dating a Muslim man (an excerpt from A Suitable Boy), or whether it is Kamala Das demonstrating feminism and all shades of desire through her story A Little Kitten, or even of course Manto who doesn’t stop at anything to make us see our hypocrisy when it comes to matters of the flesh in Tang (translated from the original Boo), this short but extremely effective collection has it all.

I also think that it has been edited very cleverly in so many ways – first what I have already mentioned earlier – the authors, what to select from what these authors have written, and the order also in which these stories and essays are placed. And might I also add that I did think earlier about representation – in the sense of covering identities, however, one cannot encompass everyone when it comes to a limited anthology such as this. So it worked for me, irrespective.

Aleph Olio series are perfect to understand the writing of a particular writer whose work you want to explore in detail. Pick these series for that and also of course for the broader themes. The ones that are out are: In a Violent Land, The Essence of Delhi, Notes from the Hinterland, and Love and Lust.