Pilgrimage to Paradise:Sufi tales from Rumi
edited by Kamla K Kapur
Penguin, 2009
Rumi is undoubtedly one of the best-known of the Sufi masters. Even so, the public, for the most part, accesses only a miniscule percentage of his extensive work. Featuring 30 stories, this anthology too provides only a glimpse of the great mystic's teachings. Having read three volumes of Rumi's six-volume Mathnawi, Kapur has chosen these particular fables. The final product is an extremely enjoyable read, especially after the contextualisation provided by the preface. A word of caution to all Rumi scholars, though: Kapur is not an academic, as she explicitly notes; rather, she is simply a great fan of Rumi, something that comes through clearly. Kapur also admits to having edited with a heavy hand for clarity's sake – taking out the numerous digressions of thought and plot to present a more compact story. Perhaps this brief introduction will lead readers to delve deeper into Rumi. (Surabhi Pudasaini)
Unbordered Memories:Sindhi stories of Partition
edited/translated by Rita Kothari
Penguin, 2009
This unusual collection of stories in Sindhi, translated and edited by Rita Kothari, brings together hitherto-marginalised narratives of a community that was wholly dislocated during Partition. The pain of the Hindu Sindhis has generally been eclipsed by the horror stories of the Punjabis and Bengalis, whose land was dissected and whose people were divided, killed and raped. In her vivid introduction, Kothari says, "For the globally diasporic Sindhi community spread across three continents of the world doing business, the nation is a notional place, an idea with no physical contours."