Spark of Light is a diverse collection of short stories by women writers from the Indian province of Odisha. Originally written in Odia and dating from the late nineteenth century to the present, these stories offer a multiplicity of voices—some sentimental and melodramatic, others rebellious and bold—and capture the predicament of characters who often live on the margins of society. From a spectrum of viewpoints, writing styles, and motifs, the stories included here provide examples of the great richness of Odishan literary culture.
In the often shadowy and grim world depicted in this collection, themes of class, poverty, violence, and family are developed. Together they form a critique of social mores and illuminate the difficult lives of the subaltern in Odisha society. The work of these authors contributes to an ongoing dialogue concerning the challenges, hardships, joys, and successes experienced by women around the world. In these provocative explorations of the short-story form, we discover the voices of these rarely heard women.

The present anthology is the English translation of Abhisapta Gandharba, a collection of short stories written by Mohapatra Nilamoni Sahoo (b. 1926) between 1979 and1981. Abhisapta Gandharba received the Sarala award in 1983 and the Central Sahitya Akademi award in 1984.

In the ten short stories included in the volume, a sensitive, precocious boy narrates episodes relating to his childhood and adolescence spent in an Odishan village. These deal with the themes of childhood, growing up, reality and fantasy, and render the texture of everyday life in rural Odisha. What distinguishes these and account for their enduring appeal are the unique and colourful characters, whose lives the boy-narrator describes with unforgettable acuteness. Through a vivid portrayal of fascinating characters such as a village school master, an exorcist, a singer, a country physician, the author brilliantly evokes a way of life disappearing, and the warmth and innocence animating apparently unremarkable and ordinary human beings. Their essential humanity shines through the narratives everywhere enlivened by a genial humour.

Contours of Salvation and Other Stories brings together twelve critically acclaimed Odia stories by Chirashree Indrasingh in English translation. These stories have a variety of themes, styles, and explore contours of new realities and map the mindscape of people caught in the labyrinth of life.

As a writer and chronicler of lived experiences, Indrasingh concerns herself with the world around her and employs multiple narrative styles for telling her stories. She often juxtaposes past and present incidents, her voice moving back and forth and returning to where it started. She does not restrict herself as far as the use of prose is concerned and deftly uses the lyrical, the conversational and the idiomatic Odia prose as and when the situation demands, doing justice to the characters as well as the themes. The stories in this collection reveal a fictional world which is part real, part fiction, part graphic and part impressionistic. In all these stories, Indrasingh displays an unpretentious gift for storytelling, and an uncanny ability to take readers to her confidence. Unsurprisingly, she enjoys a quiet reputation in contemporary Odia literature. It is, therefore, hoped this collection of her stories in English translation will bring her a larger readership that she supremely deserves.

In The Dying Moon a moving tale of love and longing unfolds against the hauntingly beautiful landscape of rural Odisha. Sati, the narrator, is like a butterfly gliding around, carrying on her wings a world of happiness. Her dream world crumbles when she is married off to an unfeeling landlord. The turn of events awaken in her an intense love for Natha, which had remained softly muted in the narrative. But it collides against the values of a cold and heartless society.

The novel was made into an award-winning film.

Upendra Kishore Das (1901-1972) joined the freedom struggle while he was a student of Ravenshaw College, and discontinued his studies. He devoted the rest of his life to writing and social work. Published in 1928, his novel, Malaajahna ( The Dying Moon) is regarded as a classic in Odia literature. He has also written many poems and stories and made a significant contribution to children’s literature in Odia.

The stories in this collection are linked by a preoccupation with the frailty of human nature. They depict the life of ordinary people who are caught in the prosaic struggle for existence. Focusing on ordinary situations in the lives of these people, they reveal envy, hypocrisy, selfishness and vanity. They depict the petty limitations, the dissimulations and pretensions inherent at different levels of society. The poor characters whose existences are governed by a desperation to keep up appearances people the stories.

The present collection, Burning Mountains, Short Stories of Gayatri Saraf, brings for the first time fourteen of her well-known short stories, written over a span of more than twenty years, in English translation. Even though her narrative style has undergone changes and evolved with time, her concern as a writer has not changed nor have the situations that provoked her to wield her pen.

“Burning Mountains” traces the plight of dadans, where the poor had no option but to choose a life of extenuating hardship and humiliation for survival. The woman dadan narrator, doubly exploited, loses her husband at the kiln, and in a desperate moment sells her only child. In the labyrinthine world of dadans, there’s no light at the end. The old woman in “Basumati is no more” cannot support herself and dies of hunger and her body is left unattended. “Artist of the Brick Kiln” is affirmative in comparison; the curious, unyielding boy labourer, Babu succeeds in receiving help from his community. It is heartrending to find joys of childhood unavailable to many like Babu because of their poverty; it’s always a question of survival for them. “The Dadan Wave” points at political apathy and shows how grave and burning issues are not dealt with seriously.

This volume offers a comprehensive selection of short stories by women from Odisha, originally
published from the middle of the twentieth century up to the present day. Harrowing incidents of
poverty, mental instability, religious intolerance, crime and injustice are detailed here, as are
explorations of loving yet nonetheless problematic relationships, the possibilities available for personal
fulfillment and an independent life, the difficulties of growing old, environmental concerns and so many
other matters relevant to all of us. Together, they reaffirm old and established facts and also explore the
contours of new realities.

This volume brings together two novellas, Subhadra and The Riverbank. In Subhadra unfolds a story of the struggle of a helpless woman to protect her children and her family. The Riverbank seeks to dramatise man’s restless quest for salvation.

This volume brings together two novellas, Subhadra and The Riverbank. In Subhadra unfolds a story of the struggle of a helpless woman to protect her children and her family. The Riverbank seeks to dramatise man’s restless quest for salvation.

Souribandhu Kar (1948-2020) was a noted short story writer and columnist from Odisha, India. He was the General Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress, Odisha.

Krushna Prasad Mishra (1933-1994) was a well-known Indian writer, who wrote fiction and non-fiction in Odia. One of the major contributors to short story form in Odia literature, he had to his credit thirteen collections of short stories, three novels and a number of essays and treatises. He also founded and edited an Odia literary journal, Manasa, which nurtured a number of young writers. His stories often deal with the metaphysical issues of existence, the encounter between the East and the West, the clash of tradition and modernity, and are characterized by flashes of illumination.