Principles of Prediction

There is in the short story the extraordinary ability to hold and enthral, to capture whole worlds with intensity and brevity. And that’s exactly what Anushka Jasraj accomplishes in these luminous stories. In the story that gives this collection its name, a weather forecaster tries to maintain her sanity while a storm threatens, literally and figuratively. In ‘Circus’, a young woman runs away from her home and husband to live with Rajan, the lion-tamer, the perfect being, both man and woman. In the award-winning ‘Radio Story’, politics and nostalgia come together to form a complex mesh of love and violence, while ‘Elephant Maximus’ stars the unforgettable Cassata in the role of cat-napper and elephant-kidnapper.

In spare prose that heightens the impact of every little revelation, story after story – some of them subtly interlinked – draws us into the lives of sisters and friends, parents and daughters, men and women in relationships that casually shrug off easy definition. There is tenderness here, and bewilderment as well as reconciliation, as characters strip themselves bare to show us their most intimate fears and fantasies.

Watch Anushka Jasraj in conversation with Somak Ghoshal here: