Chhattisgarh blues

Vinod Kumar Shukla has cultivated an acute sense of place based on his own experiences

Discovering something new and unique in short fiction that was written half a century ago is like travelling back in time without having to depart from the present. Most of Vinod Kumar Shukla’s stories first appeared in Hindi during the 1960s and early 1970s.  Twelve freshly minted English translations have just been published in a compact anthology intriguingly titled, Blue is Like Blue. 

Colours are a critical part of Shukla’s literary vision. In several stories he has unnamed characters dressed in blue shirts. One of them appears and reappears carrying a bowl of curd. In a later tale, the author