Paritosh Uttam

The kind of writing that engages me is best expressed by the conventional definition of literature—writing that presents a permanent or universal idea of the human condition. Since my formative years have been spent in India, for me that definition has qualified to mean the human condition in India.

Nowhere else in the world, in my opinion, there exists such an exaggerated and chaotic spectrum of classes and conflicts, amid which, against all reason, life pulls on. You can liken it to a rickety bus that is huffing and puffing up an incline, whose passengers have stopped caring or fearing that one day the engine might go kaput, simply because it has huffed and puffed successfully for the last four thousand years.

India should be a writer’s paradise given its myriad sources of tension. Yet, it has been so inadequately expressed that I have felt compelled to contribute my mite in atoning for that injustice.

With time, I have realised short stories allow only a teasing glimpse of their subject. Now I feel I need the wider canvas of the novel.

Nevertheless, I have included a selection of my short stories because a glimpse is what I can offer on this medium.

For the glimpse, choose from the following (listed in alphabetical order):

Title	Published in	Medium	Word Count
Between Friends	The Statesman	Newspaper	1,500
The Biggest Problem	Clockwise Cat	Internet	940
The Caricature	BrownCritique	Internet	3,300
A Cup of Tea	The Statesman	Newspaper	1,600
Dreams in Prussian blue	First Proof 4 Platform	Book Magazine	1,700
A Cup of Tea	The Statesman	Newspaper	1,600
Effacing Memories	LongStoryShort	Internet	700
Ersatz Pleasures	Sulekha	Internet	660
For Convenience’s sake	Sulekha	Internet	1,800
The Interrogation	Burst	Internet	380
Made in USA	Poor Mojo’s Almanac(k)	Internet	580
A Mood for Love	FreshLimeSoda	Internet	1,400
One More Chance	The Battered Suitcase	Internet	1,200
Parallel Lines	Sulekha	Internet	2,400
Pity	Chowk	Internet	1,000
Proposals and Heartbreaks	Hindustan Times	Newspaper	540
The Right Thing to Do	Diddledog	Internet	680
Samyukta’s Upliftment	Seema	Internet	1,900
Save Our Souls	SpoiledInk	Internet	2,000
Sororicide	Caferati	Book	2,700
Sushma Is Going to Die	Zine5	Internet	800
The Thought-Maker	Femina	Magazine	1,200
Trying to Escape	TopWriteCorner	Internet	1,900
Excerpt from the novel	Unpublished		760