PARIKRAMA

In this stylish, taut and meditative collection of eleven stories, Radhika Vyas Sharma explores through the prism of short fiction the challenges posed to individuals and families by the processes of migration of homelands while simultaneously dealing with the never ending human quest for love and closure. From rural Rajasthan to the San Francisco Bay Area, each of these stories is homage to human resilience. In the title story Parikrama, a young man embarks upon a journey, a personal spiritual circumambulation, to connect the dots of his deceased parents' lives stumbling upon some unexpected secrets of his own. In another story, Agony Aunt a young immigrant Indian mother makes a difficult choice between a sustaining a rare friendship and preserving her self-respect. While Beneath Her Veil the Stars Faded Away set in the late 1980's in small town Rajasthan tells the tale of an uncommon friendship between a childless middle-aged school principal and a young bride. Parikrama is eleven stories like sashes, sari pins, flowers, waves - a range of style, motifs and voices strung together in a garland of storytelling.CONTINUED