Her Piece of Sky

What is contemporary women’s writing in Hindi all about? How far does it reach beyond the commonly perceived limits of feminine experience or feminist ideology? From legendary writer Mannu Bhandari’s The Cremation Ground which satirises notions of eternal love, to Alpana Mishra’s superbly crafted Homeless in the Cantonment, a devastating chronicle of army life, these stories dissect numerous aspects of human existence with a startling incisiveness. Mridula Garg’s exploration of an unusual relationship in The Second One exposes the hypocrisy rife in so-called ‘decent’ middle-class families while Mamta Kalia brings empathy and humour into her depiction of a poignant human situation in The Agony of an Artiste. Political issues are raised by Chitra Mudgal, Chandrakanta and Vandana Rag. While Kavita focuses on the new dilemmas that challenge women today, veteran writer Rajee Seth presents a picture of the daily battle of a working woman with empathy and insight. Sexual obsession is explored too, from both the female and male point of view by Manisha Kulshreshtha, and by Pratyaksha in her sensual narrative of infatuation, The Hunt.