If you're in the market for an anthology, you might consider these, both of which I have made a contribution to. For "Sarpanch Sahib: Changing the Face of India", I travelled to Assam to profile Maloti Gowalla, a sarpanch who owns a sweet shop, rides a bike, and wants to bring computer education to the children of her village. And in "Indian Shining, India Changing: Contemporary Stories" you can read a brief excerpt from a (shockingly) early draft of my forthcoming book on bar dancers. The section deals with one of my favourite Bombay people, the hijra Masti Muskaan. I'm still in San Francisco, and haven't seen either of these books. Since the finished product is never of interest to me in any case, it's unlikely I will. But if you do go ahead and read either or both of them, I would love to hear your thoughts. And in fact, I just realised something: This year, I published a story about a sarpanch, and a hijra and her chelas. Next year you may hear about my writings on the kids in Dharavi and the bar dancers of Bombay. Tell me, will you read any of these stories? Do lives such as these interest you? I think I would write of them nevertheless, simply because I see nothing else and nothing else interests me. But I do wonder sometimes--who looks out for stories such these, reads them, and wonders about it all ...
