About the Book
One of the meanings of the word 'olio' is 'a miscellany'. The books in the Aleph Olio series contain a selection of the finest writing to be had on a variety of themes and present India in ways that it has seldom been seen before.
The powerful stories and sketches in this volume probe the mysteries of love and the perils and ecstasies of sexual desire.
Acknowledgement
Grateful acknowledgement is made to these copyright holders for permission to reprint copyrighted material in this volume:
'Object' is extracted from I Speak for the Devil by Imtiaz Dharker (Bloodaxe, 2001), reprinted by permission of the publisher (www. bloodaxebooks.com); 'A Suitable Boy' is extracted from A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1993), reprinted by permission of the author, "Tang' by Saadat Hasan Manto translated by Nasreen Rehman (2019), reprinted by permission of the translator; 'A Little Kitten by Kamala Das (1992), reprinted by permission of the Estate of Kamala Das; 'Laajwanti by Rajinder Singh Bedi is extracted from An Epic Umwritten translated by Muhammad Umar Memon (Penguin Books India, 1998), reprinted by permission of the publisher; "Taj" is extracted from Taj by Timari N. Murari (1985), reprinted by permission of the author; 'Desolation, Lust' by Upamanyu Chatterjee (1986), reprinted by permission of the author; The Deepest Blue by K. R. Meera translated by J. Devika (2005), reprinted by permission of the author and translator; 'Stolen' is extracted from A Pleasant Kind of Heavy and Other Erotic Stories by Amrita Narayanan (Aleph, 2013), reprinted by permission of the author, 'Love Revolution' is extracted from India in Love by Ira Trivedi (Aleph, 2014), reprinted by permission of the author; 'The Lovers' is extracted from The Lovers by Amitava Kumar (Aleph, 2017), reprinted by permission of the author: 'The Book of Chocolate Saints' is extracted from The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil (Aleph, 2017), reprinted by permission of the author; and 'Dildar Begum and a Marriage Proposal' is extracted from Daughters of the Sun by Ira Mukhoty (Aleph, 2018), reprinted by permission of the author.